Singer Instructional for Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2011

Video 2 for the Virtual Choir 2011

Eric Whitacre talks through the track 'Sleep', and gives the tips you need to sing the track perfectly.

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>> ERIC: Hey gang! Eric Whitacre here - and
here we go again. For this version of the

Virtual Choir we will be singing Sleep; a
piece that I wrote in the year 2000. The very

first Virtual Choir was Sleep, but that was
really just a test to see if the concept would

work. We took a big step forward with the
second version, which was Lux Aurumque, and

now we go back and do Sleep, but this time
for real.

Alright, so now let's get into the music.
Beginning with the first page, page three:

"The evening hangs beneath the moon". This
is something I want you to think about during

your entire performance - that is diction.
The dedication to these gorgeous consonants.

"The-ee eve-ning hangs be-neath ..." - there's
the potential for little lovely sounds on

every one of those beats. The second concept
that I want you to keep throughout the entire

piece is this sense of legato. So that instead
of going from chord, to chord to chord, we're

singing in long, fluid, unbroken lines. When
we hit "beneath the moon," make "moon" the

most perfect "ooh" you possibly can. Same
thing with the "silver thread on darkened

dune", with "closing eyes and resting head"
... make sure here that you stagger breathe

through this so that you can breathe anywhere
else in that phrase quietly, but don't breathe

"resting head" - make that unbroken. "Know
that sleep is coming soon" and again, a perfect

"ooh" vowel.

Then at the bottom of page four; "Upon my
pillow safe in bed" - let this flow openly,

freely, and again a legato line, not note
to note, and make the entire climax of that

phrase the word "bed". "A thousand pictures
fill my head", nice and gentle to rise up

out of the texture here. "I cannot sleep my
mind's aflight", "aflight" - this is all about

you. Bring that out there. "And yet my limbs
seem made of lead". It's essential on the

word "lead" that you cut off exactly where
it's written, so basses you'll notice that

you cut off on beat three, baritones beat
four, tenors on beat one of the next bar.

The idea is that we're taking the chord "lead"
and then sort of making it evaporate one note

at a time from the bottom up until we're all
singing very delicately.
Then "if there are noises" - nice little crescendo.

Same thing "in the night". Then "a frightening
shadow", give me a nice 'f' on "frightening",

and again on "flickering light" we can paint
the idea of a flickering candle light with

that 'f'. Altos when you come in "then I surrender"
maybe a little louder, be a little bit more

present. Then lots of diction here and just
lovely simple sounds. Make sure you have a

real dedication to where the crescendo and
the decrescendo is written to each of your

individual parts. It'll make the texture sort
of come alive if we all do that as written.

Then page eight; "what dreams may come both
dark and deep". "Wha-t drea-ms may co-me"

- again there's another one; "dre-ams may
co-me both dark and deep". Ladies; "flying

wings and soaring leap" save, save, save that
crescendo - we just want to build, build the

energy so that by the time we rich forte we're
ready for the breathe "as I surrender unto

sleep", and then here just the freest most
open sound you can make "dark and deep ...".

Then when we get to the big climax "as I
surrender unto sleep", especially ladies,

instead of a "ah" just think of a long tall
"ooon" vowel and soar over the top of this.

Not too much vibrato but a good healthy clean,
clear sound. We come all the way down through

the top of page 10. Then in sixty-three "sleeeep"
- a nice crescendo decrescendo breathe in

and a breathe out. Same thing on the next
one. Then I'd love to hear a good solid crescendo

from baritones and tenors, and then eventually
from the altos and the sopranos going into

the downbeat of sixty seven. We come all the
way down, and then when we start the meditation

on eleven "sleeeep ... sleeeep" let each one
diminuendo - poco a poco - and by the time

you get to the seventh or eighth reptition
of it, you should really be at almost a whisper

- almost gone. You should only have to eight,
maybe nine, maybe ten repetitions of it singing

as soft as you possibly can. And when you
finish, hold for just a moment so that we

can co-ordinate everyone's ending together.
Just hold the still face.

I guess that's it! Let's make some music.