''Lux Aurumque'' ("Light and Gold", sometimes "Light of Gold") is a choral composition in one

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. ...

. It is a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

piece based on a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

poem of the same name, which translates as "Light, warm and heavy as pure gold, and the angels sing softly to the new born babe". In 2000, Whitacre set a short Latin text for mixed choir

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

. In 2005, he wrote an arrangement for

wind ensemble A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...

. The choral version became known through Whitacre's project Virtual Choir in 2009. The piece is also available for

men's choir A men's chorus or male voice choir (MVC) (German: ''Männerchor''), is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose music is typically arranged into high and low tenors (1st and 2nd tenor), and high and low bass ...

. A performance takes about four minutes.

History

The inspiration for the work was a short poem in English, "Light and Gold", which begins with the word "Light" and ends "angels sing softly to the new-born babe".

Charles Anthony Silvestri Charles Anthony "Tony" Silvestri (born 1965) is an American poet and lyricist, and a lecturer in history at Washburn University. Early life and education Silvestri was born in Las Vegas in 1965. He studied ancient and medieval history at Loyola Ma ...

translated this text into Latin for Whitacre, and attempted to render "the original poem into Latin as singably and as sonically beautifully as I could". The poem is attributed to Edward Esch, described by Whitacre as "a recluse, in the truest sense of the word … born sometime in the early '70s, but rarely making a public appearance". Esch is also credited with the words of Whitacre's work ''Winter''. It has been suggested that Esch is a pseudonym of Eric Whitacre, whose son is named Esch Edward Whitacre. The piece was composed in 2000 on a commission from the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and dedicated to

Jo-Michael Scheibe Jo-Michael Scheibe (born 1950) was the former chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Following an unplanned and unannounced sabbatical in Fall of 2022, Scheibe r ...

. It was published by Walton Music in 2001. In 2005, Whitacre adapted it for wind band, a version first performed at the annual conference of the

Texas Music Educators Association The Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) is an organization of over 12,000 Texas school music educators. Its stated goals are to provide professional growth opportunities, to encourage interaction among music education professionals, to foste ...

and dedicated to Gary Green. He also arranged it for men's choir. The version for mixed choir is part of Whitacre's project Virtual Choir. The video as a mix of individual recordings by 185 singers from 12 countries caused "a colossal on-line rush in interest" when it was uploaded in 2011. It had been viewed on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

more than 6.7 million times as of December 2021.

Music

The work in 48 measures is written in

C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major. The C natural minor scale is: : Cha ...

and marked ''

Adagio Adagio (Italian for 'slowly', ) may refer to: Music * Adagio, a Tempo#Basic tempo markings, tempo marking, indicating that music is to be played slowly, or a composition intended to be played in this manner * Adagio (band), a French progressive m ...

, Molto

legato In music performance and notation, legato (; Italian for "tied together"; French ''lié''; German ''gebunden'') indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, the player makes a transition from note to note wit ...

''. It is set for

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

; all parts are divided in two for most of the time, a solo soprano is employed in measures 5 to 7, and the soprano is divided in three parts beginning in measure 34. The composer writes in the printed score: "... if the tight

harmonies In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However, ...

are carefully tuned and balanced they will shimmer and glow". Differently from other works of the composer, the piece is suitable for

church service A church service (or a service of worship) is a formalized period of Christian communal worship, often held in a church building. It often but not exclusively occurs on Sunday, or Saturday in the case of those churches practicing seventh-day Sa ...

s, especially for Christmas. Whitacre's music has been described as "softly spoken, deeply harmonic and tuneful, but making use of unusual rhythms and sound balancing to create highly textured music". Whitacre used the two initial chords of the conclusion of ''

Passio In Christian music, a Passion is a setting of the Passion of Christ. Liturgically, most Passions were intended to be performed as part of church services in the Holy Week. Passion settings developed from Medieval intoned readings of the Gospe ...

'' by Estonian composer

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

(''Qui passus es'') for the final word ''natum'' (''new-born'') and thus linking birth and death of Christ to

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

References

External links

Lux Aurumque

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

*
On Eric Whitacre’s ‘Lux Aurumque’…
phillipcooke.com
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir – 'Lux Aurumque'

2010
Lux Aurumque
virtual choir, karmatube.org
Eric Whitacre’s YouTube Choir Does 'Lux Aurumque'
synthtopia.com 2010 * David Vernier
Whitacre: Light & Gold/Whitacre
classicstoday.com 2010 * Andy Gil

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

17 October 2010 *

Fiona Maddocks Fiona Maddocks is a British music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "one of the UK's leading writers and commentators on classical music", Maddocks has been chief music critic of ''The Observer'' since 2010. She ...

Eric Whitacre: Light & Gold – review

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

17 October 2010
Album of the Week / Eric Whitacre's 'Light and Gold'
WQXR 10 April 2011 {{italic title Compositions by Eric Whitacre Contemporary classical compositions Choral compositions 2000 compositions Compositions in C-sharp minor Christmas music Concert band pieces