CSU Long Beach performs Whitacre's "I Thank You God"

[rgmitchjr]

soprano soloist: erin miller :)

[lvrofusher]

Talberg Give University Choir some Whitacre please!

[DStroyU]

I joined this choir this semester.... i thank you god for this most amazing school year

[untamedbloom]

shivers

[ChrisRMaldonado]

I am so excited to be part of such a fantastic music program...CSULB '14!

[ghostlat]

The more i listen to Whitacre's compositions, the more I fall in love with his style of writing, and choral music in general. Epic win.

[oblijega]

i know. its hard for me to write now because i keep coming back to his progressions. ha

[laila11100]

OMG I love this... I want to sing in this choir but i went ahead and stay in LBCC college choir studio singers.

[AveIvy]

Very nice. Impressive.

[xtinavallejo]

he was Garden Grove Honor Choir director in '08, and i fell in love with his teaching. i would absolutely love to join one day!

[TimonyErt03]

I would love to be part of this music dept.!

[Pianoguyjr]

EXCELLENT!

[aiduhhh]

I WANNA GO TO THIS COLLEGE :]]

[Cassandra0735]

I'm really impressed.

[darrinbrowne]

hey. that's my friend jon conducting!

[HalfBlackbird]

"Now the ears" was written this way by Whitacre when he first wrote the piece. It was changed during publication. The composer came to CSULB and asked us to sing the original bars he had written.

[lamentofhorde]

That was pretty impressive, eric's pieces are very good for improving technical skill in college choirs. However, the I see the "ears" part was a little rewritten. Perhaps they just didn't have time to learn it(that happens). Our chamber choir is doing this piece this semester!! Go community college!!

[manicmaverick]

whitacre himself came to csulb and told us that he changed that part right before publication, and regretted ever since. it was "rewritten" by him for this performace.

[yuehchopin]

好曲子！

[boomboom2009]

you guys brought tears to my eyes

[jyoho44]

absolutely Brilliant! what a beautiful sound you all make.  i'm very impressed.

[zippyninny]

nt bad but de sops sound is nt full enough n their sound doesnt shine over the other sectns as it shld...

[boomboom2009]

yup i angry with you zippyninny

[RatedBG08]

i agree in a sense but i am tired of obnoxious sopranos singing tooooo loud and drowning out the choir its supposed to be a pyramid with the sopranos on the tip and i think when they are any louder it overpowers some good sound coming from the other sections

[mcouzijn]

I really really like your performance! And that is a BIG compliment after having performed this pieces with my own choir (see (and listen to) the 'VU-Kamerkoor' here at YouTube).

There's just two things that surprised me.

1. Why the timid, retinent presentation of 'which is yes'? To me, this is the ultimate joy, positivity, happiness, desire.

2. The 'Now the ears' part is very different from what we've sung. Are there different versions of this Whitacre piece? How do you like our version?

[bmorgan4]

I love the tenor that belts that G (i think) near the opening. In the recorded version by whitacre, its not nearly as noticable. But that note here resounds throughout the entire church. Awesome.

[chickenwhoosh]

Hi are you a csulb student involved in choir? I am a csulb student and am interested in joining choir. If you are a member, can you tell me about the prereqs on getting into this ?thank you

[VideoBuck]

I'm an SF State student, but CSULB's music and choral program is fantastic. Get involved! Contact the music office for info on auditions and pre-reqs.

[TimonyErt03]

My choir director and I were there and you guys were absolutely amazing. This piece is stunning, as is most of Eric Whitcre's work. Great job!

[BowieChick317]

Was this ACDA? I performed here too with the South Bay Children's Choir, Bel Canto. I heard Long Beach was beautiful, I'm going to CSULB next year, so i'm hoping to be in this choir at some point :)

~The Eternal Janet~

[VideoBuck]

This was a few days before ACDA-Western Region 2008, but in the same church. CSU Long Beach was as good a collegiate choir as I could possibly imagine, from full-on opera chorus to the most poignant Palestrina motet. Best of luck with their choral program!

[mcouzijn]

A fantastic performance, in certain aspects definitely 'better' than ours. A beautiful, varied choral sound that comes through even in spite of the technically limited recording. Of course there are some moments that I cherish more in our own performance, but that is only natural I guess.

i was astounded at the part from 4:40 tot 5:00 ('now the ears...'). we had a completely different musical score to our disposal. How come you sing this other part? Which is more recent? Cheers from Amsterdam!

[VideoBuck]

Thank you for your comment, and for looking past the low fidelity of this recording which makes certain parts sound out-of-tune or unbalanced. Evidently this version was to the composer's (local to choir) precise specifications within the last few months.

[deuteronomy231]

The score that's on this video is actually the original score that Eric Whitacre preferred. My choir is doing the other one, and personally, I kinda think the other one fits better with the song than this version. Our choir is still contemplating doing this version though...either way, Eric Whitacre is a musical genius and anybody who can sing this amazing song is amazing themselves...koodos to youdos!

[liesandsecretsx]

I think this might be my favorite choral piece of all time, and the poem itself is one of my favorites. I agree with bro3038 on the wonderful intonation. When it got to the "wings/and of the gay great happening..." part, i actually cried. This is so beautifully inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

[IncantatoTours]

Wow - you guys are even better than I remember. Thumbs up from me and lots of kicks from our baby-in-progress. Can't wait to see and hear you in Italy this summer. Best from NYC, Sandra

[bro3830]

The intonation is superb. The only comment I have is on the balance, some of the places where the choir is spread thin there are individual voices sticking out. Alto voices specifically. I sang this piece in college as well, and I think that your interpretation is right on. Interpretation can be a preference thing too. That's the beauty of music; no one performance or interpretation is the same!

[mezzomalena]

Way to go jeff... seriously

[oDRUMCIRCLESo]

Beautiful...

[Jeffcoxn]

There was no interpretation. Eric Whitacre came into our rehearsal giving us his changes and very specific directions on how it is supposed to sound. He rehearsed with us for quite a while... We sang it exactly how he wanted us to. If you don't like it, talk to him. ;)

[sorafb]

On that first "day" a molo rit. especially before the resolve really makes a better impact. I wonder why many of the groups I have heard don't do that? oh well, fantastic job anyways!

[HUComposer]

This is my favorite Whitacre choral piece. I absolutely adore this song. This performance is good as well. I just wish there was a little more freedom used in the interpretation of the song. Does anyone know where I can get a score that has this setting of "now the ears of my ears..."? I have the score that BYU used for their recording where on the women sing that in canon (which I prefer).

[sorafb]

I agree with the canon part. Polyphony also did it that way. Actually, on Eric's blog he posted that mirrored canon from "i hide myself" so that directors can print it out for their choirs.