Eric Whitacre talks about Lux and When David Heard

Suite 101 interviews Eric Whitacre . . . and I discover the interesting story behind “Lux Aurumque” and the heartwrenching facts surrounding “When David Heard.”

 

A preview:

 

. . . . he said he wanted to commission a piece from me in memory of his father, who had just passed away.

He wrote me back this beautiful, beautiful e-mail, saying here’s why I chose you and here’s what my father meant to me. Somehow this piece opened up in front of me. It took me two or three weeks to really work it out and have Tony [Silvestri, Whitacre’s collaborator] translate into Latin for me.

Then I sent it to him, and never heard back from him. I still have never heard back from him. He never sent a commission, never did the performance, nothing. So I was left with this piece that I wrote.

He only had a little bit of money, but the choir was amazing, and it was going to be in this big cathedral. I wrote him back and said I was totally honored, but I’m in over my head right now. I was writing Equus also at the time. I said maybe in two years I can take this on, but just right now I can’t do it.

Read more at Suite101: Composer Eric Whitacre Talks Choral Works: The Stories Behind When David Heard, Lux Aurumque.