VU-Kamerkoor: Eric Whitacre - i thank you god

Eric Whitacre's setting of an e.e. cummings poem. Wonderful, sonorous, exciting, captivating - what a joy to sing this piece and to capture the audience's attention at the start of our concert programme. Recorded in the old city centre of Amsterdam, june 2007.

Here is the 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 birthday of life and of 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:

• VU-Kamerkoor
• choir
• choral
• singers
• Whitacre
• cummings

[Kayteeshay]

I was lucky enough to perform this song with the University of North Dakota Concert Choir and it became an instant favorite! I find myself singing this song often and hearing this recording brought back many wonderful memories! Beautiful!

[mcouzijn]

@Kayteeshay Thanks, Katie! This is probably why music is called a 'universal language', and why people from Argentina, the Philiippines, North Dakota and Amsterdam rejoice in singing this splendid composition. By the way, not only thanks to Eric Whitacre, but also to e.e. cummings (but I'm into literature, so that's why).

[bjornerix2]

I was listening to this song on headphones and the first time I heard this part, 2:33 I stopped dead in my tracks. I almost had to sit down, I have never heard anything like this before, it was like discovering a colour you've never seen before or something. Unexpected and beautiful.

[mcouzijn]

@bjornerix2 Thanks for being so specific about what struck you, Bjorn. It is indeed a very special effect, as if beauty slaps you on the cheek. A iuxtaposition of the 'wings' that give us freedom and let us fly up to heaven - and the 'illimitably earth' to which we are bound but which gives us endless possibilities in our lifetime. What we *want* and what we *might do* - and this covered in music. Almost more important to me than brown bread - and that says something! :-)

[soro19]

This song makes me weep. It is unbearably beautiful. Eric Whitacre IS music.

[mcouzijn]

@soro19 I agree, Soro19. I hope that composers are *sometimes* aware of the beauty that they present the world with. And the many musicians that share in that beauty.

[thepianomaniac]

Wow, this is a WONDERFUL recording! So perfect in that church. The chords ring so greatly!

[enterandeject]

I actually think that the sopranos are quite good. I actually think that this is one of the best amateur choirs I have heard singing this wonderful piece.

[CoDUltimate19]

So great! I got to sing this at my high school for a choir concert, and it instantly became my favorite coral piece of all time. Another great piece is one called Afternoon On A Hill. It has some epic chords and great tenor parts much like this song and all of Eric Whitacre's music.

[Mynameisnumber5]

Thanks so to mcouzijn for posting this :)

[Mynameisnumber5]

Oh my god. This is un-fucking-real. So many emotions coming at you at once. As soon as you press play, you know your about to hear something amazing.

[hminkema]

@orvtimlaw Thanks, Orvtimlaw! It's been 4 years since we performed this piece, yet it still 'resonates' with us. I find it astonishing that over 30.000 people found us here singing Whitaker's magnificent piece, regarding that like any small choir, we have to work hard to attract a substantial audience to our concerts. But the music and the singing and the togetherness is the greatest reward of all. BTW we've just completed the season with an Ardbeg-filled night BBQ-ing on our director's farm :-)

[orvtimlaw]

Simply AMAZING performance of this beautiful piece which requires great control and musicality. Congratulations on such a fine performance.

[AnHourInAMinuteLG]

thumbs up if John's tumbler sent you here! HooHaa nerdfighters!

[mcouzijn]

@sookeebearispretty Thank you, Sookibear! Funny that you mention the size of our choir. Personally, I find it touching that such small groups of people can create such beauty. We're a group of 32 people, 8 basses, 8 tenors and so on, with no formal musical training (apart from singing lessons for some), just a bunch of physicists, linguists, economists and so on - but by giving it our very best and challenged by a great director, we accomplish more than everyone of us dreamed of.