Sleep - Eric Whitacre

[Lives4Christ73]

Nice sound! but i agree with zachking88, and shesh300.....Needs to be straightone!..way to much vibrato...ruins the effect of the piece!

[sopranistin13]

Yeah... the vibrato is distracting in a piece like this.

[sampson8265]

beautiful tennor and alto section. absolutely brilliant ensemble but those two sections were just the chocolate to my soul. =)

this is one of the best performances of this piece i have heard.

[futurestar0102]

this isn't too fast...it's way too slow. If you listen to a group actually do it that is conducting by Eric Whitacre, he moves the tempo around, and does much more dynamically. Plus there is hardly any vibrato. This is very punchy, and sounds like every beat is being stressed, which it should not be. Slips in tune at 2:43.

[StarClament21]

Too fast and too much vibrato.

In my opinion, this song was written to be performed with straight tone. The tone is good.

[janeym]

too much vibrato =[

*tear*

[huip68]

actually doin it slower is better cos it can show th emotions more clearly and the sounds fade of best in that way. sounds a bit STIFF though..?

[shesho300]

this recording bugged me. it sounds like an amazing choir, but i dont like the vibrato in this song personally. it should be straight tone.

[darkangel10001]

hey.. i have the copy of this score, but no lyrics... someone who could help, please give me the lyrics. God bless

[ZachKing88]

Ugh.

Too fast and too much vibrato.

In my opinion, this song was written to be performed with straight tone. You'd have a hard time hearing the beauty in the conflicting notes with so many voices shaking.

[lalouxox42]

i disagree with the tempo comment, it would even bee okay a lil faster. my high school choir did this song in our concert like 2 weeks ago, we did it a lil faster and it still sounded amazing. soprano 1 part is SSOOO hard. but by far my FAVORITE choir piece. =]

[xLullabyRosex]

All the parts are really hard.

[chelseebabey]

feelin' dumbbb.

didn't realize it said this was a still photo.

:p

amazing sound. then is all i have to say

[D3mk3yz]

i didnt either! lol great work!

[chelseebabey]

beautiful sound.

but STIFFFFFF as boards; feel the musica little more. makes a hugeeeee difference in the emotional sense.

[Dasbeastie]

its a picture!!!!!

[Testosterontius]

I just agree to the people hat say its to much vibrato. its a very good performance, but the middle part is not completly right. I think that this peace should sound totaly clear. but the because of the vibrato the realy great moments of this peace don't sound very good.

But its a good recording.

Sry for my English. I can't explain it like i would like to explain it. But I hope you understand.

Testos

[TikkleMeTorry]

As much as I LOVE vibrato and don't think choir conductors shou force people to sing straight tone, this song really require it =/ For the dissonance to really take effect, you need the straight tone. The vibrato kind of takes away from that and it sounds weird. Trust me, we're singing this and I'm a sop 1 and singing without vibrato sucks but, it's necessary.

[skdavis93]

out schools chamber ensemble sang this last year, it was amazing.

[shanece12]

i love this song!

[shadeoflight123]

Bass 2 rocks :)

[Moontusk]

AMEN

[rory09]

Hell Yes! - this is a great B2 piece, Lux Aurumque is also good, having a low c sharp.

[Cariyaga]

Tell it, preacher! xD

[fish1123581321]

this is amazing, absolutely amazing! Im in love with it!!!

[sherbetstraw]

too much vibrato i think but a great attempt

[mjcelularo]

Nobody does this better than the All Saints Men and Boys Choir of All Saints Church Worcester, MA.

[DoekimThai15]

Ah! my choir and I are going to be singing this, we haven't even started yet!

[cecechery]

My AA High school choir is singing this for contest :]

[vollyballchic]

damn, i keep listening to recordings of this song and our school chorus did this song so much faster, like not upbeat or anything haha, just faster, phrasing must have been a bitchh doing it this slow.

[kixuloz]

personally i think that this tempo is a maybe a click or 2 fast than it should be

[zachsgirl1982]

yea it was my school did this song in a competition and we did it exactly the way they sung it that slow it was a bitch

[UCMsinger]

i actually think this is the better version. because there is a little less vibrato and more of a hall sound... pretty good just too much vibrato.

[evesira]

i agree. i don't like vibrato in general, but this piece, with it's long open chords really require a much smoother sound... it sounds to harsh here. other than that though, it really is a damn good performance.

[amuslimextremist]

I agree with everything you said. a smoother sound during the open chords is needed (ie: polyphony) and I know that's not a fair comparison but I had to anyways :)

on the whole, though, excellent work with a fantastic challenging piece

and the tempo was right on

[crazylinz555]

this. is. incredible. one of my other favorite songs from him is "little tree" i heard it in a concert, but i cant find it anywhere online! any help??

[HyStericalHypocrite]

Heather Buchanan is one of my favorite conductors even though I do not know of many. Her positive attitude and ability to relate to students is very impressive. I should've applied there.... :(

[monkeyman9342]

VERY well done.

great blending.

work on vowels a TINY bit.

and i think sopranos need a warmer sound,

like lift their soft palette a little bit,

and drop their jaw, they would be PERFECT.

and also, a lot of vibrato for the basses.

great tenor and alto section though.

GREAT job though,

it's one of my favorite eric whitacre songs.

[therepublicofme]

i love the way you seem to love music the way i do, MARRY ME, YOU! lol

[loybillyrock]

Fantastic Music!

[Compose4life]

Goods: Nice blend overall, nice dynamics, nice delivery of the text, and intonation was pretty good. As far as phrasing, a nice attempt to interpret the piece and not COPY other interpretations verbatum.

Bads: Some very bright vowels that need to be modified, and a few voices not blending. WAAY too much vibrato. The harmonies and style of the song suffer from this. Some of the phrasing choices were very interesting; some phrases were cut short and some breathing spots were too apparent.

[pianomatteo]

Agreed, I think a lot of people overlook the fact that this piece truly shows it's brilliance if sung with little or no vibrato at all. The harmonies are stunning, and absolutely mysterious (and this applies to pretty much all of Whitacre's pieces) and I think that as you said the vibrato will kind of kill these harmonies. But also, for the most part nice work

[Hisharu]

Amazing performance guys, honestly.

I've always argued that the "sleep" in this song is symbolic of death, and the lyrics represent the discomfort and worry of approaching such a thing. Anyone else get that?

Eric Whitacre is fantastic!

[dianamarie35]

That is completely what it is about! I sang this song with my choir last year, and that is how we interpreted it. It was like the battle was over and death was going to comfort us. It was a sad and life changing piece.

[transat1anticism]

whoever said that this piece is best as an instrumental piece clearly doesn't understand the meaning of the text. whitacre himself says that his music is meant for the voice.

what an awesome choir btw. i wish i was in it.

oh wait...

[oltarzewskt1]

omg I don't even like whitacre and this video still makes me loves Sleep. And also Bass II's.

[angelicmusic]

Dude... Bass II's rock my world. :) I get shivers every time I hear them<3333

[jessg36]

You are completely bias towards basses to begin with

[SatellitesToHeaven]

theres a girl doing to much vibrato i think, but thats prolly my bad hearing skills :P

very nice tho!!

[damienshippee]

There is entirely way too much vibrato in this and it's throwing the pitch off. And soprano 1 part near the end was butchered completely. There was one soprano that continued to sing when all the others gave up.

[UniversitySingers]

We have a lot of solo performing singers in the choir and it is quite difficult to manage the vibrato, so we work with it. It works well for some pieces and is harder for others but despite the fact I believe we do a good job of managing it on the whole.

[christoperfect]

God Bless Eric Whitacre.

Every time I hear this piece it stirs something inside me. This is what music SHOULD be.

[lilpinaypinaychic]

amen.

[klickenpod]

This is a fine job, but senza-vibrato, I feel, would emphasize your song, that is... less being more. You should hear BYU perform it. It's incredible, if not just because they make it surreal and simplistic without the vibrato. I'm not saying you aren't great, it's just that the extra glistening is a bit distracting and subtracts rather than adds.

Beautiful, I mean, I can't really say this isn't great. This is mere artistic difference. :)

[wfiupublicradio]

I absolutely love Eric Whitacre,and despite how great this version of Sleep is, I think it is best as an instrumental piece.

[MJTrujillo08]

My high school choir did this piece and we also did it for All-VA choir. You did this piece beautifully.

[BleachNarutoUndu]

I just graduated high school, and we preformed this piece as well as others at our graduation concert. Yes, a high school choir can preform sleep. and after seeing your idea of a still picture with the music, i got the idea of putting up our concert onto youtube in a similar fashion. How did you do this?

[mootz09]

I didn't put the video up, but if you have Windows Movie Maker, you can do this:

Upload the recording to Movie Maker. Get the timeline view; drag and drop the song link into the lower "audio" slide. Upload the picture. Switch to storyboard view; drag and drop the picture into the first tile. Switch to timeline view. Extend the picture to the full length of the song.

Hope that helps.

[UniversitySingers]

I did basically that, except with imovie. lol.

[jawbraker84]

i miss my choir alot T_T we had sucha great year together but now the teacher and all the seniors are leaving it's gona be very hard for me to adapt T_T

[AlexaKane]

She was the director of NJ Region II Chorus that I was in...I miss it so much. She was amazing.

[SingInTune]

This makes me miss my choir so much :(

[singndance4evr]

i sang this song for regionals choir. its my absolute favorite choral song.

[supb123]

perfect tempo! very nice sound.

[UniversitySingers]

Thank you every one for your kind comments! :D

[lilmisshyper4]

this isn't a video...no one is moving?

[UniversitySingers]

it's a photgraph.

[fwyxx]

I liked this take on "Sleep" quite a bit. The tempo seemed slow initally, but that really gave each chord a chance to be heard in a way that I think is often passed over with this song. My only real critique is about the vibrato--it came off as a bit too big for my taste. My choir is performing this with Mr. Whitacre in less than a month, so I appreciate that choirs like yours post their example so that we can learn from your innovations and mistakes. Thanks for singing a great song so well!

[UniversitySingers]

Yes it Prof. Buchanan does like to take it quite slow, but it does let Whitacre's chords sing out more than they usually would and it lets the line grow very slowly and dramatically. We have a better performance of this from our May concert that I'll upload as soon as I receive the recording.

[forgottenbeauty2]

Which university is this, they sound good.

[UniversitySingers]

Montclair State University from New Jersey.

[LuvHopeDream]

It's quality, but it sings a little uneasy with the vibrado.

[XmusicmeisterX]

they are really amazing. i just saw them perform for the first time today. they sang this song too and it was beautiful.

[PeaceFrog1234]

Very nice. This IS a picture, not a video, right?

[UniversitySingers]

Yes it is a picture. I just took the theatre's recording of us and placed a picture to the music.

[TimonyErt03]

What state is this choir from?

[UniversitySingers]

We're from Montclair, New Jersey.