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

Feb 26, 2008 at St. Boniface Church in Anaheim, CA (next to Disneyland). Sorry for the low resolution and fidelity; this was taken with the equivalent of a camera-phone which doesn't even begin to represent what CSULB sounded like that evening.

California State University at Long Beach Chamber Choir, under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Talberg, performs Eric Whitacre's "I Thank You God" based on E. E. Cummings' poem:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• whitacre
• CSULB
• talberg
• cummings
• choir
• choral

[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.

[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.

[aiduhhh]

I WANNA GO TO THIS COLLEGE :]]

[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.

[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!

[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.