A bar from J.S. Bach's "Fugue No.17 in A flat", BWV 862, from Das Wohltemperierte Clavier (Part I), a famous example of contrapuntal polyphony.  Play (help·info)

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).

Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Baroque forms such as the fugue, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal. Also, as opposed to the species terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" / "point-against-point" or "sustained-pitch" in one part with melismas of varying lengths in another (van der Werf, 1997). In all cases the conception was likely what Margaret Bent (1999) calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with all parts modified if needed in the end. This point-against-point conception is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the whole so far constructed, which was previously assumed.

Origins[link]

Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown, the treatises Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiriadis, both dating from c. 900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony. These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths. Rather than being fixed works, they indicated ways of improvising polyphony during performance. The Winchester Troper, from c. 1000, is the oldest extant example of notated polyphony for chant performance, although the notation does not indicate precise pitch levels or durations.

Traditional (non-professional) polyphony has a wide, if uneven distribution among the peoples of the world. Most polyphonic regions of the world are sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Oceania. It is believed that origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predates the emergence of polyphony in European professional music. Currently there are two contradicting approaches to the problem of the origins of vocal polyphony: Cultural Model, and Evolutionary Model.^[1] According to the Cultural Model, origins of polyphony are connected to the development of human musical culture; polyphony came as the natural development of the primordial monophonic singing; therefore polyphonic traditions are bound to replace gradually monophonic traditions.^[2] According to the Evolutionary Model, origins of polyphonic singing are much deeper, and are connected to the earlier stages of human evolution; polyphony was an important part of a defence system of the hominids, and traditions of polyphony are gradually disappearing all over the world.^[3]

Historical context[link]

European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of the chant. Twelfth century composers, such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that was introduced centuries earlier, and also added a third and fourth voice to the now homophonic chant. In the thirteenth century, the chant-based tenor was becoming altered, fragmented, and hidden beneath secular tunes, obscuring the sacred texts as composers continued to play with this new invention called polyphony. The lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody.

These musical innovations appeared in a greater context of societal change. After the first millennium, European monks decided to start translating the works of Greek philosophers into the vernacular. Western Europeans were aware of Plato, Socrates, and Hippocrates during the Middle Ages. However they had largely lost touch with the content of their surviving works because the use of Greek as a living language was restricted to the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). The ancient works started then being translated. Once they were accessible, the philosophies had a great impact on the mind of Western Europe.

This sparked a number of innovations in medicine, science, art, and music.

The oldest surviving piece of six-part music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in (c. 1240). (Albright, 2004)

Catholic Church[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism. Avignon, the seat of the antipopes, was a vigorous center of secular music-making, much of which influenced sacred polyphony.

It was not merely polyphony that offended the medieval ears, but the notion of secular music merging with the sacred and making its way into the papal court. It gave church music more of a jocular performance quality removing the solemn worship they were accustomed to. The use of and attitude toward polyphony varied widely in the Avignon court from the beginning to the end of its religious importance in the fourteenth century. Harmony was not only considered frivolous, impious, and lascivious, but an obstruction to the audibility of the words. Instruments, as well as certain modes, were actually forbidden in the church because of their association with secular music and pagan rites. Dissonant clashes of notes give a creepy feeling that was labeled as evil, fueling their argument against polyphony as being the devil’s music. After banishing polyphony from the Liturgy in 1322, Pope John XXII spoke in his 1324 Bull Docta Sanctorum Patrum warning against the unbecoming elements of this musical innovation. Pope Clement VI, however, indulged in it.

It was in 1364, during the pontificate of Pope Urban V, that composer and priest Guillaume de Machaut composed the first polyphonic setting of the mass called La Messe de Nostre Dame.

Notable works and artists[link]

• Johann Sebastian Bach, List of famous compositions
• Tomas Luis de Victoria
• William Byrd, Mass for Five Voices
• Thomas Tallis
• Orlandus Lassus, Missa super Bella'Amfitrit'altera
• Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame
• Jacob Obrecht
• Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli
• Josquin des Prez, Missa Pange Lingua
• Gregorio Allegri, Miserere

Balkan region[link]

Polyphonic singing in the Balkans is traditional folk singing of this part of southern Europe. It is also called ancient, archaic or old -style singing.^[4][5]

• Byzantine chant
• Ojkanje singing, in Croatia
• Ganga singing, in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Epirote singing, in northern Greece and southern Albania (see below)
• Iso-polyphony in southern Albania (see below)
• Gusle singing, in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Albania
• Lazarice singing, in Serbia
• Woman choirs of Shopi and Pirin, in Bulgaria

Incipient polyphony (previously primitive polyphony) includes antiphony and call and response, drones, and parallel intervals.

The polyphonic singing tradition of Epirus is a form of traditional folk polyphony practiced among Albanians, Greeks, Aromanians and Macedonian Slavs in southern Albania and northwestern Greece.^[6][7] This type of folk vocal tradition is also found in the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria. Albanian polyphonic singing can be divided into two major stylistic groups as performed by the Tosks and Labs of southern Albania. The drone is performed in two ways: among the Tosks, it is always continuous and sung on the syllable ‘e’, using staggered breathing; while among the Labs, the drone is sometimes sung as a rhythmic tone, performed to the text of the song. It can be differentiated between two-, three- and four-voice polyphony.

The phenomenon of Albanian folk iso-polyphony has been proclaimed by UNESCO a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity". The term "iso" refers to the drone, which accompanies the iso-polyphonic singing and is related to the ison of Byzantine church music, where the drone group accompanies the song.^[8][9]

Caucasus region[link]

Georgia

Polyphony in the Republic of Georgia is arguably the oldest polyphony in the Christian world. Georgian polyphony is traditionally sung in three parts with strong disonnances, parallel fifths, and a unique tuning system based on perfect fifths. Georgian Polyphonic Singing was has been proclaimed by UNESCO a Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.^[10] See Music of Georgia (country).

Abkhazian traditional music

Polyphony plays a crucial role in Abkhazian traditional music. Polyphony is present in all genres where the social environment provides more than one singer to support the melodic line. Readers might remember (from the very beginning of this book) the recollection of I. Zemtsovsky, when a dozing Abkhazian started singing a drone to support an unknown to him singer. Abkhazian two and three-part polyphony is based on a drone (sometimes a double drone). Two part drone songs are considered by Abkhazian and Georgian scholars the most important indigenous style of Abkhazian polyphony. Two-part drone songs are dominating in Gudauta district, the core region of ethnic Abkhazians. Millennia of cultural, social and economic interactions between Abkhazians and Georgians on this territory resulted in reciprocal influences, and in particular, creation of a new, so-called “Georgian style” of three-part singing in Abkhazia, unknown among Adighis. This style is based on two leading melodic lines (performed by soloists - akhkizkhuo) singing together with the drone or ostinato base (argizra). Indigenous Abkhazian style of three-part polyphony uses double drones (in fourths, fifths, or octaves) and one leading melodic line at one time. Abkhazians use a very specific cadence: tertrachordal downwards movement, ending on the interval fourth.^[11]

Chechens and Ingushes

Both Chechen and Ingush traditional music could be very much defined by their tradition of vocal polyphony. As in other North Caucasian musical cultures, Chechen and Ingush polyphony is based on a drone. Unlike most of the other North Caucasian polyphonic traditions (where two-part polyphony is the leading type), Chechen and Ingush polyphony is mostly three-part. Middle part, the carrier of the main melody of songs, is accompanied by the double drone, holding the interval of the fifth “around” the main melody. Intervals and chords, used in Chechen and Ingush polyphony, are often dissonances (sevenths, seconds, fourths). This is quite usual in all North Caucasian traditions of polyphony as well, but in Chechen and Ingush traditional songs more sharp dissonances are used. In particular, a specific cadence, where the final chord is a dissonant three-part chord, consisting of fourth and the second on top (c-f-g), is quite unique for North Caucasia. Only on the other side of Caucasian mountains, in western Georgia, there are only few songs that finish on the same dissonant chord (c-f-g).^[12]

See also[link]

• Counterpoint
• Micropolyphony
• 3rd Bridge, a multiphonic string division sound

References[link]

• Hendrik van der Werf (1997). "Early Western polyphony", Companion to Medieval & Renaissance Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816540-4.
• Margaret Bent (1999). "The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis", Tonal Structures of Early Music. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3.
• Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Thirteenth-Century Polyphony
• Tuning and Intonation in Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Polyphony
• World Routes in Albania - Iso-Polyphony in Southern Albania on BBC Radio 3
• World Routes in Georgia - Ancient polyphony from the Caucasus region on BBC Radio 3
• Aka Pygmy Polyphony African Pygmy music, with photos and soundscapes

Stephen Layton (born 1966) is an English conductor.

Layton was raised in Derby, where his father was a church organist. Layton learned the piano as a youth. He was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and subsequently won scholarships to Eton College and then King's College, Cambridge as an organ scholar.^[1]

Layton founded the mixed-voice choir Polyphony in 1986.^[2] He has conducted Polyphony in commercial recordings for such labels as Hyperion, including music of Gabriel Jackson,^[3] Paweł Łukaszewski,^[4] Francis Poulenc^[5] and John Tavener.^[6] He was appointed the musical director of the Holst Singers in 1993, replacing Hilary Davan Wetton, who had founded the group in 1978. Layton has served as assistant organist at Southwark Cathedral and musical director of Wokingham Choral Society. Beginning in 1997, he served as organist and subsequently director of music at the Temple Church. Layton has conducted the BBC Singers, and was offered the chief conductorship of the ensemble in 2005, but the BBC withdrew the offer after objections from the singers themselves.^[7] In 2006, he became Director of Music at Trinity College, Cambridge.^[1] In November 2009, the City of London Sinfonia announced the appointment of Layton as its second Artistic Director, effective with the 2010-2011 season, for an initial contract of 3 years. Layton is also to have the title of Principal Conductor.^[8]

In Europe, Layton became chief conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir in January 2002. He has also served as chief guest conductor of the Danish National Choir.

In private life, Layton is an Anglican.^[9]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website of Stephen Layton
• Official website of Polyphony
• Official website of the Holst Singers
• Trinity College Cambridge page on Stephen Layton
• Wokingham Choral Society history page
• Netherlands Chamber Choir English-language history page

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Eric Whitacre
Whitacre conducting in 2007
Background information
Born	(1970-01-02) 2 January 1970 (age 42)
Occupations	Composer Conductor Lecturer Model
Website	EricWhitacre.com

Eric Whitacre (born 2 January 1970 in Reno, Nevada) is an American Grammy award winning composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation.^[1][2] In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst (released by the British ensemble Polyphony on Hyperion Records) became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination. Robert Hollingworth commented: "what hits you straight between the eyes is the honesty, optimism and sheer belief that passes any pretension. This is music that can actually make you smile."^[3] In addition to Whitacre's litany of choral and wind ensemble compositions, he is also known for his "Virtual Choir" projects on YouTube, bringing individual voices from around the globe together in a cyber internet choir. His virtual choirs have exposed his music to a new audience and have helped it gain an unprecedented popularity.^[4][5] Whitacre signed a long-term recording deal with Decca in 2010 and continues to develop his award winning musical Paradise Lost. A concert version was given at Carnegie Hall in 2010.^[6] Plans for the stage show and soundtrack extend into 2013.

Biography[link]

Coming to classical music relatively late in life when he joined a college choir at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), where he earned a BA in Music in 1995. The first work that Eric Whitacre sang – Mozart's Requiem – changed his life. Inspired to compose, his first piece Go, Lovely Rose was completed at the age of 21. At the age of 23 he completed his first piece for Wind Orchestra, Ghost Train, which has been recorded over 40 times and has continued to sell phenomenally well. He went on to the Juilliard School (New York), where he studied with Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning composer, John Corigliano and earned his Master of Music degree.

Countless recordings feature music written by Eric Whitacre, but his first album as both composer and conductor on Decca/Universal, Light & Gold, won a Grammy in 2012, reaped unanimous five star reviews, and became the no. 1 Classical Album in the US and UK charts within a week of a release. Eric's second album, Water Night, was released on Decca in 3 April 2012 and will feature seven world premiere recordings and include performances from his professional choir Eric Whitacre Singers, the London Symphony Orchestra, Julian Lloyd Webber and Hila Plitmann.

He has written for the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chanticleer, Julian Lloyd Webber, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Rundfunkchor Berlin, and The King's Singers, among others. His musical, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, won both the ASCAP Harold Arlen award and the Richard Rodgers Award, and earned 10 nominations at the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. A versatile musician, he has also worked with prolific film composer, Hans Zimmer, co-writing the Mermaid Theme for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In 2011, Eric conducted the winning entries of the Abbey Road 80th Anniversary Anthem Competition, recording the London Symphony Orchestra and his professional choir, the Eric Whitacre Singers, in Abbey Road Studio 1.

Eric's ground-breaking Virtual Choir, Lux Aurumque, received over a million views on YouTube in just 2 months (now approaching 3 million), featuring 185 singers from 12 different countries. Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, Sleep, was released in April 2011 and involved over 2,000 voices from 58 countries. Virtual Choir 3, Water Night, combined 3746 submissions from 73 countries and was released in April 2012.

As a conductor, Eric Whitacre has performed across the world with orchestras, choirs and bands, and he gives regular guest workshops. His Soaring Leap initiative is a dynamic one-day workshop where singers, conductors and composers read, rehearse and perform several of Eric's works, digging deep into the poetry and exploring the compositional tools. An exceptional orator, he was honoured to address the U.N. Leaders programme and give a TED Talk in March 2011, which earned the first full standing ovation of the conference. He has addressed audiences at Duke, Harvard, The Economist, Seoul Digital Forum and JCDA Conference in Tokyo. Eric was appointed Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, UK, in September 2011.

Many of Eric Whitacre's works have entered the standard choral and symphonic repertories and have become the subject of scholarly works and doctoral dissertations. Whitacre has received composition awards from the Barlow International Composition Competition, the ACDA and the American Composers Forum. In 2001, he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the ACDA. Eric Whitacre currently lives in London with his wife (Grammy award winning soprano, Hila Plitmann) and their son.

Style[link]

Whitacre writes music that incorporates contemporary sounds and influences while demanding precision, intonation and ensemble. He is probably best known for his choral works; however, both his choral and instrumental styles use his signature "Whitacre chords," or pan-diatonic clusters usually arranged in successive increasing or decreasing density. Whitacre achieves this growth and decay by splitting voices divisi—in one case up to 18 parts. These sonorities can often be read as seventh or ninth chords, with or without suspended seconds and fourths. Perhaps his most famous chord is a root-position major triad with an added major second and/or perfect fourth. Whitacre makes frequent use of quartal, quintal and secundal harmonies, and is also known for his use of unconventional chord progressions. His use of rhythm often involves mixed, complex, and/or compound meters. His pieces sometimes include frequent meter changes and unusual rhythmic patterns. Another trademark of Whitacre's pieces is the use of aleatoric and indeterminate sections, as well as unusual score instructions involving, in some cases, hand actions and/or props.^[7]

Projects[link]

Virtual Choir[link]

Whitacre's Virtual Choir projects were inspired by a video sent to him of a young girl singing one of his choral pieces.^[8] He began with a test run of Sleep, then Lux Aurumque in 2009^[4][9] and then Sleep again in 2010. The video for Lux Aurumque, featuring a virtual choir of 185 voices from 12 countries, was described as a "musical experience that works better than anyone might have expected."^[10] It received over a million hits in the first two months of its release.

The 2010 version of the Virtual Choir 2.0 "Sleep" began in October 2010, and the video submission process was completed on 10 January 2011. Whitacre spoke at The 2011 TED Conference^[11] and this video was released on 1 April 2011, accompanied with a short 2 minute example of the "Sleep" project. The YouTube release was on 7 April 2011. One year later,it had been viewed over 900,000 times.

On 27 September 2011, Eric announced on his blog his plans for a "Virtual Choir 3". On 21 December 2011, it was revealed that the piece will be "Water Night", an a cappella piece he wrote in 1995.^[12] By the entry close date of 1 February 2012, 3,746 videos had been uploaded by 2,945 people in 73 countries, singing one or more parts of Water Night. NBC Network's Nightly News, and ABC National News television reported on the Virtual Choir. This heightened awareness of the project in the mainstream. The completed work was released as a YouTube video 2 April 2012, and received 100,000 views in the first week. On 15 April, on the exact 100 year anniversary moment of the sinking of the Titanic, the Water Night Virtual Choir video was shown in the new Titanic Belfast commemorative building, in remembrance of those lost in the disaster.

Recording projects[link]

Whitacre's first album with Decca, Light & Gold, was released in October 2010. This album won the Grammy for Best Choral Performance in 2012.^[13] From October to December 2010, Whitacre was a visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge during Michaelmas (Autumn) Term.^[14]

Whitacre's second album with Decca, Water Night, was released on 3 April 2012 in the United States, and features some of his newest compositions for chorus and for orchestra.^[15]

Performance projects[link]

Whitacre has worked collaboratively with Distinguished Concerts International New York^[16] (DCINY), and is due to collaborate with them again in 2011 in New York, Vancouver and Los Angeles. With regard to his musical "Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings", he was described by the New York Times as a "younger, hipper Andrew Lloyd Webber, with fleeting hints of Bernstein and Sondheim".^[6]

On 24 October 2010, he conducted an all-American programme with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Barbican London in a performance that featured his commission for the London Symphony Chorus entitled Songs of Immortality. On 28 November 2010, he sat on the panel of judges for the final episode of Choir of the Year, broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3. In December 2010, Whitacre conducted the I Vocalisti choir in Hamburg, and was a guest conductor of the Christmas performance of the Berlin Rundfunkchor.

On 6 November 2010, Whitacre conducted Côrdydd, a Cardiff-based mixed choir, and friends in a concert of his work at the BBC Hoddinott Hall in the Wales Millennium Centre.

He composed a piece for the Sidney Sussex college choir, and worked with students in masterclasses and workshops. The concert version of his musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings was performed to a sold out audience at Carnegie Hall in June 2010.

Whitacre is a founding member of BCM International, a quartet of composers consisting of himself, Steven Bryant, Jonathan Newman and James Bonney, which aspires to "enrich the wind ensemble repertoire with music unbound by traditional thought or idiomatic cliché."^[17]

Awards and honors[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

Whitacre has won awards from the Barlow international composition competition, American Choral Directors Association, American Composers' Forum and in 2001 became the youngest recipient ever of The Raymond C Brock Commission given by the American Choral Directors Association. His musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings earned him a Richard Rodgers Award and received 10 nominations at the 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. The album Cloudburst and Other Choral Works received a Grammy nomination in 2007 for Best Choral Performance. Later, his album "Light and Gold" won a Grammy for Best Choral Performance in 2012.^[18]

Works[link]

Wind symphony[link]

• Equus
• Ghost Train Triptych
  • Ghost Train
  • At the Station
  • Motive Revolution
• Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!
• Noisy Wheels of Joy
• October
• Sleep (choral transcription)
• The Seal Lullaby (choral transcription for wind symphony and piano)
• Lux Aurumque (transcription of the choral work, transposed a semitone lower from C-Sharp Minor to C Minor)
• Cloudburst (choral transcription)
• Libertas Imperio (From Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings)

SATB choral[link]

• A Boy and A Girl (poem by Octavio Paz)
• Alleluia (adapted from his October)
• Animal Crackers, Volume 1 (Poems by Ogden Nash)
  • The Panther
  • The Cow
  • The Firefly
• Animal Crackers, Volume 2 (Poems by Ogden Nash)
  • The Canary
  • The Eel
  • The Kangaroo
• The City and the Sea (poems by e. e. cummings)
  • i walked the boulevard
  • the moon is hiding in her hair
  • maggie and millie and molly and may
  • as is the sea marvelous
  • little man in a hurry
• Cloudburst (poem by Octavio Paz)
• Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)
  • Temuna
  • Kala Kalla (Light Bride)
  • Larov (Mostly)
  • Eyze Sheleg! (What snow!)
  • Rakut (Tenderness)
• Goodnight Moon (chorus and piano)
• Her Sacred Spirit Soars (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine (libretto by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Little Birds (poem by Octavio Paz)
• little tree (poem by E. E. Cummings)
• Lux Aurumque (poem by Edward Esch; translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri) (also set for male chorus)
• Nox Aurumque (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Oculi Omnium
• The Seal Lullaby (poem by Rudyard Kipling)
• She Weeps Over Rahoon (poem by James Joyce)
• Sleep (originally a setting of Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"; for copyright reasons^[19] the published version uses a specially-written text by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Sleep, My Child (Choral transcription from Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings)
• The Stolen Child (setting of a poem by William Butler Yeats, commissioned in 2008 by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and The King's Singers for their respective 25th and 40th anniversaries)
• This Marriage (poem by Jalal al-Din Rumi)
• Three Flower Songs
  • I Hide Myself (poem by Emily Dickinson)
  • With a Lily in Your Hand (poem by Federico García Lorca)
  • Go, Lovely Rose (poem by Edmund Waller)
• Three Songs of Faith (poems by E. E. Cummings)
  • i will wade out
  • hope, faith, life, love
  • i thank You God for most this amazing day^[20]
• Water Night (poem by Octavio Paz; translated by Muriel Rukeyser)
• When David Heard (from II Samuel 18:33)
• Winter (poem by Edward Esch)
• What If (lyrics by David Norona and Eric Whitacre)

SSA choral[link]

• She Weeps Over Rahoon (text by James Joyce)
• Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)
• The Seal Lullaby (text by Rudyard Kipling)
• I Thank You God (text by E. E. Cummings)

TTBB choral[link]

• Lux Aurumque (poem by Edward Esch, translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• The Seal Lullaby (text by Rudyard Kipling)

Choral works not yet published[link]

• Goodnight Moon
• Songs of Immortality
  • Lie still, sleep becalmed (poem by Dylan Thomas)
  • After Great Pain (poem by Emily Dickinson)^[21]

Orchestral[link]

• A Boy and a Girl
• Equus
• Goodnight Moon (strings, harp, soprano)
• Lux Aurumque
• October
• The River Cam
• Water Night
• Winter
• Winter (for strings, choir and sitar)

Solo voice[link]

• The City and the Sea (poems by E. E. Cummings)
• Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)

Music theatre[link]

• Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, a musical featuring electronic, world, and orchestral instruments; classical singers; and many different styles of music.

Other arrangements[link]

• Rak HaHatchala (Only the Beginning) [aka Five Hebrew Love Songs]; for soprano voice, solo violin, piano

Film and Television[link]

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, co-composer (with Hans Zimmer) of the Mermaid Theme and choral segments

Publishers[link]

Whitacre is published by Chester Music; G. Schirmer; Walton Music; Santa Barbara Music; Shadow Water Music; and Carpe Ranam Music.

Biography portal

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Eric_Whitacre on WikiMusicGuide
• Biography on Hyperion Records
• NPR Review of Cloudburst and choral audio. 28 September 2006
• Music Productions Ltd (Management company of Eric Whitacre)
• Eric Whitacre write-up on ChesterNovello web site
• Eric talking at TED about the virtual choir
• Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'
• Classical Archives Interview

Distribution of Pygmies and their languages according to Bahuchet (2006). The southern Twa are not shown.

The Aka or Bayaka^[1] are a nomadic Mbenga pygmy people who live by hunting. Although the Aka people call themselves BiAka, they are also known as Babenzele in Western Central African Republic and Northwest Congo (RPC).

They live in a variety of terrains in southwestern Central African Republic and northern Congo (Brazzaville region), in 11 different ecological zones of the Western Congo Basin. They are a related, but distinct, people from the Baka people of Cameroon, Gabon, northern Congo, and southwestern Central African Republic.

The BiAka have a high predominance of the L1 genetic haplotype, which is believed to be the most divergent human dNA haplotype. It is believed that the modern human ancestor developed in the East Africa area, where the Efé (and other Mbuti) and the Hadzabe of Tanzania also exhibit the L1 haplotype. During a period of "interglacial optimum" weather, the Sahara became lush and green, allowing easy migration along its southern border. It is theorized that during this period, migration of early man occurred from the Eastern Congo basin to the Western Congo basin. The BiAka therefore represent some of the most distinct existing modern humans.

They were featured in the July 1995 National Geographic article "Ndoki: the Last Place on Earth".^[2]

Lifestyle[link]

A family from a Ba Aka pygmy village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2006.

The Aka tribe gain sustenance from 63 plant species, 20 insect species, honey from 8 species of bees, and 28 species of game. They also trade with their farmer neighbors for agricultural goods and, more recently, often plant their own small seasonal crops.

These hunter-gatherers have a symbiotic market relationship with neighboring villagers (collectively known as Ngandu). While the Ngandu are primarily farmers, they will also occasionally hunt for bushmeat, and also keep domesticated livestock. They exchange their village goods, including crops of manioc, plantain, yams, taro, maize, cucumbers, squash, okra, papaya, mango, pineapple, palm oil, and rice for the bushmeat, honey, and other forest products the Aka collect. There are over 15 different village tribes with whom the approximately 30,000 Aka associate.

Their hunter-gatherer lifestyle exposes them to blood of jungle fauna, thus they have among the highest rates of seropositivity for Ebola virus in the world.^[3]

Fathers of the Aka tribe spend more time in close contact to their babies than in any other known society. Aka fathers have their infant within arms reach 47% of the time and have been described as the "best Dads in the world."^[4] Males unable to obtain multiple wives as a result of belonging to the lowest rungs of the economy substitute resources for parental obligations. It has been observed that they pick up, cuddle, and play with their babies at least five times as often as fathers in other societies. It is believed that this is due to the strong bond between Aka husband and wife. Throughout the day, couples share hunting, food preparation, and social and leisure activities. The more time Aka parents spend together, the greater the father's loving interaction with his baby.^[5]

Unlike the Mbuti pygmies of the eastern Congo (who speak only the language of the tribes with whom they are affiliated), the Aka speak their own language along with whichever of the approximately 15 Bantu peoples they are affiliated.

In 2003, the oral traditions of the Aka were proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Association with European colonists[link]

With the slave trade of the 18th century came migrations of tribes in the area, with resultant pressures on the Aka. In addition, at the end of the 19th century the Aka were the major elephant hunters that provided ivory for the ivory trade. This trade used the tribes with whom the Aka were affiliated as middlemen. From 1910 to 1940, rubber production was desired by colonialists, and forced labor of the tribesmen with whom the Aka were associated increased the demand for bushmeat, and some villagers escaped into the forest, where they put added demands on the Aka. The Aka were never involved in the forced labor schemes directly, but the increased demands for meat and skins encouraged the more efficient method of net hunting instead of spear hunting. This shift in hunting technique changed the social structure of the Aka.

In the 1930s the French encouraged the Aka to move into roadside villages, but like the Efé of the Ituri forest, most Aka disappeared into the forest and few joined the villages (except in a few villages in Congo-Brazza).

Today, the world economic structure encourages Aka participation in coffee plantations (of the Ngandu and other neighboring farmers) during the dry season, which is also the hunting season. This has changed their societal structure even further. Employment with the ivory and lumber trade bring in far more money than their traditional lifestyle, further putting pressure on their culture.

Music[link]

Their complex polyphonic music has been studied by various ethnomusicologists. Simha Arom has made historical field recordings of some of their repertoire. Michelle Kisliuk has written a detailed performance ethnography (with audio and video companion website, Oxford University Press, New York). Mauro Campagnoli studied their musical instruments in depth, comparing them to neighbouring pygmy groups such as the Baka Pygmies).

Aka musicians appear on:

• African Rhythms (2003).

Music by Aka Pygmies, performed by Aka people, György Ligeti and Steve Reich, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Teldec Classics: 8573 86584-2. Liner notes by Aimard, Ligeti, Reich, and Simha Arom and Stefan Schomann.

• Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies (The Musical Expeditions Series/Book and Compact Disc) (Ellipsis Arts 1995)

A New Jersey author named Louis Sarno traveled to live with the Bayaka (whom he called the Babenzele) and wrote several books about his experiences there. His Kurtzian saga has been met with mixed reviews. He has co-operated on several ethnologic recordings of pygmy music, notably in this compilation that includes the recordings of Colin Turnbull and Jean-Pierre Hallet of other pygmy peoples in the Congo.

• BOYOBI: Ritual Music of the Rainforest Pygmies by Louis Sarno (Sound Photosynthesis 2000)

What happens in the rainforest between 11pm and 4 am? The spirits of the forest are alight and can morph into animals running through the camp. Celebrational music can assuage fears and satisfy the spirits. A hemp-aided musical journey of the nighttime Aka, from festivals that can last as long as 2 years! Also distributed as: BOYOBI: A Hunting Ritual of Bayaka Pygmies (Sound Photsynthesis).

• Bayaka: The Extraordinary Music of the BaBenzele Pygmies (CD and book) by Louis Sarno (Ellipsis Arts 1996)

More focused on the instruments and music of the Bayaka, beautiful and melodic.

Books about the Aka[link]

"Seize the Dance! BaAka Musical Life and the Ethnography of Performance" by Michelle Kisliuk (Oxford University Press, 2000).

• Song from the Forest -- My Life Among the Ba-Benjelle Pygmies by Louis Sarno (Houghton Mifflin 1993).

In the mid-1980's, a New Jersey native hears pygmy music on the radio and decides to travel and live with this remote people, an idyllic picture fixed in his head. Disillusionment sets in as his initial wonder slowly wears off and he realizes the pygmies are interested in him only for food, liquor, and tobacco. Following his initial three month sojourn, he returns two years later and lives "permanently" with the tribe, becoming infatuated with a young tribeswoman with whom he can hardly communicate, which includes an emotionally turbulent "courtship" and unconsummated "marriage." Though riveting, the cultural friction is tangible.

Conservation Efforts[link]

The World Wildlife Fund of Washington, DC, has worked with the BiAka since the 1980s to protect gorilla habitats, minimize logging of forest, and promote other conservation efforts while empowering the BiAka and other indigenous peoples.^[6]

See also[link]

Other Pygmy groups

• Efé
• Baka
• Twa peoples

Anthropologists studying the Aka

• Barry Hewlett
• Michelle Kisliuk

References[link]

1. ^ The Aka call themselves Baaka and their language Aka. In the Lobaye region, these become Bayaka and Yaka due to epenthesis whenever there is no consonant starting a syllable. In Bagandu, the forms are Biaka and Diaka, and in the Sangha River region, Babenjelé and Aka. (It is not clear if these are endonyms or exonyms.) The names in Sango and Lingala are Ba(m)benga and Beka. (Duke, 2001, Aka as a Contact Language.)
2. ^ Michael Nichols (2001). "Gallery: Ndoki: The Last Place on Earth". http://michaelnicknichols.com/gallery/ndoki/. 
3. ^ Johnson ED, Gonzalez JP, Goerges A. "Filovirus activity among selected ethnic groups inhabiting the tropical forest of equatorial Africa". Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1993;87:536-538. 
4. ^ "Men have nipples to sooth crying baby until it can be fed". Medical News Today. June 13, 2005. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=26042. 
5. ^ Barry Hewlett (1991). Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08203-2. http://books.google.com/?id=21z2hbOuTcEC&pg=PA1&dq=%22Hewlett%22+%22Intimate+Fathers:+The+Nature+and+Context+of+Aka+Pygmy+...%22+. 
6. ^ "Congo Basin: Protecting Africa's Tropical Forests: People". World Wildlife Fund. http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/congo/item1508.html. 

Michelle Kisliuk Seize the Dance! BaAka Musical Life and the Ethngraphy of Performance. Oxford University Press. 2000.

External links[link]

• Article: "Are the men of the African Aka tribe the best fathers in the world?"
• Aka Pygmies of the Western Congo Basin
• Fieldwork about Baka, Aka and other pygmy groups
• African Pygmies with photos, music and ethnographic notes

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The composer on Waldron, a remote island in the San Juan Archipelago
Photo from the 2012 documentary film,
Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen

Morten Johannes Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer of Danish descent. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007)^[1], he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994–2001)^[2] and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years.^[3]

Biography[link]

Lauridsen was born February 27, 1943, in Colfax, Washington, and is of Danish descent on his father's side.^[4] Raised in Portland, Oregon, he studied composition with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen at the University of Southern California in the 1960s.^[5] He began teaching at USC in 1967 and has been on their faculty ever since.^[6]

In 1975 he moved onto Waldron Island, a secluded, forested haven in the San Juan Archipelago off the coast of Washington State, to rebuild a derelict general store for use as his summer residence. His love for nature and silence was perfectly suited for the pristine beauty and unadorned simplicity of this wildness, where, having barged across a fifty-dollar piano at the outset of his sojourn, he composed many of his masterworks over the following decades. With a worldwide following of choral music enthusiasts, he now shares his time between teaching at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, conducting residencies in America and internationally, and composing on the island.

Documentary[link]

The 2012 documentary film Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen, portrays the composer at his Waldron Island retreat and in rehearsals in California and Scotland. Commentaries about the composer by poet Dana Gioia, conductor Paul Salamunovich, composer/conductor Paul Mealor, composer Alex Shapiro and conductor Robert Geary, along with performances by the San Francisco Choral Society, University of Aberdeen Choral Society and Orchestra, Con Anima Chamber Choir and Volti, are featured. Works include O Magnum Mysterium, Lux Aeterna, Madrigali, Dirait-on, and Nocturnes, with soundtracks by Polyphony (choir) and Britten Sinfonia (conducted by Stephen Layton), The Singers/Minnesota Choral Artists (conducted by Matthew Culloton), and the Dale Warland Singers (conducted by Dale Warland).^[7]

A Song Without Borders production directed by Michael Stillwater, the film premiered on February 7, 2012 at the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs, CA, was voted Best Documentary at the DC Independent Film Festival (February 29, 2012) and received Honorable Mention at the Los Angeles Movie Awards. The NYC premiere (March 30, 2012), hosted by Distinguished Concerts International New York, opened a Lauridsen-tribute weekend at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. The film, produced with optional German subtitles, is intended for screening in both traditional theaters and through choral organizations in America and internationally, as well as for DVD home-viewing.

Compositions[link]

Choirs around the world perform Lauridsen's works, contributing to his status as "the most-frequently performed American choral composer"^[8]. Here the Scottish chamber choir Con Anima records Madrigali: Six "FireSongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems, conducted by Paul Mealor, in a 16th century chapel in Blare's, Scotland. (Image from the 2012 documentary Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen

Lauridsen's choral compositions, including seven choral cycles and a series of sacred a cappella motets, are featured regularly in concerts worldwide. In particular, O Magnum Mysterium, Contre Qui, Rose and Dirait-on (from Les Chansons des Roses), and O Nata Lux (from Lux Aeterna) have become popular items in the choral repertoire.^[9]

The influence of Gregorian chant, though evident in the linear construction of many of his works, is particularly clear in Lux Aeterna. A chant-like melody, first stated by the strings, unfolds and becomes the basis for the entire five-movement work. Lauridsen also cites the American musical theater as an influence, drawing upon this sound especially for his setting of James Agee's "Sure on this Shining Night."^[10] Lauridsen's harmonic language varies with the text of each choral work, but consists primarily of extended triadic harmonies in different inversions and spacings, as well as occasional quartal harmonies and tone clusters. A first-inversion major triad with an added 9th is a particularly recognized sound in much of his more recent work. This sonority characterizes "O Magnum Mysterium" and also colors "Lux Aeterna," "Les Chansons des Roses," and other works. His earlier Madrigali utilize the "fire chord." In search of a single sonority to connect each song in the cycle, Lauridsen settled on a minor triad with an added ninth, a sound which he named the "fire chord."^[11]

Referring to Lauridsen's sacred music, the musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple said he was "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered ...^[12] From 1993 Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by century's end he had eclipsed Randall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer."^[13]

Vocal works[link]

Recordings[link]

Lauridsen's works have been recorded on over 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy nominations. In the 2009 movie Angels & Demons (film) noted film composer Hans Zimmer incorporated the Introitus opening of Lux Aeterna for the final scene.

Ten All-Lauridsen CDs:

Numerous additional national and international CD and LP recordings of Lauridsen compositions. Following is a sampling of these recordings:

Sheet music sales and performances[link]

Morten Lauridsen is currently one of America’s most performed composers,^[16] with hundreds of performances each year throughout the world in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Vatican, Sydney Opera House and Westminster Abbey. Over one million copies of his scores have been sold and his Dirait-on, O Magnum Mysterium and O Nata Lux have become the all-time best selling octavos distributed by the Theodore Presser Co., in business since 1783.

Recordings of Morten Lauridsen’s compositions are featured regularly on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, and he is a frequent interview guest on radio and television programs, including a recent KCET “Life and Times” program, the oft- repeated national broadcast of “A Portrait of Morten Lauridsen” on the “First Art” and a nationally-broadcast, Christmas day feature on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” with Scott Simon. He has been profiled in several extended printed articles, including those in the Los Angeles Times “Calendar,” Seattle Times, Choral Journal, Choir and Organ, Chorus America’s “Voice”, Fanfare Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. He has received over four hundred commission requests, most recently from Harvard University, the American Choral Director’s Association and the Pacific Chorale, and is a frequent guest lecturer and Artist/Composer-in-Residence.

His principal publishers are Peermusic (New York/Hamburg) and Peer's affiliate, Faber Music (London).

Teaching life[link]

In addiiton to these positions, Lauridsen has served as Artistic Advisor on the Boards of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Dale Warland Singers, I Cantori (New York), USC Scoring for Films/TV Program, National Children’s Chorus, Creative Kids Education Foundation, Volti (San Francisco Chamber Singers), New York City Master Chorale, Jacaranda, and Angeles Chorale.

Residencies/Guest lectureships[link]

In offering residencies for choral singers and composition students, Lauridsen has travelled extensively throughout America, also with visits to the UK and Europe over the years. These residencies have included the following schools and choral organizations.

Awards, prizes, commissions and honorary degrees[link]

Recipient, 2007 National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony “for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power, and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide.” Designated an “American Choral Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts, 2006; National Endowment for the Arts Meet the Composer Grant;

In 2007, he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Aberdeen - founded in 1495 and one of the United Kingdom's oldest universities - for services to choral music. In 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey during a concert in his name. Under instruction of Z. Randall Stroope, The Rowan University Concert Choir performed a number of Lauridsen's works, several of which were accompanied by the composer. University faculty Marian Stieber and Jon Garrison performed "A Winter Come", also accompanied by Lauridsen. In 2011 he received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Oklahoma State University, and in 2012 a Doctor of Music Degree from Westminster Choir College.^[17]

Articles by the composer[link]

“It’s a Still Life That Runs Deep: The Influence of Zurbaran’s Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose on Morten Lauridsen’s Composition O Magnum Mysterium,” Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2009

Forward to the book, Evoking Sound, by James Jordan, GIA Publications, 2009

“Morten Lauridsen on Composing Choral Music,” a chapter in the book Contemporary Choral Music Composers, GIA Publications, 2007

Liner notes for the CD “Randall Thompson—The Peaceable Kingdom,” Schola Cantorum of Oxford, Hyperion Records

“Remembering Halsey Stevens,” National Association of Composer Journal, 1990

References[link]