''Sleep'' is a composition for

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 ...

choir by

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. ...

, with lyrics by Charles Anthony Silvestri. He composed it in 2000, setting a poem, " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. When the lyrics were found still under copyright, Whitacre won Silvestri to write new lyrics to the existing music.

History

In 1999, attorney and professional vocalist Julia Armstrong commissioned Whitacre to compose a choral composition as a memorial to her parents. She suggested the poem " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" that

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

had published in 1923, and wanted the work to be premiered by the 16-voice choral ensemble Austin ProChorus in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, being a member of the group. Whitacre set the composition for eight parts ( SSAATTBB), and it was premiered by the choir in October 2000. After the work was performed also by The Concordia Choir, conducted by

René Clausen René Clausen (born 1953) is an American composer, conductor emeritus of The Concordia Choir, and professor of music at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. His works are widely performed by high school and church choirs while his more tec ...

, and at the 2001 national convention of the American Choral Directors Association, Whitacre learned that the Frost poem was still under U.S.

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

, and he could not publish the work before the copyright expired in 2038, without the consent of the Frost literary estate, which refused to grant permission. Rather than giving up publishing the work, Whitacre asked poet and frequent collaborator Charles Anthony Silvestri (b. 1965) to write a new text which would correspond to the meter of the Frost poem and to the expressive details Whitacre had emphasized in the music. The next day Silvestri offered the poem "Sleep", taking up the theme of sleep from the last stanza of Frost's poem. Whitacre has stated that he prefers the Silvestri text over the original. Whitacre selected the piece for his "

virtual choir A virtual choir, online choir or home choir is a choir whose members do not meet physically but who work together online from separate places. Some choirs just sing for the joy of the shared experience, while others record their parts alone and se ...

" project in 2010, in which videos submitted by hundreds of volunteer singers were combined to produce a video representation of a combined performance.

Performances, recordings and arrangements

The work appears on Whitacre's 2010 album ''Light and Gold'', his first album for

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in We ...

, and the first he conducted himself, are group called the Whitacre Singers. It was recorded by Polyphony conducted by

Stephen Layton Stephen David Layton (born 23 December 1966) is an English conductor. Biography Layton was raised in Derby, where his father was a church organist. He was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and subsequently won scholarships to Eton College a ...

in a collection of choral works by Whitacre in 2005. ''Sleep'' has also been arranged for

concert band 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 ...

and

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

References

External links

* * Debbie Simons
The Story of Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep”
debisimons.com 18 February 2017 *