Sleep By Eric Whitacre Analysis

Eric Whitacre is a world renown composer and conductor with numerous composition awards such as being the youngest person to be awarded the Raymond C. Brock commission. In many ways he is a new age classic, already composing many works held in high esteem academically and professionally. The piece Sleep by Eric Whitacre is no exception, it is a melting pot of musical textures and word painting, put together by a choir of two thousand members. As it 's name implies it is about sleep and this constant theme is reflected in how music slowly flows along dream like and peaceful yet at times much like a restless night it gets louder suddenly and eases back down. The piece is quite relaxing and seems to transcend being just music to the point that the words are not …show more content…
Again with clouds in the twelfth line they get higher and then go back down. Also at the third stanza of the poem it speaks of noises in the night, at this moment the choir begin a polyphonic texture to the song. They go from monophonic to polyphonic. While many sing as before, underneath them others sing another melodic line that is more drawn out and harmonizes the whole. After this the song becomes much more polyphonic as a whole from this point on. In the last stanza this word painting continues as the Choir sings of “flying wings and soaring leap” where they get higher. As it reaches a climax in the last two lines it slowly descends again, gradually, like the onset of sleep. Poetry and music alike use subtle nuances to their subject matter, in Sleep a poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri, Eric Whitacre manages to combine these nuances of poetry and music together to give the listener an almost extrasensory comprehension of the material. Through precise description and musical interpretation Eric Whitacre has created a unique piece of poetic