When David Heard by Eric Whitacre Part 1

[ajinx4u]

gorgeous

[wasww26]

less is more, literally... get control and consistency of the pattern. Decide what's important....

[timesfive5]

@wasww26 I totally agree - I was just listening, and then actually started watching, and it was REALLY DISTRACTING to watch the conducting! I don't believe this song is about getting all the rhythms exactly correct and every single rest exactly right. Its about the feeling of David losing his son - the agony, weeping and mourning...

[Keytaster]

basses barely hearable... the rest not very well balanced. BYU singers delivered the best version for me!

[Octavoification]

God that tenor is the perfect choral tenor of all time. lol 

Just right!

[BaggerTheVance]

what a great job these guys do - awesome sound

[SydReddPRODUCTIONS]

STUNNING. like, honestly. this is AMAZING. my high school choir is working on this right now....its not easy :/

[Wolstentuber]

The tenor looks like Seth Rogan...

[NiallOHalloran]

Eric Whitacre u rock the fukin world!

[MaxAmSax]

The tenor is incredible!

[dwollen76]

grandios!

[kmurr0102]

i didnt like it as much. the first part was very beautful but the second part be came technical and random. there was no soul or greif in the music. this is a song of morn. yes the suspention were great but thats all.

[GeeEmOh]

fantastic. performing this with my choir was one of the most emotional experiences I've ever had.

[shinigami109]

what choir is this?

[OrangeSodaKing]

@shinigami109 This choir is "Molto Cantibile" from Lucerne, Switzerland.

[MikeyRich44]

I think I broke the replay button...

[barberjazz]

@JetsToReason is partially right. This is the death of a son; This the death of THE son; this is the death of the son that David did not save, but the at the same time, the son who would not be saved. The faces of the performers must vacillate between total harmony and agony. Everything is broken, but everything is totally correct. The tragedy of the cadence of this pattern is the simplicity, not the complexity: God did not save my son.

[mimimozealia]

To the select few who's read "Ender's Shadow" by Orson Scott Card, I feel like crying imagining this song during the destruction of the Bugger home world.

[thrillseeeker23]

I would've liked more facial expression. When a song is sung this well, having the feeling and emotion of the piece on every single persons face just takes it to the next level. Amazing job.

[JuyoNi]

Tenor needs to tone it downnnn but other than that amazing:)

[Tan1723]

That one tenor who did the solo was awesome, but he needs to back off in the choir parts because I can always hear him.

[1reference2book]

Love it Love it LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pin0ut]

all I can hear is that tenor...

[Clivejvaughan]

Yes, it's great - but HOW do you LEARN such a thing?!

[saintsaens21]

I can't even begin to conceive how hard this must be sing from memory. bravi

[ErickPierreTV]

where are all the black people?! :D

[margotlorena1]

very nice

[adrianotenor]

beautiful work...

I sung this work with Maestro Eric Witacre Conducting at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo - Brazil, and I felt as I was floating during the concert...

Amazing piece of music...

Great choir composer...

Beautiful voice of tenor solo...

I really liked the choir sound ... and I liked the conduction by heart...

Congratulation .

Adriano Pinheiro.

[adrianotenor]

beautiful work...

I sung this work with Maestro Eric Witacre Conducting at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo - Brazil, and I felt as I was floating during the concert...

Amazing piece of music...

Great choir composer...

Beautiful voice of tenor solo...

I really liked the choir sound .

Congratulation ...

Adriano Pinheiro.

[PitboyHarmony1]

Oh my, oh my, oh my. For a group this small and young, to truly understand the pain of this music, well done, now off to part 2 lol

[FattyandMooMoo]

They could be smiling in joy that they sang all the parts right. I know I smile when I get my part right in choir. The song is about David the King's son dying in war. Its in 2 Samual; the lyrics are verses from the bible. I would love to see this live! Its so beautiful

[cameronique]

with great respect...I do not see smiling myself, only a kind of exaltation...but besides, if I may, who is the director whose son died?

[PitboyHarmony1]

@cameronique - The text is but one single, devastating sentence, and it is from the King James Bible; II Samuel, 18:33: When David heard that Absalom was slain he went up into his chamber over the gate and wept, my son, my son, O Absalom my son, would God I had died for thee!

The composer Eric Whitacre drove himself through the emotions of grief itself, and spent over a year to put this on paper.

[SamReinhard]

This was amazing. Goosebump palooza!

[JetsToReason]

why the hell are they smiling?

[XxStormyNightsxX]

@JetsToReason my guess is because the song is just so moving and beautiful, one sometimes may smile at this beauty that he/she is singing :)

[FunkTrunk5]

@XxStormyNightsxX absolutely right! pieces like this are doubly hard, because not only is the music difficult, but it is so piercingly beautiful that it is often hard not to stop singing and just listen.

this is my favorite eric whitacre piece, and this is a beautiful version, particularly impressive from such a small, young ensemble. amazing.

[clauclau33]

@JetsToReason Maybe they're smiling because they like the goddamn music that they're singing. At least they aren't vacant and stiff like some choristers.

[JetsToReason]

@clauclau33 Well, the fact that they are smiling when this is a piece commissioned for a director whose young son died disheartens me. It is well sung, but I wish they connected with the meaning of it. There are plenty of songs I sing that I love, but I don't smile when they signify tragedy.

[clauclau33]

@JetsToReason I suppose you are right in that aspect—I wasn't aware what the director had been through. It's nice that some emotion is apparent in their expressions but...considering the tragic nature of the song as well as how the director must feel about it, they shouldn't be smiling. Thanks for your perspective.

[CiG801]

@JetsToReason I don't know! My choir is singing this now. The song is about the death of a son. Their faces should be filled with sorrow and mourning. Nobody smiles when their loved one dies

[muscleboi4use]

Culture is not dead!! 

[PhazonX]

@muscleboi4use ... but Absalom is.

[TheyFramedVader]

@muscleboi4use lol who ever said it was?

[standmate]

man that soloist. phenomenal, i hear him throughout the whole song. maybe it's bad because a choir should always blend, but that by no means disregards his voice...well done.

[SamReinhard]

@standmate HE'S AMAZING!!

[jddanger1991]

Note each stage of mourning in the piece. Also, the uniforms are fantastic.

[zakm1995]

2 people accidentally hit the dislike button.

[Sklanskers]

1:02 to 2:00 never fails to nearly bring tears to my eyes

[TheOneWithTheShotgun]

I always love to listen to choirs with a strong and mature-sounding alto section.

And the tenor has a voice made of golden deliciousness. <3

[gsellers23]

I can't hear the soprano.

[fizzaith]

I want to tackle the soloist, he's soo good!

[markwdupree]

This song has such complex chord intervals and rythums.... The only way to sing it right is to have it memorized and be able to listen to everyone else around you for the right blend.... NICE WORK!!!

[markwdupree]

I searched out this song because I'm wanting to perform it with my community choir. I sung this song in my college days. WHAT AN AMAZING PIECE. And very well done in this video. I considered this piece the most emotion choir piece I have ever sung. I just hope a well trained community choir can pull off something this difficult. Nice job Molto Cantabible.

[actorboy2]

Pretty fantastic, especialy for such a small group. The sopranos are having some issues, and some of the difficult rhythm patterns aren't quite locked, but this song is SO difficult that overall I'd give them a B+. I would like less from the director however. Whats so beautiful about this piece is the silence and I felt some of that was diminished with him keeping the beat throughout. It's obvious this group knows this piece, have a little more faith ;). Like I said: overall fabulous job

[jddanger1991]

@actorboy2  The bleeder has a pretty good group though:)

[TrueDisciple89]

WHO DOES THIS WHOLE SONG FROM MEMORY?! DADGUM!!!

[TrueDisciple89]

WHO DOES THIS WHOLE SONG FROM MEMORY! DADGUM!

[SephirothxAngel]

My God this song is fantastic. His chord progressions are amazing. Minor

[Gazjh1973]

wow, and they're singing it from memory,,, fantastic :)

[demonblond14]

chills, recurring chills throughout.... that was sooo beautiful

[Frankslapperinni]

the only flaw in this video is that fucker coughing in the audience.

[sunhouse1]

The tenor solo at 2:05 is absolutely incredible....

[BeccaCullen111]

Very very good! im very impressed! our choirs did water night, seal lullaby, and sleep by eric whitacre.

[LOLgal96]

i like this choir! they make this song awesome, though its sad since david is hearing about absalon being slain because of his stupid actions (nice going david). This song is sung beautifully

[xfallingxsnowx]

This is absolutely the best version I've found on youtube. Fantastic job! I actually had to learn how to sing this same version, same song, in 10th grade, by memory. It's an extremely intense and VERY difficult song. Some parts are broken up into 14 part harmony, it is 28 pages long, and the rhythms get very tricky to learn. I give huge kudos to thse people. It's one of the hardest songs I've ever learned in my choir career, and these guys did an amazing job on it!

[francoisex63]

Wow this is the most moving rendtion of this piece I have ever heard. Can you imagine a parents heart being renched out from the loss of your child? I have felt it and this piece describes perfactly how I felt.

[Fernand0Matt0s]

In 2006, I had the wonderful oportunity to perform this fantastic piece under the personal conducting of Eric with Coral Paulistano (when it completed 70 years old), from the Teatro Municipal de São Paulo, Brasil. That was one of the most exciting and unforgettable experience Ive ever had in my all musical experience. The choir has 44 professional singers and the performance sounded intense and full of passion. Unfortunatelly I dont have it recorded to show you all.

[xdiscotique]

One of the most heartwrenchingly beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. It makes me cry every time.

[loqueid]

Good performance, excellent piece. I have been lucky to hear a more emotional performance, however. There are a few pitch problems in this group, and I swear a few of them are smiling throughout the piece -- as if they didn't understand the grief that should be communicated from losing a son.

Again, however, I don't want to detract from the beauty that this choir did perform the piece. Thank you for the upload!

[stevo5544]

When I saw this I actually cried. This was the most beautiful performance of this piece I have ever seen.

[newyorkphantom]

It's amazing what voices can actually do. I always get the feeling it's followed by instruments.

[Grayzone]

I absolutely adore this song and these guys do it amazingly....It's aural perfection. But visually...this song is about extreme loss; a father losing his son, and grieving and mourning and weeping. And these guys just look bored, like they've done it a million times (they probably have) and "yeah we sound great" (they do). I dunno, I just like to think choir is more than sounding good.

[loqueid]

@Grayzone Perfect analysis.

[logues85]

The rest of the time it was all very clinical between us, like this needs to go a little faster, this needs to go a little slower, that kind of stuff. And he conducted the premiere, can you imagine?

[logues85]

There's this long tradition of composers, especially in the Renaissance, setting it for kings or patrons who had lost sons. And I sort of thought of Ron as a king. So I called him up and said, "Ron, listen, I'm thinking this is the poem I want to set. How do you feel about it?"

And there was this long, long pause and he said, "Okay." That was the last time we ever spoke about the process of the piece.

[logues85]

Would you be interested in writing a piece for us? We're going to Israel for our tour." I had just married my wife at that point, and she's Israeli. I agreed to do it, and that's all that was said.

And then a couple of weeks later, Ron's 19-year-old son was killed in a car accident. And I heard the news and mourned with the choral community. Then I started reading about all these settings of that text.

[logues85]

ok, here's the real story behind the piece.  whitacre speaking:

I don't know if you know the whole story, but this is like in 1999, and I entered a competition called the Barlow Foundation, sponsored by Brigham Young University.

I took second place, but Ron Staheli, who's the conductor there at BYU and who's a really great friend of mine, called me up and said, "Listen, I was able to convince the Barlow Foundation to give us a little extra money to commission a piece.

[switchitupashley]

The girl in the front row, third from the right has a facial expression that matches the agony of the piece.

[pemchem]

*sobs*

[PancakesoftheLove]

I feel horrible for Eric Whitacre when I hear this song. He's stated several times that he endures unbearable grief whenever he hears this song performed. He's even flat out refused to conduct it. There's obviously something very wrong that happened in his life, and given the context I can't help but fear him and Hila Pitmann had a miscarriage or something equally tragic - it'd be the only thing that seems to fit the sheer amount of grief in this song.

[dreamslikekites]

Actually, this song was composed by Eric for a friend who tragically lost his son. The song and the story behind it are heartwrenching nonetheless, though...

[logues85]

@dreamslikekites word has it it was composed for Dr. Ron Staheli, director of the BYU Singers. Their recording of it is the most emotion-packed performance i think i may have ever heard. it's on their whitacre collected works 1990-2000. an album WELL WORTH having in your collection--I would put its quality above that of Polyphony. it truly is an incredible album and ensemble.

[msuquints]

Whitacre graduated from Caltech. I think he's possibly one of the greatest human beings alive.

[xbcg9489x]

That tenor was absolutely fantastic! wat an incredible grace and respect to the line! i thought that was absolutely beautiful! i gasped when i heard that!

This is my all time favorite whitacre piece. it's just brilliant in every way! it really captures grief in the best way possible! bravo!

[duckjones1986]

They really sound good... and about the facial expression what did you expect? They're swiss, they're always neutral! (I'm fully aware of how bad that joke was)

[thejenproject]

I'm sort of bothered by the facial expressions. This is such a sad, sad song. They should look very somber and stoic. It's not a song that makes you smile you know? It's sickeningly sad but beautiful.

[JoshieChavira1]

the only thing that bothers me is the facial expressions! they look so bland! some of them look excited and ready to sing but most look bored which maked it boring for people to watch. it sounds fine though!

[huyandhieu]

I think it's because of their conductor. When the conductor is lack-luster and boring, the choir tends to reflect that.

[denzl11]

0:55 best chord EVER!!!

[Jimmyjammerz]

Agree!!

[MuzicMan118]

i must agree it is epic :P

[fetchmemyaxe]

I think this is arguably the best of Whitacre's compositions.

[tjstheman3]

a boy and a girl is soo good though

[rocluvsluxord]

man the dude who does he solo 2:04 is perfect-

gosh this song is so beautiful and gives me chills every time i listen...amazing..i wish my choir group was big enough to do this!

[SirHaakon]

This performance is beautiful and emotional and wonderful.

I find the color correction a bit much, though.

[mrmuzik2]

1:28 - 1:59!!!

[Keegsmaleegs]

we are learning this in my choir, we're about 3 times the size of this group. i was shocked at how good this was considering the small size! my only wish is that there were more bass/baritones, specifically the low basses because they have some tremendously moving notes in this song, and the tenors are so strong that they overpower the male voices. but overall, this was awesome.

[MisterHowe]

Really a nice interpretation. The effort to memorize this certainly paid off in your focus.

[bittenappleworm]

Wonderful! And I'm so impressed that you all had it memorized.

I thought the diction was really good, too (vowels weren't colored weird to my ear as discussed below)

[mattomisal17]

1:48 - 1:59 i ALWAYS get goosebumps its so beautiful!

[sexyashley816]

@mattomisal17 I agree 100%

[Kluttzman16]

Beautiful, their tenors are amazing. They were outdoing the sopranos the whole song haha imo

[oplatre]

@Kluttzman16 Exactly dont u love bein a Tenor!!!! i kno i do!!!

[foopie47]

Their tenors are fantastic

[mellophoneguy]

amazing

[Singknabe]

We are all music loving people :)

[inversion13]

all white people?

[foopie47]

Well this choir is Swiss so it kinda makes sense.

[kathotheman]

I sat here listening with chills all over my body. This is truly beautiful and it brought tears to my eyes! An amazing performance!

[JetsToReason]

all around good performance. I think it needed a bit more blending though.

[blattman9]

Awesome!! This is the best live performance of When David Heard I have ever listened to.

[GosfordAbercrombie]

woz slain! vowels are a mess!

[opiewhizbang]

I'm always amused by the monday morning quarterbacks, who try to lampoon an obviously stellar performance of an very challenging piece.

I assume the idea that these are generally German speaking performers whose accents may color their vowels a bit has never entered into the air filled chamber that passes for your head.

That is confirmed by your inability to spell the very difficult word "was" in your comment.

Congratulations on showing yourself to be a fool of epic proportions.

[GosfordAbercrombie]

get over yourself!!! i WAS imitating the vowel shapes they use!!! thanx for trying to sound intelligent but obviously that doesn't come naturally to you!!!!!

[soycubano4392]

This is the best version on you tube Ive seen of this song. it probably doesnt mean much to you but Congrats

[vmarshall51]

Fantastic! Its awesome to hear a choir achieve the feat that is Whitacre's "When David Heard", and such a young choir at that! Amazing!

[ChandlerHoe]

speechless.

[sebbo21]

das ist unglaublich stark. stück und chor, gänsehaut pur!

[germannn28]

Brillant!!!!!!!

[serenademe4ever]

my god this is AMAZING!