Whitacre – Animal Crackers
This is a piece composed by Eric Whitacre. He is by far one of the well-known living contemporary composers and is mostly known for his choral and concert band pieces. Although it is a rather short piece “Animal Crackers” is a great work for many reasons. One, it truly captures the essence of the animals he writes about. Two, the music is beautiful in itself. Why ask for more of something that is perfect the way it is?
I’ve actually had the privilege of playing a few of his pieces in the Florida Southern Symphony Band such as “Cloudburst” and “Ghost Train”. His pieces are unique in the fact that he is usually either trying to recreate a an already existing sound or such as in the case of “Animal Crackers” creating music that fits an existing thing. In “Ghost Train” he spent a lot of time and effect mimicking the sound of old trains (hence the name) and he pulled it off rather well. During the performance of Cloud Burst the band has to snap their fingers constantly for a while. When enough people are doing it (about the size of a concert band or more) it sounds remarkably like rain.
He has several other pieces that all should listen to such as “Godzilla” and “Seal Lullaby” (a newly finished piece). I encourage everyone to check out his and other composer’s music. There’s more out there than what is on the radio.
Jason Andrews is a Guitarist, Songwriter and Composer. He is the administrator for OctaveBox.com and Sym.Phonio.us and the owner of Maelstrom Melody Music Publishing and Production.
The first I ever heard of Whitacre was “October,” probably his most famous wind ensemble piece. I’m a wind doubler myself, but that piece was the first time I’d listened to a wind ensemble piece and didn’t find myself saying, “Where are the strings?”
Interesting texts by Ogden Nash. My first thought was Kipling, but I guess not.
His music is very programmatic, but this brings me back to an old argument I had with a bunch of flautists over some Ian Clarke music: when does gimmicky program music (like Whitacre’s use of snapping to create rain) become TOO gimmicky and lose integrity as a composition? Clarke is famous for flashy flute pieces, like “The Great Train Race.” However, composers and flautists alike argue about whether or not the merit in his work is all just flash and flair. Speaking specifically about “The Great Train Race,” all of us thought the piece was neat and sounded like…well, a great train race… But we all agreed that compositionally, it was pretty unsophisticated outside of trying to make a flute sound like a great train race.
I know that’s not directly related to Whitacre’s music… I guess what I’m saying is your comments on “Cloud Burst” may be more off-putting for me than encouraging. Out of pure curiosity (and fairness to him), though, I think I’m gonna go hunt down some more Whitacre and check it out for myself.
There’s a lot of pieces that are program music and will most likely not be preformed outside of that. A good example would be Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw” op.46. It’s a great piece and accomplished what it was written to do.
However, because of the nature piece and how “disturbing” it can be to some one will rarely see this piece preformed live. Unless it’s an anniversary for Schoenberg’s birth and/or death or a World War II themed program.
“Cloud Burst” and “Ghost Train” will most likely not been heard outside of high school band competitions or large public events meant to “dazzle” the general unwashed public.
Everything has its place. It was the next step in music, however short.
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