Cloudburst- Eric Whitacre

[MyMusicTessa]

Voices can do such beautiful things! :D

[HanoverianHorse]

@ismegabi youtube downloader works pretty well...

[matvince90]

@ismegabi I would if I still had it, or even if I remembered where I found it. I uploaded this 3 years ago :\

[corckscrew61]

holy lord almighty i just got such big chills up my spine from this song i thought my skin was going to crawl off my back

[ShinobiSasukeUchiha]

I remember singing this in high school. My ears were ringing from just standing near the people who struck the thunder sheet and bass drum. But it was still awesome.

[JaderGater2]

We listened to this in orchestra today and it almost made me cry

[chorusfreak13]

Eric Whitacre is a freaking genius.

[matvince90]

@chorusfreak13 I freaking know!!!



[PokemonMasterM]

@chorusfreak13 I second that motion

[TheJesusFreakkk]

I LOVE ERIC WHITACRE ! I just got to see him in concert last night = AMAZING ♥

[adachir87]

Does anyone know what the narration says in English?

[JuanDVene]

@adachir87 Yes;

We must sleep with our eyes open, we must dream with our hands

Lets dream dreams and ******(songs?) of **** (I think he said Dios which is Spanish for God)

Searching for his ***** (I think they thought house was a Spanish word), dreams of [the] Sun

Dreaming [of] his world---s

[Boredpersons55]

@adachir87

"We must sleep with open eyes, we must dream with our hands, we must dream the dreams of a river seeking it's course."

[PianoHero101]

One of Whitacre's greatest works. I was lucky enough to work with him and meet him during a performance of Paradise Lost in Chicago, in which I sang in the chorus. That being said, too bad for that soprano soloist.

[TheCamdude12]

@PianoHero101 your the luckiest person alive!

[pianosa1993]

wow that really feels like a thunderstorm!!!! Ahhhh How in the world did he write that all out??!! His work makes me melt a little inside :)

[CharlieBladeRemus]

@pianosa1993 I looked at the score, and he doesn't actually write EVERY single note. He wrote whole notes with the text written above it and indicated that it is to be repeated randomly

[Rockon050]

i might get to sing this if i do choir in highschool

[Rockon050]

is it wrong for a 13 year old to like this song

[TheCamdude12]

@Rockon050 hell no! thats good!

[CharlieBladeRemus]

@Rockon050 Absolutely not! Music like this is for ALL ages!

[ToshiroOnchi]

holy shit... my mind has just been blown.

[DurwardMatt]

we're doing this song in NJ All State Choir and sweet god....it's so so difficult

[themrqwertymark]

eric whitacre is so amazing, but I have noticed a pattern in his writing. Many of his pieces begin the same way and many have a section where the two soprano parts sing a minor third up really high :)

[BillieJoeIsGod2100]

Everytime I sang this song in choir, I'd almost lose it and cry because it's so beautiful.

[Jennalovesrainbows]

What language is the man speaking?....gibberish?....eit­her way its beautiful!

[poopr1221]

@Jennalovesrainbows That would be a little language called Spanish...

[CheerboyHEAT]

This piece almost makes you feel afraid with the murmuring parts. very emotional

[Wattsini1]

Now the score is posted up on youtube!! Sing along!

[abercrombez]

which choir is this btw?

[3Dmidori]

There are literally no words to express how beautiful and strange and alien and wonderful this song is. It is life in a song and series of chords that are progressively more and more beautiful. Check out the lyrics, too. They make the song even more amazing.

[CharlieBladeRemus]

If music was a drug I'd be trippin balls right now....

[moonshine311111]

pretty good. not as good as friday. jkjk this puts rebecca black to shame

[xxemixx13]

Eric Whitacre is my musical husband, he just doesn't know it yet, ;) lol

[EvilShadowHawk990]

The note @ 0:56 is very beaufitul :)

[randomcomposergirl]

this is arguably the best choral song ever written

[91BROWNIE91]

@randomcomposergirl before you say that you need to hear when david heard and leanardo dreams of his flying machine

[AdmiralMEGATRONandCO]

@91BROWNIE91 absolutely! When David Heard is completely mind blowing

[battleship92]

@randomcomposergirl What about Halo's theme ;D?

[PotatoeShinz]

@randomcomposergirl BUT LUX IS SOOOOO GOOOOOD

[RebelYellHim]

...i just came....

[4sunsetgirl]

Thumbs up if you just got chills =D

[spamodell]

More people know the name Rebecca Black than Eric Whitacre... That pisses me off.

This is quite possibly one of the best choir pieces ever written

[Firemoonsoul]

@spamodell Rebecca Black? Never heard of her.

[Tritan100]

This is too beautiful. I can't handle it.



[Devsguy]

Oh what the hell. Somebody disliked? What the hell.

[MrJesszilla321]

The person who disliked this has no soul.

[AngelOfMusic144]

massive eargasm here. good godddd eric whittacre is amazing.

[missionaryhollywood]

1 person was so entranced they hit the thumbs down by mistake

[budweiburp]

cough at 5:53 :/

[opladom]

tolltolltolltoll<333333 XD

[liveforlife2494]

Is this the Polyphony version??

[jpan1959]

This song is AMAZING and I don't see why anyone would dislike it. (I bet that thumbs down was an accident :)

[jpan1959]

This song is AMAZING and I don't see why anyone would dislike it. (I bet that thumbs down was an accident :)

[inaina12345]

I think it's a masterpiece. I think all of his music is extraodinary.

[freakzoid300]

I'm a trombone player, and Whitacre is my favorite composed. All of his choral and band pieces are fantastic. My band is playing a band arrangement of Sleep, I can't wait :) Cloudburst is so amazing. Equus is my personal favorite though :)

[colourfulwithaU]

You should all check out the vocalessence video of Whitacre himself conducting it. It is a breathtaking performance. This one, while powerful, cowers in comparison.

[ChronoGXay]

Beautiful piece. :) Great performance.

There were only a couple of things that seemed odd: Is it just me, or was the Counter-Tenor solo a little off?... The first few notes sounded fine, but then it got a little weird towards the end. [I'm a T1/CT]

Also, IMHO, the claps could've been executed a little better. There were a lot of people singing, but when it came to the clapping they really, really stuck out since they were much louder. (Maybe the snaps/taps could've been brought out more?...)

[xRothenx]

It's interesting that he incorporates Spanish into his work, even though he's an english speaking composer. I remember I played this in my high school band.

[TheFlutegirl15]

@xRothenx -I think Cloudburst in particular comes form a Spanish poem...i could be wrong, i just know he sets most of his choral works to poetry either translated from another language or a mix of both.

[liveforlife2494]

@TheFlutegirl15 I watched the live VocalEssence performance of this piece and it's definitely in Spanish.....such a great song, love his works.

[dbernhar]

just preformed this piece the other day...it's all about the thundermaker :)

[drummergirl0908]

I'm so blessed that I got to be apart of the percussion section of this beautiful piece.

=)

[Treblechick101]

Maybe they did sound good. It just depends on how well the choir is. Is their vowel placement there and do they have all the aspects of singing older. Harbor Choir from my high school went to the Willamette College and impressed the choir director.....Anything can happen with music. All I'm saying is its possible. Of course any song has room for improvement.

[AdmiralMEGATRONandCO]

Eric Whitacre: giving chordgasms since 1970

[1rhammond]

@AdmiralMEGATRONandCO hahahahha that just made my life.

[TerrancePogue]

@AdmiralMEGATRONandCO lolz your right about that!!! nice eargasims

[matvince90]

@AdmiralMEGATRONandCO oh yeah ;)

[bsubassbaby2]

@AdmiralMEGATRONandCO amen

[xxemixx13]

@AdmiralMEGATRONandCO I'm sure he was giving chordgasms before he was even born, lol.

[AkwardKassye]

@AdmiralMEGATRONandCO Haha. True. My School choir sang A Boy and A Girl for our spring concert and my ears were ringing with eargasms.

[whwdc]

@AdmiralMEGATRONandCO I believe the term you seek is 'auralgasm'

[StrictlyJess]

holycow.

[SakuraMochiKitty]

I sang this with my choir back in high school. We were really good, too (and for doubters, let me say a lot of people in the choir got in by audition and have strong voices for their age. When I was a sophomore, there was a girl who sang like a 30-year old Broadway singer).

[LizzieBabes419]

They don't even need Auto-Tune.

[pjypjyzzang]

@LizzieBabes419 do any choir use it..?

[LizzieBabes419]

@pjypjyzzang Does any choir use it? I don't know.

[Tyler921000]

@LizzieBabes419 real musicians don't need autotune

[emilylouize]

@LizzieBabes419 well yeah, thats the point of a good choir lol

[wowdanalise]

@LizzieBabes419 Auto-Tune is a musical plague.

[jamieboyrockon]

@wowdanalise I couldn't agree more.

[RyGil91]

It's in Spanish

[jacobcs]

no composer of any kind has ever brought tears to my eyes with three chords. whitacre is incredible.

[ariheartsyou1]

my high school choir sang this when i was in 10th grade. it sounded amazing :]

[FletchCox]

Well. I'm definitely going to start begging my teacher until she lets us sing this. It would take WEEKS to practise, but it would be worth it... evidently. This song is amazing.

[opladom]

hay cedo mir conolosochos ab bie etooos <33333

love the bays in this part....wow ....we performed it 3 moth ago <33

[shugarpie23]

They total messed up the snaps and claps. It didnt sound like rain at all. My HIGHSCHOOL choir does better than this

[nubcorn]

@shugarpie23 douchebag.

[meghansharehm]

@shugarpie23

"They total" did not. This is the Mormon Tabernacle performance, and in my opinion, the best performance of this song. If I had a million dollars, I'd bet it against your "HIGHSCHOOL" doing anything even approaching this performance. I know you sound good to you right now, but in a few years, if you've got recordings of you performing it, you'll notice how tinny and nasal it sounds. It isn't your fault, it's the age of your voice.

[BeccaCullen111]

AMAZING

[opladom]

we perform it in tree weeks xD

and we havent practis it onece:'D

[Bub1029]

Ah, the only Whitacre piece I like. It encapsulates the entirety of his single dimension of beautiful music. All his music is pretty, but it's all the same sadly.

[fuckmacksullivan]

@Bub1029 Eric Whitacre is a genius and if this is your favorite of his songs your an idiot. They don't all sound the same. You just have untrained ears.

[Bub1029]

@fuckmacksullivan I have untrained ears is coming from the uncivilized hooligan who named himself fuckmacksullivan and resorted to petty insults rather than knowledgeable argument. I'll just leave it at that.

[drhax2113]

@Bub1029 I'm going to have to agree with sullivan boy. Eric Whitacre is an absolute genious. If you look at the technical difficulties of his pieces, then you'll be much more appreciative. Also, the songs are not repetitive, but thematic. He has several band arrangements on top of his vast array of choral pieces. Like Godzilla Eats Las Vegas. The title is fairly self explanitory, but the out of nowhere bit is his army of elvis impersonators coming to take Godzilla down...

[Bub1029]

@drhax2113 Thank you for giving a reasonable argument. That is all.

[FORTEplayspiano]

I love how Eric Whitacre incorporates so much dissanence (sp?) in his music, if done right it will send chills down anyones spine :0D

[m8tate]

Dissonance :P

But I totally agree, the multi-layered talking towards the end of the first minute had me physically cringing

[Esandcircle01]

@FORTEplayspiano

"Dissonance" :) And I agree totally. Beautiful.

[sephiroth3782]

the only thing that in my opinion could have been better in this recording is that personally, i prefer it if the solo at 3:04 is spoken by a woman, but thats just me =)

[punkgush]

one of my fav. songs

[mariexox15]

gahhhh <3

[sephiroth3782]

i wish my church choir could just once, do a piece by eric whitacre

[dakipbwe]

problem is, whitacre's works arent really based around christiainity or even God, so although amazing music, churchs would have a hard time using it and making it relevant

[sephiroth3782]

yeah, but weve done concerts before in places, doing completely secular stuff before =/

its just a very ambitious piece

[huyandhieu]

There are also nonsecular pieces by Eric Whitacre too. There's Lux Aurumque, I Thank You God For Most This Amazing Day, and (depending on your interpetation on it) Sleep.

[creacarr013]

@dakipbwe Then what about I Thank You God for Most This Amazing Day? Haha, I think the church wouldn't mind performing some of the pieces by Eric Whitacre. That and didn't the Morman Tabernacle Choir perform with Eric Whitacre?

[dakipbwe]

@creacarr013 Mormon?! I hardly call them a church base. Have actually translated any of Whitacre's work? It is hardly any bit close to religious.

[jawbraker84]

this is my favorite recording out of all!

[LetThereBeMusic275]

I'm so excited to be doing this piece with my choir for our Celebration Concert! This song is absolutely beautiful, it almost brings me to tears every time I listen to it. I'm hoping that I'm chosen to read the dialogue =D

[myhero117]

my choir's doing this and i'm sooooooooooooo excited. whitacre might come to our school. WIN

[VanSensei]

@myhero: Holy shit.

[RecordRhapsody]

did he?

[myhero117]

we haven't performed it yet. haha its not that hard to get him to come places if you pay him, he's like the whore of choral music :P

[matvince90]

@myhero117 Did you perform yet? Did he come? When do you perform?

[myhero117]

yeah we performed, no he didn't come haha. it was awesome though. we're also doing "sleep" in the near future

[TheFlutegirl15]

they have a wonderful tone, great soloists, but i feel that their dynamics could be more contrasted.....My choir director did this with his community group two years ago, and they did an amazing job.

[LonaBanana]

were singing this in choir.

amazing. :DD

and next month were doing a workshop with eric whitacre. (:

[KaitousFlame]

I like this better than Polyphony... it's little subtleties and flavor give it more emotion than the 'pros', in my opinion. Sort of like the well-tuning system back in Bach's era that made different keys sound very, very specific in the emotion that they wanted to express.

[AmberLeighD]

This is absolutely amazing.

<3

[HollowGroundsInc]

If we sang more songs like this, I would have stayed in choir.

[Linkwiththesword]

Gives me chills everytime!

[irecordednicesongs]

we sang this my freshman year of highschool. During rehersals it actually starting to rain..

[SkeletorOwnsYou]

La llu-vee-ah? lol

[lauxianlady405]

La lluvia is Spanish. It means "the rain". The text here is from a poem by Octavio Paz. If you want to learn more, you can find it on Wikipedia. :)

[SkeletorOwnsYou]

I know, I was just commenting on the pronunciation. I've never heard it pronounced as such in this song. :)

[matvince90]

I know, isn't it the best! I wish my High School choir would've sung it. We sang "Sleep," which amazed me the first time I heard it. That song got me addicted to Eric Whitacre. I've never heard this song in person from a choir, but our band played it excellently.

[EmoElmoOnHigh]

@matvince90 I've done that song as well..So pretty. I've also done 'With A Lily'. THAT song is hard lol.

[xxZA0xx]

pronounced

la you-vee-ah.

[XSkaX25CJM]

Amazing

[DizzyBug]

Gorgeous.

[Gaarafan196]

I love this so much....