Taylor Johnson, BA A Thesis In Music Theory Submitted to ...

An Analysis of Text Setting in Selected A Cappella Choral Works of Eric Whitacre

by

Taylor Johnson, BA

A Thesis

In

Music Theory

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of

Master of Music

Approved

Dr. Michael Berry, Committee Chair

Dr. Peter Martens

Dr. John Hollins

Fred Hartmeister Dean of the Graduate School

May, 2009

Texas Tech University, Taylor Johnson, May 2009

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Table of Contents

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….iii List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………….iv Chapter I. Introduction…………….……………………………………………………………...1 II. When David Heard…………….……………………………………………………16 III. Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine…………….…………………………..35 IV. A Boy and a Girl……………..……………………………………………………..55 V. Conclusion and Directions for Further Research…………….…………………...73 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………..76


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Abstract

This thesis examines three a cappella choral works by Eric Whitacre, When David Heard,

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, and A Boy and a Girl, from both a musical and

narrative perspective. Each piece is analyzed using internal framing, structural downbeat,

and text painting, and how all of these devices combine to accentuate the narrative

archetype of the chosen text.


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List of Tables

1.1 Rhythmic Form Symbology .......................................................................13 2.1 When David Heard Form Chart .................................................................31 2.2 When David Heard Structural Chart ..........................................................31 3.1 Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Form Chart ..............................37 3.2 Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Detailed Form Chart ...............40 3.3 Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Structural Chart .......................52 4.1 A Boy and a Girl Form Chart .....................................................................56 4.2 A Boy and a Girl Tertian/Set Class Chart ..................................................58 4.3 A Boy and a Girl Coda/Verse 1 Comparison Chart ...................................71 4.4 A Boy and a Girl Structural Chart ..............................................................72


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Chapter 1

Introduction

Within the last several years, Eric Whitacre has emerged as a prominent voice in

modern American choral composing. His music is performed by high school, university,

and professional ensembles around the world. He is known for a unique harmonic style,

using primarily triadic harmony in nonfunctional ways with non-triadic notes added for

color. He is also known for expressive text setting, letting the music depict, if not

enhance, the story of text. I believe that it is this textual aspect that drives Whitacre’s

compositional process and allows his pieces to be cohesive without operating within a

diatonic framework. There is little scholarly work available on Whitacre’s music, and this

thesis will add to that very limited repertory. I will examine three of Whitacre’s a

cappella choral works—When David Heard, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine,

and A Boy and a Girl—in order to discover how the musical structures reflect the

narrative of the text because his musical language can prove difficult to the performer,

conductor and theorist.

Eric Whitacre was born in 1970, and went through life with no formal training in

music before his undergraduate studies at University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Whitacre

went on to earn a Master’s degree in Music at the Juilliard School where he studied

composition with Pulitzer Prize- and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano. Eric


2

Whitacre currently lives in Los Angles, California with his wife, soprano Hila Pittman,

and their son.1

I have performed many of Eric Whitacre’s choral works with my high school,

undergraduate, and graduate choral ensembles. This experience led me to believe that the

narratives of the texts Whitacre chooses for his compositions are the driving force behind

the musical content of his pieces. In his session at the 2008 conference for the Texas

Music Educators Association, Whitacre discussed his compositional process and

confirmed some insights I had gained into his compositional process from performing his

works. First he confirmed that the text is one of the most important factors when he

approaches a new project. It is not the only thing he considers, however. He also

mentioned that whenever he begins a new piece, he thinks of his mother. Whitacre’s

mother, as he related, has no formal musical training, and no understanding of thematic

development and musical form. Because of this, he always presents a specific musical

idea in the opening measures of his pieces that he will then reuse in some way at least

once later in the piece. This repetition or slight alteration of a distinctive musical idea

allows his mother to hear and understand, at least on the most basic level, the form of the

piece of music.

1 All of the biographical information can be found on Eric Whitacre’s website, www.ericwhitacre.com. [accessed on February 27, 2009].

http://www.ericwhitacre.com/


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Theoretical Approaches—Eric Whitacre

Very little work has been done on Eric Whitacre’s approach to text setting. In

order to investigate how other contemporary composers set English texts, I examined

several sources that treat that topic in detail.

Andrew Lloyd Larson’s dissertation “Textural and Harmonic Density in Selected

Choral Works (1992-2003) by Eric Whitacre,” was the only scholarly work written on the

music of Eric Whitacre at the time this paper was written. For this reason, it was a very

helpful source for biographical information and for insight into the music. Although

Larson looked at Whitacre’s music from a textural and voice-leading standpoint, his

chapter on harmonic organization, chapter 4, is relevant to the present undertaking. He

asserts that Whitacre doesn’t approach his music from a harmonic perspective, but from a

more linear, melodic, text-driven approach. This ties in with the present project in the

sense that this linear, melodic approach allows the music to be bent to the will of text. In

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, for instance, many sections have musical

material derived entirely from text painting. Larson does very little analysis on the

specific relations between the text and the music, though, focusing more on voice leading

of each voice part.

Theoretical Approaches—Textual Treatment

In his dissertation, “Aspects of Textual Treatment in Benjamin Britten’s

Unaccompanied Choral Music,” Douglas L. Jones analyzes four unaccompanied works

by Britten on the basis of the text setting. Jones demonstrates Britten’s technique of

taking each piece as a separate entity, doing so even with movements in a larger work, as


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in Five Flower Songs. Each analysis is concise, pointing out only those musical moments

that have direct relevance on the subject of text setting. For example, he points out that

Marsh Flowers “opens with a strong fp gesture sung in unison octaves, which draws the

listener’s attention to the word ‘here.’”2 Jones then discusses how Britten uses this figure

to create cohesion later in the piece:

A similar gesture is sung to the text “Here the dull nightshade / hangs her deadly fruit…” in the next phrase of music, which begins in bar 4. The word “here” is once again assigned a fp, but in this instance, the sopranos and tenors take up the melody in F major. In the very next bar, the note Db in the soprano and tenor lines accentuates the word “hangs” in an adroit moment of text-painting.3

Jones does not, however, provide a measure-by-measure analysis, trying to explain every

musical gesture as being guided by the text. This allows him to take in more over-

arching instances of text painting without getting lost in each individual measure, as seen

above.

In her article “Aspects of Narrativity and Temporality in Britten’s Winter Words,”

Annabelle Paetsch examines Britten’s setting of Thomas Hardy poetry in his song cycle

Winter Words. The interesting thing about this cycle, with respect to narrativity, is that it

lacks any over-arching plot or any specific narrator or characters. Britten arranged the

songs in order to relate them to the “central theme…the loss of childlike innocence as

2 Douglas Jones, Aspects of textual treatment in Benjamin Britten’s unaccompanied choral music with commentary on the history and meaning of the text (Ann Arbor: UMI, 2000). 3 Jones, 110.


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adult consciousness develops.”4 Britten develops this theme by letting it be “seen from

many disparate points of view rather than by progressive sequential development.”5

Although, as mentioned earlier, there is no official narrator, each piece could be seen as

being narrated by a figurative adult. It is this adult that is looking back on each event,

represented by each piece, and viewing it not only from his own mature perspective, but

also trying to put himself into the mind of a child and view the event through those eyes.

This shift from adult to child, from past perspective to present perspective, is what

Paetsch refers to as the temporality of the cycle. It is this temporal aspect that Britten’s

musical settings are designed to reflect. For example, in the first song of the cycle, “At

Day-Close in November,” Hardy describes a nature scene, as viewed from the eyes of the

adult narrator and from the eyes of a child. The piece opens from the perspective of the

child, full of innocence and hope. Britten uses a tonally complex setting here, “as if

Britten is preparing the listener for the ironic twist when the vivid yellow beech leaves

are sardonically perceived as specks in the eye.”6

In his article “Britten and Shakespeare: Dramatic and Musical Cohesion in ‘A

Midsummer Night’s Dream’,” Mervyn Cooke examines Britten’s opera based on the

Shakespearian play to see how the music helps provide continuity to both the plot and the

form of the opera. Britten achieves this by using both large-scale and small-scale musical

ideas. Britten used many different musical and textual devices to create continuity in his

opera. In Act I, Britten actually alters the original play in order to create a symmetrical

4 Annabelle Paetsch, “Aspects of Narrativity and Temporality in Britten’s ‘Winter Words’,” Music and Letters Vol. 1, No. 4 (1998): 539. 5 Paetsch, 539. 6 Paetsch, 541.


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division to his Act I. This allows the music of Act I to reinforce the structure of the act

itself. Act II is unified solely by musical devices, as opposed to the textual-musical

unification of Act I. This contrast between Act I and Act II is shown in the Figure 1.1

below.7

7Mervyn Cooke, “Britten and Shakespeare: Dramatic and Musical Cohesion in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’,” Music and Letters Vol 74, No 2 (1993): 252.


Figure 1.1: Britten Form Chart

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Act III is similar to Act II in its textual arrangement, but Act III lacks any musical

cohesion, allowing it to form a stark contrast to Act II. This is designed to “highlight the

stark contrast between the enchantment of Acts I and II and the normality of life at

Theseus’s court.”8 This shows the large-scale musical cohesion and narrativity of the

opera. Britten also used smaller musical ideas to create cohesion.

In Act I, Britten uses ritornello passages to connect the different events of the act.

This not only provides cohesion for Act I, but these passages introduce musical ideas that

become important later in Acts II and III. This is very similar to the opening theme idea

that Whitacre uses in his choral music. It may not be of obvious importance when it

happens at the beginning of the piece, but it will show its importance by reappearing later

in the piece.

Britten uses sequential chord progressions, moving triads up by various intervals,

“of particular significance are the juxtaposition of roots a semitone or major third apart.”9

These intervals appear often as both sequential and melodic devices. This recurrence of

certain intervals allows Britten to create continuity on a small scale.

This article provided excellent direction for me in my analyses of Whitacre. Of

particular help was the discussion of Britten’s large-scale formal continuity. Whitacre

uses small motives often to create continuity, sometimes no larger than a single interval.

His large-scale forms, on the other hand, are sometimes hard to see, with sections

blurring together. The multi-section musical analysis seen here between the acts proved

invaluable in my analyses.

8 Cooke, 253. 9 Cooke, 260.


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Theoretical Approaches—Internal Framing

In his book Musical Form and Musical Performance, Edward T. Cone presents

two theoretical ideas that are essential to this thesis: the ideas of musical framing and

structural downbeat. Cone begins the discussion of musical framing by discussing how

the silence before and after a musical performance serves to separate the performance

from the time, and even reality, before and after it, just as a literal frame separates a piece

of art from the wall around it. It is also possible, even essential, to think about whether

the piece actually begins at measure one and ends at the double bar, whether we see all or

only part of the musical world of that piece. The same analogy is drawn to art, and also

literature: even though we see the framed portion of a landscape, it is implied that the

scene did in fact extend beyond the borders imposed by the artist. In a novel, one tends to

wonder what happens to characters before and after the plot begins and ends: how did

they get there? What happens to them now?

Cone takes the idea one step further by positing that even within a given piece of

music there can be internal frames created by introduction and coda. Cone states, “Just as

silence can be forced to become part of the music it surrounds, so occasionally the

extremes of a composition become separated from the body of the work in such a way

that they act as what we might call internal frames.”10 This idea of internal frames is

inherent in every one of Whitacre’s compositions by his own admission.11 At the Texas

Music Educator’s Conference, Whitacre discussed how he includes a musical idea in the

beginning of each of his pieces that he will then use, either in exact repetition or

10 Edward T. Cone, Musical Form and Musical Performance (New York: W. W. Norton, 1968). 11 TMEA Session with Whitacre, February 2008


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modified, later in the piece. This is almost the exact idea of internal framing, and forms

the basis for understanding form in Whitacre’s pieces. The beginning of each piece

always relates to later musical material. The ending may or may not, but always serves a

role in the narrative of the piece. Even this falls in line with Cone’s ideas, as he states,

“Framing codas are especially rare…”12 and “Frame-like introductions are more

frequent.”13 How Whitacre handles the opening and closing frames in each piece will be

discussed in detail below.

Schumann’s “Am Leuchtenden Sommermorgen” from the song cycle

Dichterliebe provides a familiar example that can be used to illustrate framing. Example

1.1 contains the opening four measures of the piece.

12 Cone, 22. 13 Ibid.


Example 1.1: Schumann, Am Leuchtenden Sommermorgen, mm. 1-4

The piece begins with what appears to be a dominant-seventh harmony in the key of C-

flat, but rather that resolving to the tonic, Schumann resolves the chord as a German

augmented-sixth chord: it resolves through a cadential six-four chord to a dominant

seventh and ultimately to the tonic, B-flat. Because this piece begins with an ambiguous

harmony, either dominant seventh or German augmented sixth, and because Schumann

resolves that harmony deceptively, as a German augmented sixth and not a dominant

seventh, we are forced to consider how and when the piece actually begins. We can

perhaps imagine that the piece began some time before we heard it, and that we have

arrived in medias res, since the first sound we hear is an unstable one. In that case, we

would say that the opening frame lies outside of the beginning of the piece. Alternatively,

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le

a

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e

he

the opening instability could be seen as the frame itself. If we privilege this hearing, then

the piece does not actually “start” until the root-position tonic chord in m. 2.

Cone also presents the idea of the structural downbeat, which he defines as

“…one of those important points of simultaneous harmonic and rhythmic arrival.”14

Cone believes that musical form is determined by rhythm, as opposed to phrasing or

harmonic structure. This moment of harmonic and rhythmic arrival is what most peop

would consider the climax of a piece, a moment “that is so powerful that retrospectively

it turns what precedes it into its own upbeat.”15 The structural downbeat is not necessarily

at the end of a piece, as Cone argues: “A completely unified composition could then

constitute a single huge rhythmic impulse, completed at the final cadence. This does not

necessarily mean, of course, the final chord. The ultimate resolution often requires

feminine ending—sometimes quite extended—as a way of discharging its momentum.”

Since Whitacre is such a text-driven composer, I believe that his structural downbeats ar

the simultaneous harmonic and rhythmic arrival, but it also includes the arrival of t

narrative climax.

To designate the different parts of the rhythmic form, Cone uses the symbols17 in

Table 1.1:

14 Cone, 24. 15 Cone, 25. 16 Cone, 26. 17 Cone, 27.


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Table 1.1: Rhythmic Form Symbology18

Symbol Meaning

/ Initial Downbeat

∪ Period of Motion

\ Cadential Downbeat

Preliminary Anacrusis

Feminine Ending

Each of these symbols can apply to the pieces analyzed in this thesis, but each will apply

in a slightly different way, depending on the use of the opening and closing frame in each

piece.

I strongly believe that these two ideas, internal musical framing and the structural

downbeat, are vital to the understanding of the form of Whitacre’s music. However, both

of these ideas are still subservient to the text of each piece, and are used to best portray

the narrative of the given text of a piece.

Theoretical Approaches—Narrative Archetypes

The narratives of each piece will be discussed in terms of their narrative archetype

as defined by Byron Almén in his article “Narrative Archetypes: A Critique, Theory, and

18 These are not the exact symbols found in Cone’s book, but they are equivalent in meaning and use to those found in the book.


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Method of Narrative Analysis.”19 Almén broaches the subject of independent musical

narrative, which many theorists in the past have disregarded Citing the work of Liszka,

Almén argues that music can have a narrative in a general sense; it is possible for a

composition to fall under a broad archetype and not a specific story.

Music narrative is the process through which the listener perceives and tracks a culturally significant transvaluation of hierarchical relationships within a temporal span. A piece’s initial network of hierarchical relationships possesses a certain positive or negative cultural value and the subsequent changes in these relationships instigate a crisis that will be resolved in a manner either acceptable or unacceptable to the culturally informed listener.”20

Almén combines the work of Liska with that of Frye to create four narrative archetypes:

Comedy, Romance, Irony, and Tragedy.21 Romance is “a victory of a desired order over

an undesired transgression or opposition.”22 Tragedy is “the failure of a desired

transgression (or an exercise of freedom) against a restrictive or undesired order.”23 Irony

is “the suppression or removal of a pre-existent order, resulting in an undesirable

condition, whether chaos or a differently valued order.”24 Finally, the Comic archetype is

“the emergence of a new desired order (through a transgressive act) out of an undesired

one.”25 The pieces examined in this thesis fall under one of these four archetypes, and

each chapter will examine how the musical material, internal framing, and structural

19 Byron Almén, “Narrative Archetypes: A Critique, Theory, and Method of Narrative Analysis,” Journal of Music Theory Vol. 47 No. 1 (2003): 12 20 Almén 12. 21 Almén 15. 22 Almén 29. 23 Ibid. 24 Almén 30. 25 Ibid.


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downbeat are used to portray the archetype of each piece. In a piece of music,

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony for example, the mode shift from C Major to C Minor

could be seen as the triumph of a desirable order over an undesirable one, producing the

Romance archetype.

The next three chapters will each deal with the specific pieces. Chapter 2 will deal

with When David Heard. In this piece, Whitacre uses a biblical text that falls under the

narrative archetype of Tragedy. Chapter 3 examines Leonardo Dreams of His Flying

Machine, in which Whitacre uses an original text from poet Charles Anthony Silvestri

that falls under the narrative archetype of Romance. Chapter 4 examines A Boy and a

Girl, in which Whitacre sets a poem by Octavio Paz that falls under the narrative

archetype of Irony. Chapter 5 will conclude the thesis and provide directions for further

research.


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Chapter 2

When David Heard

As we have seen, composers who set English texts tend to bend the musical

material to fit the text (Cooke 1993, Jones 2000, Paetsch 1998). This results in a very

pragmatic system of composition where conventional strategies of musical organization

might be downplayed or abandoned altogether. In this chapter, I examine When David

Heard in order to find out how the text dictates the musical structure. When David Heard

was published in 2000 and is written for SSAATTBB chorus with a text taken from II

Samuel 18:33.

The piece has a very distinct opening (measures 1-19) and closing (195-214),

section, both of which contrast heavily with the body of the piece. The complete text of

the work appears in Figure 2.1. Whitacre includes nearly the entire text in the opening

and closing sections. The opening and closing sections are primarily homophonic and

homorhythmic and feature syllabic text setting. The expansive middle section includes

only the words “(O) My son” and “Absalom.” The middle section of the piece is very

linear, with large leaps, duple against triple rhythm, and melismatic text setting.

When David heard that Absalom was slain he went up into his chamber over the gate and wept and thus he said, “My son, my son! Would God I had died for thee.26

The story of When David Heard fits into the archetype of Tragedy. The Tragedy

archetype is one that “depicts the failure of a desired transgression (or an exercise of

26 When David Heard complete text


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freedom) against a restrictive or undesired order.”27 In this specific narrative, the desired

“exercise of freedom” is David’s desire to meet his son again and try to reconcile their

differences. Absalom’s murder by David’s generals is the failure of this desire and the

undesired order of unreconciled differences between father and son remains. This is the

narrative of the text, which is presented almost in its entirety in the opening frame, and

then restated in the closing frame. The true narrative of this piece is not necessarily the

story, but the grief that it evokes. That is what the body of the piece serves to accentuate

to the audience.

The opening of the piece appears in Example 2.1. This opening section is

unmetered and marked “recitativo,” both of which encourage considerable rhythmic

flexibility. Whitacre uses breves to indicate “reciting tones,” where text is performed with

natural speaking rhythms (“When David heard”; “up into his chamber over the”). These

freer sections contrast with the setting of “that Absalom was slain he went,” which is

notated rhythmically but not metrically. The rhythmic notation calls attention to the fact

that in these passages the voices change pitches. One cannot know for sure, but it is likely

that Whitacre set these notes rhythmically to prepare and guide the singers through their

note changes.

27 Almen, 29.


Example 2.1: When David Heard Opening; set classes applied to vertical sonorities

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Harmonically, Whitacre chooses chords predominantly from the white-note

diatonic collection. The piece begins with a somber A-minor harmony. The second chord

we hear is a member of set class (0158): it contains G, B, E, and C. We can understand

the C and the E as tones retained from the previous chord; we can understand the G and B

as passing or neighboring notes. The B is a lower neighbor to the first chord’s C; the G is

a passing tone in the bass between A and F. The final harmony is an instance of set class

(01358). Here, Whitacre realizes the chord as a root-position F-major triad with an added


G juxtaposed with a root-position C-major triad with an added F as seen in the lower and

upper two staves respectively. This is followed by a brief F-major triad, (037), which

leads to (02357) realized as a d-minor triad with an added E and G.

Measure 2 is also without a time signature; this first phrase of text concludes on

an F-major harmony in m. 3. Following that, the sopranos enter in a new register, singing

the words “My son” to a repeated A4. At this point, Whitacre introduces a time signature,

4/4, and has the sopranos singing a dotted half note followed by a quarter note. Example

2.2 contains mm. 5-8 of the score.

Example 2.2: When David Heard, mm. 5-8; Soprano repeated A

This monotonous repetition of the same text on the same note musically portrays a sort of

obsession. The rest of the choir gradually joins the sopranos, and the sonority that we

finally hear in m. 19 is a fortissimo cluster of all of the pitches in the one-flat diatonic

collection, as shown in Example 2.3.

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Example 2.3a: When David Heard, mm. 9-19; preview of Strutcural Downbeat build-up

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Example 2.3b: When David Heard, mm. 9-19; preview of Strutcural Downbeat build-up

It is this section, measures 1-19, that serves as the opening frame of the piece.

The opening frame uses two different pitch collections, the white-note collection in

measures 1-8, and the one-flat diatonic collection in measures 9-19. These are the two

different collections that Whitacre uses for the main body of the piece. In fact, it is the

shift from the white-note collection to the one-flat collection that marks the transition

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from the A section of the body to the B section. Measures 9-19 are also a preview of the

build-up to the structural downbeat later in the piece.

Of particular interest with the opening frame is that it has a parallel closing frame

in measures 195-214. Musically, the closing frame is also unmetered and marked

“recititavo” just like the opening frame. The vocal lines are written on breves for

sustained notes and given rhythmic notation for the sections in which the pitches change.

The closing frame stays entirely in the white-note diatonic collection and does not

contain the structural downbeat preview in the one-flat diatonic collection that the

opening frame does. The closing frame serves to summarize the story that has taken

place in the piece, to remind the audience of the story they just heard.

If the opening and closing frames present the text of the piece almost in its

entirety, then what purpose do mm. 20-194, the vast majority of the piece, serve? The

frames may present the story, but it is the grief that King David experiences that the piece

is designed to portray. The back-story to this text establishes, enhances, and literally

frames the grief embodied in the text. David was king of the Israelite people, and his son

Absalom led a military rebellion against him. David sent his forces out to defend the city

of Jerusalem, but ordered his generals not to harm his son Absalom and bring him back

alive so David could reconcile the differences between them. As the battle ensues, the

generals find Absalom, but kill him against David’s direct orders. They send a

messenger loyal to them back to the palace to tell the King that Absalom was killed in the

chaos of battle. A loyal servant of David’s sees what happened and hurries back to the

palace before the other messenger to tell David the truth of what happened. It is here that

Whitacre picks up the story in the piece.


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By setting a text that is a small part of a larger story, Whitacre introduces a kind

of narrative framing. Just as the Schumann example in Chapter 1 shows us that a piece

of music can be seen as simply a snapshot of a larger musical spectrum, so the text of

When David Heard can be seen as a snapshot of a larger narrative spectrum. This gives

the opening and closing frame another function in this piece. Musically, they the musical

opening and closing frame in which Whitacre introduces musical material that will be

used later in the piece. They also serve as narrative opening and closing frames that serve

to provide a frame of reference in the larger narrative spectrum so that the listener can

understand why David is experiencing the grief presented in the body.

Except for the structural downbeat itself, the main body of the piece uses only two

text phrases, “o my son” (which will be referred to as X for the rest of this chapter) and

“o Absalom” (which will be referred to as Y for the rest of this chapter). The phrase

“would God I had died for thee” (which will be referred to as Z for the rest of this

chapter) only appears once as the structural downbeat. It is the body of the piece in

which the grief of the story is truly explored ad developed, and this is created in large part

by Whitacre’s treatment of these two text phrases X and Y. In measures 20-88 of the

body, X and Y are rarely sung at the same time in complete rhythmic unity. They are

either sung at the same time which obscures the text, as shown in Example 2.4; or all of

the voices sing X or Y in unison, but with duple settings conflicting with triple settings,

or one voice is rhythmically displaced from the others, as shown in Examples 2.5 and 2.6

respectively.


Example 2.4: When David Heard, mm. 31-34; different text presented simultaneously

Example 2.5: When David Heard, mm. 46-48; same text presented with duple against triple metrical groupings

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Example 2.6: When David Heard, mm. 74-78; same text with one voice rhythmically displaced

The two text phrases also occur with almost the same frequency; X occurs 30

times and Y occurs 32. It should be noted that at times I counted two occurrences of X as

only one because at times the two-syllable “my son” happened twice against one four-

syllable “o Absalom.” Even though X happened twice, it acts as one contrast to Y. These

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two ideas, X and Y, represent the two sides of the coin of David’s grief. On one side,

David is experiencing the grief of losing his son, an idealized image of what a son is.

This ideal represents the continuation of his family, of his name, and the loss of this

person represents a loss of part of himself. The other side of the coin is the specific loss

of Absalom. Absalom is the estranged son, the one with whom David wanted desperately

to reconcile. However, Absalom is also the person that led a military revolt against him, a

person that threatened the lives of the people in David’s kingdom. It is these two images

of his son that David is struggling with in the contrast between A and B.

I believe this equal contrast of X and Y creates the A section of the body,

depicting David’s grief, confusion, and frustration of trying to reconcile two separate

ideas of this event: the death of Absalom and the death of his son. Even when one phrase

happens in unison in the voices, at least one of the parts is in triple against the duple of

the remaining voices, as was shown in Example 2.4. Given David’s emotional state, this

represents that even if one of the two ideas, X or Y, gains dominance in his mind for a

brief moment, the other idea is never completely pushed aside.

The B section of the body is comprised of measures 89-150. In this section, we

witness the victory of X over Y, of the loss of his son over the loss of Absalom. This

represents David grieving more over the loss of his idealized son over the loss of his

physical son Absalom. This is represented musically by “o Absalom” only occurring five

times in the entire B section of the piece. David is still shown to be emotionally

distraught with “o my son” still set in a duple against triple contrast.

Measure 115 brings us to the material that was previewed in the opening frame.

The only difference in the musical material is that the repeated pitch A is now found in


27

the low register of the altos instead of in the sopranos. This builds to the 17-voice cluster

that encompasses the entire one-flat diatonic collection and is repeated on “my son” in

rhythmic unison for 8 measures. A secondary build in 136 drives us directly into the

structural downbeat of measures 140-150.

There are several reasons why measures 140-150 constitute the structural

downbeat of When David Heard. First, this is the first time that both text phrases are

heard together since measure 110. Secondly, each is heard alone in complete metrical

unison with no duple against triple rhythms. X still holds dominance over Y, with X

occurring 5 times compared to Y only occurring twice, but the presence of both shows

David’s full acknowledgement of the loss he has experienced. The second reason that this

passage is the structural downbeat is that it is the only time in the entire piece that the

textual phrase Z is heard, in measures 148-150. The men’s voices are displaced one beat

later than the women’s voices, so the new text is still heard as grief-stricken due to the off

set text. The entire structural downbeat is shown below in Example 2.7.


Example 2.7a: When David Heard, mm. 140-150; Structural Downbeat

28


Example 2.7b: When David Heard, mm. 140-150; Structural Downbeat

29


Example 2.7c: When David Heard, mm. 140-150; Structural Downbeat

The remaining measures of the body, measures 151-194, constitute a coda. Here

David gives his final lament for his son, using only textual phrase X. The coda begins in

a SSATB voicing, but slowly the other voices divide and fall away: sopranos in measure

174, altos in measure 182, tenors in measure187, and basses and baritones finish the coda

in measure 194. This steady loss of voice parts represents David’s exhaustion after

30


31

working through his grief in sections A and B of the body. A chart of the form of When

David Heard is found in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: When David Heard Form Chart

Opening Frame

A Section

B Section

Structural Downbeat (in B

Section)

Coda Closing Frame

mm. 1-19 mm. 19-88

mm. 89-150

mm. 140-150 mm. 151-194

mm. 195-214

A structural diagram of When David Heard is given in Table 2.2 to show how the piece

moves toward and away from the structural downbeat.

Table 2.2: When David Heard Structural Chart

Opening Frame

A Section B Section Structural Downbeat

Coda Closing Frame

↑ / ∪ \ ∪ ↓

As mentioned before, the narrative of When David Heard falls under the

archetype of Tragedy, with the opening and closing frames presenting the story and the

body demonstrating David’s grief. Because of this, the entire piece could be compared to

a Baroque operatic recitative and aria. In a Baroque opera, the recitative is used to move

the story along, to allow the action to take place, while the aria pauses the action to

portray the emotions of the given character. The opening frame could be seen as the

recitative to this piece, giving the audience the back-story so they can then understand the

grief of the aria, or body of the work. The closing frame then reprises the story after the


32

audience has experienced the grief of David through Whitacre’s setting, giving some

perspective to what has taken place.

Along with the aforementioned duple against triple metrical conflict and displaced

texts, Whitacre also uses melodic motives to portray the grief of When David Heard.

Within the individual melodic lines of the voice parts, there is a heavy emphasis on

thirds, fourths and fifths, the consonant intervals. The melodies are characterized by

leaps of these intervals, using the intervals of seconds and sevenths to embellish these

other consonant intervals. These embellishments are shown below in Examples 2.8, 2.9,

2.10, and 2.11. In Example 2.8, we can understand the G4 acting as a passing tone

between the A4 and F5 (an F4 displaced up an octave). In Example 2.9, the second

between the G4 and A4 separates the fourths between D4-G4 and A4-D5. The second in

Example 2.10 acts as a link between the third between G5-E5 and the F5-Bb4 fifth.

Finally, in Example 2.11, we see the seconds acting as extended passing motion to fill in

the gaps of a fourth.

These motives serve two functions within the larger narrative context of the piece.

First, they serve to create a linear representation of the musical material found in the

opening and closing frames. The frames are characterized by tertian sonorities with added

notes that serve to add color and move between the different tertian sonorities. The

seconds and sevenths in the melodic motives provide links between the more tertian

intervals of thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths. These larger intervals, any interval other

than a second, are physically harder to sing, creating a very disjunct and unsettled feeling

for both the singer and the audience. This unease is used to add to the sense of grief and

loss that King David is experiencing in this piece.


Example 2.8: When David Heard, mm. 20 tenor solo; seventh used to create a disjunct melodic line

Example 2.9: When David Heard, mm. 31 altos; second connecting a third to a fourth

Example 2.10: When David Heard, mm. 41 sopranos; second connecting a third to a fifth

Example 2.11: When David Heard, mm. 136-138 soprano II; seconds filling in the steps of the fourth created by the first and last notes of the second two measures

33


34

Using these motives, along with the aforementioned musical devices of

conflicting text and conflicting metrical groupings, Whitacre creates a grief-stricken

musical setting for this tragic narrative of loss.


35

Chapter 3

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine was published in 2002 and is written for

SSATB chorus with an original text by Charles Anthony Silvestri. The text asks the

question:

What would it be like if Leonardo Da Vinci were dreaming? And more specifically, what kind of music would fill the mind of such a genius? The drama would tell the story of Leonardo being tormented by the calling of the air, tortured to such a degree that his only recourse was to solve the riddle and figure out how to fly.28

It is this drama, this internal struggle that Whitacre accentuates with his setting of the

text. The entire text of the piece is presented below in Example 3.1.

Tormented by visions of flight and falling, More wondrous and terrible each than the last, Master Leonardo imagines an engine To carry man up into the sun… And he’s dreaming the heavens call him Softly whispering their siren-song: “Leonardo, Leonardo, vieni à volare.” L’uomo colle sua congiegniate e grandi ale, Facciendo forza contro alla resistente aria. As the candles burn low he paces and writes, Releasing purchased pigeons one by one Into the golden Tuscan sunrise… And as he dreams, again the calling, The very air itself gives voice: “Leonardo, Leonardo, vieni à volare.”

28 Leonardo score notes.


36

Vicina all’ elemento del fuoco… Scratching quill on crumpled paper (Rete, canna, filo, carta.) Images of wing and frame and fabric fastened tightly …sulla suprema sottile aria. As the midnight watchtower tolls, Over rooftop, street and dome, The triumph of a human being ascending In the dreaming of a mortal man. Leonardo steels himself, Takes one last breath, and leaps… “Leonardo vieni à volare! Leonardo, sognare!29

The story of Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine fits into Almén’s narrative

archetype of Romance, which is the “victory of a desired order over an undesired

transgression or opposition.”30 In Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, the desired

order is a world in which people can fly and answer the call of the wind. This desired

order is fighting against the undesired opposition, the current world where people are

limited to travel over land and sea only. Each of the three verses of this piece builds to

the structural downbeat of the word “leaps” and its prolongation in the Flight section.

This is the moment at which the desirable gains victory over the undesirable, when Da

Vinci takes his first flight on his flying machine. Whitacre’s compositional choices, those

of text-driven melodic material in each act and Renaissance-like elements, all serve to

exemplify this archetype.

The opening frame is not comprised of a repeated harmonic, melodic, or rhythmic

figure, but by a repeated text, “Leonardo dreams of his flying machine.” It should be

29 Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine complete text 30 Almén, 29.


37

noted that even though this text is used as the opening frame of each episode, and as the

title of the piece itself, it is not in Silvestri’s libretto. Whitacre structures this piece into

three episodes, each designated by the opening frame text “Leonardo dreams of his flying

machine.” The form of the piece is given below in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Form Chart

Episode I Episode II Episode III Measures 1 – 51

Opening Frame: mm. 1-8 Measures 52 – 97

Opening Frame: mm. 52-57 Measures 98 – 154

Opening Frame: 98-101

The first opening frame, measures 1-8, does provide a preview of a musical

motive that will be used throughout the piece, that of chain suspensions. The opening

frame of Episode I is shown below in Example 3.1, with the chain suspensions occurring

between the first and second sopranos and measures 2-4.


Example 3.1: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine; Episode I Opening Frame

Leonardo Da Vinci lived from 1452-1519, which places him in the Renaissance

period of history. At this time musically, these chain suspensions were a very common 38


39

compositional device, what we refer to today as fourth-species counterpoint. Polyphony

was also the predominant musical texture of the period, and there are many instances of

polyphonic imitation in this piece, which will be discussed further below. Both of these

devices are used by Whitacre to bring the listener into the world of Leonardo, into the

historical period of the Renaissance.

In his notes for Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Whitacre says that he

and Silvestri “approached the piece as if we were writing an opera bréve.”31 With this in

mind, each of the aforementioned episodes could also be considered acts. Within each

act there are three scenes: scene one, which is the opening frame of each act; scene two,

which focuses on Leonardo himself, playing out his torment; and scene three, which

focuses on the call of the air, the voice that is acting as Leonardo’s tormentor. A more

detailed form chart which breaks down each act into its scenes, is given below in Table

3.2.

31 Leonardo score notes.


40

Table 3.2: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Detailed Form Chart

Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Opening Frame

Leonardo The Call Opening Frame

Leonardo The Call Opening Frame

Leonardo The Call/ Flight

mm. 1-8 mm. 9-30 mm. 31-51 mm. 52-57 mm. 58-80 mm. 81-97 mm. 98-102 mm. 102-115 mm. 116-154


41

Each act depicts the progression of Leonardo’s struggle with the call to enable a man fly.

Act I generally serves as an introduction, simply stating that Leonardo has begun to be

tormented by these dreams and visions of flight, and we, as the audience, first hear the

call that torments him. It is in this first Call scene that we are introduced to the Call

theme, which consists of E4 up to F4 up to Bb4 down to A4, is shown below in Example

3.2, along with its embellishments found in the first Call scene.


Example 3.2: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Call Theme

In the second act, Leonardo has moved beyond simply dreaming of flight to

actually beginning to experiment with it. He observes pigeons in flight, pondering how

their wings could be adapted to serve a human being. These experiments are set with

42


ascending scalar figures in eighth notes, followed by descending longer note values. This

passage is shown below in Example 3.3.

Example 3.3a: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Pigeons in Flight

43


Example 3.3b: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Pigeons in Flight

These ascending scales and descending leaps depict the pigeons flying away and

either landing on a distant perch or falling out of the sky in exhaustion, the two aspects of

flying that Leonardo is trying to understand. This passage is almost the entire Leonardo

44


45

scene in Act II, and is an excellent representation of Whitacre’s text-driven compositional

style: all of the musical material for the entire section is derived from text painting.

In the next scene the call continues, using musical material that foreshadows the

final call scene, the scene in which Leonardo has triumphed. The instances of “la-la-la”

from the second call scene are used in the flight section. Measures 92-97 contain chain

suspensions, as shown below in Example 3.4. These suspensions relate back to the

original opening frame, and the word “wing” is set to short ascending melodic figures,

which relate back to the pigeons a few measures earlier and forward to the flight section.


Example 3.4a: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Measures 92-97

46


Example 3.4b: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Measures 92-97

The third act opens with the opening frame, but in a different way from the

previous two. In the previous two acts, the opening frame is entirely musically separate

from the following Leonardo scene. In the third act, however, the altos begin the

Leonardo scene before the other voices have finished the opening frame. The altos begin

47


48

on the word “bong” as a representation of the “midnight watchtower tolls.” This

alteration of the relationship between the opening frame and Leonardo scene alerts the

audience to the fact that this act will be different from the previous two, and it is indeed.

It is this act in which the structural downbeat occurs, the unified climax of the music and

the story. The Leonardo-centric scene depicts the tortured genius preparing to test his

new flying machine. He is apprehensive, however, as shown by him “steeling himself”

and taking “one last breath.” This apprehension is depicted musically by the alternation

between duple and triple metrical groupings, as shown in Example 3.5 below.


Example 3.5: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Measures 107-110

49

The structural downbeat occurs in the first beat of measure 116 on the word

“leaps.” This single word represents the culmination of the entire narrative of the piece.

For three acts we have seen Leonardo growing more and more tormented by this idea of


50

flight, by this call for a man to come to the sky. He paces, thinks, experiments, sketches,

and finally leaps. This is the ultimate test of his genius, to use himself as the final

experiment; thus, this moment serves as the climax of the text, and the structural

downbeat of the piece. Even though the chord prior to “leaps” is far more dissonant and

tense, it is the release of this tension in A-major chord of leaps that represents the final

act of answering the call; the tension of the chord prior represents Leonardo’s hesitation

and nervousness, and “leaps” is him overcoming those feelings to take the leap and

answer the call. However, there is a slight problem with this musically, and that is the

final Call scene. In the score, this final scene is given a separate name, “The Flight

Section.” This section serves as a representation of the excitement Leonardo feels during

his first successful flight, the relief that he was finally able to answer the call. This

section does not contradict the structural downbeat, but in fact enhances it, spins it out.

The flight section serves to prolong the structural downbeat. Whitacre uses nonsense

syllables for the text of the Flight section. Musically, he gives this section fast, driving

rhythms, syncopation, soaring melodies and chain suspensions. The only line of actual

text Whitacre uses in this section is “Leonardo volare” which means “Leonardo fly.” This

all combines to create a very exciting section to represent Leonardo’s first flight, his

victory of the desirable order over the undesirable one. Without Leonardo’s leap of faith

this flight would never have happened, which is why leaps is the structural downbeat, and

the Flight section serves as a prolongation there of. This prolongation does not end until

measure 154, at which point the voices begin to repeat material until they eventually fade

to nothing. The men’s voices even fade to a [∫] sound to represent nothing but wind. This


51

final repetitious section is the “feminine” ending, allowing the energy of the flight section

to dissipate. A structural diagram of the piece is shown below in Table 3.3.


52

Table 3.3: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Structural Diagram

Act One Opeing Frame

Act One Leonardo

Act One Call

Act Two Opening Frame

Act Two Leonardo

Act Two Call

Act Three Opening Frame

Act Three Leonardo

Act Three “Leaps”

and Flight Section

Repetitious end of Flight

Section ↑ / ∪ ↑ / ∪ ↑ / \ ↓


Whitacre’s opening frames not only help to determine the piece’s form, they also

serve to introduce musical material that will be used later in the piece. As mentioned

before, that musical material is chain suspensions. The instances of chain suspensions

that have not already been discussed will be shown in the following examples. Example

3.6 shows chain suspensions between Alto and Soprano in measures 59-61, and a single

suspension between Soprano I and II in measure 62. Example 3.7 shows chain

suspensions between the two Soprano soloists that are then doubled by the Soprano I and

II of the chorus. Example 3.8 shows chain suspensions between Tenors and Basses. All

of these chain suspensions link back to the first opening frame, in which the Soprano I

and II have three measures of chain suspensions. This link back to the beginning helps to

provide musical continuity for Leonardo.

Example 3.6: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Measures 59-62; Soprano I

and II and Alto chain suspensions

53


Example 3.7: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Measures 147-149; Soprano

Soloists and Soprano I and II chain suspensions

Example 3.8: Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine Measure 149; Basses and Tenors chain suspensions

54


55

Chapter 4

A Boy and a Girl

A Boy and a Girl was published in 2004 and is written for a cappella SATB

chorus and is a setting of a poem by Octavio Paz. The poem tells the story of the love

between a boy and a girl, a love that grows and lasts, even until death. It is this love and

loss that Whitacre relays to the audience through his unique style.

The poem includes three verses, which appear in Example 4.1.

Stretched out, stretched out on the grass a boy and a girl savoring their oranges giving their kisses like waves exchanging foam. Stretched out, stretched out on the beach a boy and a girl savoring their limes giving their kisses like clouds exchanging foam. Stretched out, stretched out underground a boy and a girl saying nothing never kissing giving silence for silence32

The narrative of A Boy and a Girl falls under archetype of Irony, which describes

the “suppression or removal of a pre-existent order, resulting in an undesirable condition,

whether chaos or a differently-valued order.”33 One would expect a poem depicting the

death of a loving couple to fall under the archetype of Tragedy, but this poem makes

32 A Boy and a Girl complete text 33 Almén, 30.


56

more sense if understood as Irony. The love the boy and girl share, a love that grows

from verse one to verse two, is the pre-existent order described in the archetype. That

order is then removed in verse three when we discover that the boy and girl are now dead,

their relationship ended, thus creating the new undesirable condition. This removal to

create a new, undesirable world is what the sonorities Whitacre employs are designed to

accentuate. The dissonance created with these added note sonorities and unrelated tertian

chords foreshadow this victory of the undesirable over the desirable.

The exact form of the piece, including measure numbers, is shown below in Table

4.1.

Table 4.1: A Boy and a Girl, Form Chart

Verse 1 Verse 2 Verse 3 Coda mm 1-13 mm 14-27 mm 28-43 mm 44-52

The musical structure basically reflects the text. In addition, Whitacre also adds a

coda, which borrows musical material from the first verse. The coda will be addressed in

greater detail later in this chapter.

It has been discussed previously in this paper that Whitacre uses a style that is at

once very tertian and very triadic, but also uses added notes for color and relates the

triads in non-tonal ways. In his dissertation, Andrew Larson argues that Whitacre’s music

is tonal and provides roman numeral analyses to reinforce this claim. However, his

analyses contain labels that make no sense in a tonal framework. For example, he will


57

,

n

em

s

chapter.

label chords as two separate sonorities combined, such as “i+ii64”34, and he will use

labels that make little sense in a tonal framework, like “VI6”35 in a major key. A six

chord will naturally be minor (vi) in a major key and could only be major if it is a bVI

derived from modal mixture. The VI label can only be understood as a nondiatonic chord

and is best explained as a nonfunctional V/iii that does not add to a tonal framework

because of its nonfunctionality. All of these things lead me to believe that Whitacre is a

atonal, but primarily tertian, composer. A Boy and a Girl is probably the most striking

example of this: most of the vertical sonorities can be named in terms of a triad with an

added note, but they do not relate to one another in a tonal way. However, not all of th

can be easily labeled as a traditional tertian harmony. Because of this, it is possible to

discuss each sonority, not only as a triad with an added note, but also as a member of a

set class. In Table 4.2 below, each vertical sonority is listed as a set class and also by its

traditional tertian name. Example 4.1 shows these sonorities within the context of the

first verse of the piece. I believe that these sonorities are, when possible, best realized a

triads with added notes for reasons of large-scale text painting, which will be discussed

later. For ease of discussion, they will be referred to as both within this

34 Andrew Lloyd Larson, Textual and harmonic density in selected choral works (1992-2003) by Eric Whitare (Ann Arbor: UMI, 2004). 35 Larson, 84.


58

Table 4.2: A Boy and a Girl, Tertian/Set Class Chart

Tertian Label Set Class

Major triad with an added 2 (0247)

Incomplete minor-minor seventh chord (025)

Major Triad (037)

Major triad with added Lydian 4 (0137)

Major triad with added 4 (0237)

Minor triad with added 2 (0237)

Minor triad with added 4 (0247)

Quartal tetrachord (0257)

Major minor seventh chord (0258)

Major triad with added 2 and Lydian 4 (01357)

Major minor seventh chord with added 2 (02469)

Major major seventh chord with added 2 (01358)

Quintal trichord (027)


Example 4.1a: A Boy and a Girl, Verse 1; vertical sonorities labeled as set classes

59


Example 4.2b: A Boy and a Girl, Verse 1; vertical sonorities labeled as set classes

60

Each stanza of the poem begins with the words “Stretched out,” and it is this text

that Whitacre chooses to set as the opening frame. The opening frame functions as the

introduction to each new verse of text, and also the opening of the coda. He sets the

frame of each verse with a sonority based on C, Eb, and F, the qualities of which are used

to prepare the mood of each specific verse. In verses one and two, all three of the triads

are major with an added second above the root, or set class (0247). In the third verse,


however, the C and F sonorities shift from major triads with added seconds above the

root to minor triads with added seconds above the root, set class (0237), in order to

foreshadow the death of the boy and girl in verse three. The coda also begins with (0247)

based on C, Eb, and F, but since the entire coda is sung on a hum, the text of the frame is

omitted. The opening frames from verses one and two, verse three, and the coda are

shown below.

Example 4.2: A Boy and a Girl, Verse 1 and 2 opening frame

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Example 4.3: A Boy and a Girl, Verse 3 opening frame

Example 4.4: A Boy and a Girl, Coda opening frame

As mentioned earlier, the harmonic language of the piece is very tertian. Despite

this, a single tonal framework, or even a single diatonic collection cannot connect the

vertical sonorities. The triads with added notes are actually used as a form of text

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63

painting, on a level specific to the poem and also on a more general level. In Western

classical music, the triad is one of the most fundamental musical harmonies. It is this

basic sonority that is used to represent one of the most basic and primal of human

emotions, love. But Whitacre does not use pure triads: the added notes create a

dissonance in almost every chord, which taints their purity. Whitacre uses this to

possibly represent the risk one takes when he or she falls in love.

These same ideas are used to provide specific text painting in A Boy and a Girl.

Again, the triads represent their love, a love that grows from verse one to verse two. In

the third verse, however, we learn that the boy and girl have died; they are now “stretched

out underground.” Despite their love, they cannot stay together forever. This is what the

dissonances formed by the added-note sonorities throughout the piece represent and

foreshadow. This is made very apparent by examining the C and F sonorities of the

opening frame. In the frames for verses one, two, and the coda, the added pitches of D

and G form whole step dissonances against the E and A in the C and F sonorities

respectively. In the third verse, the E becomes an Eb and the A becomes an Ab in the C

and F sonority respectively in the shift from (0247) to (0237), from a major triad with an

added major second above the root to a minor triad with an added major second above the

root. This changes the dissonance from a whole step to a half step, a sound which is far

more striking. This dissonance, along with the altered quality of the C and F sonorities,

the shift from (0247) to (0237), represents the death of the boy and girl. The coda is sung

all on a hum to represent the silence that is the only thing left for the boy and girl to

exchange. One would expect that the opening frame of the coda to also contain (0237),

since the boy and girl are still dead. Despite this expectation, Whitacre reverts back to


64

(0247), and there are two reasons for this. The first is that the coda repeats selections

from the first verse, including (0247) originally found in the opening frame.

The second reason relates back to the fact that love is one of humanity’s

most enduring qualities. Despite the fact that the boy and girl are dead, their love will

live on in the memories of their friends and family. Their love will also live on at a

spiritual level that transcends the sharing of oranges and limes. On this large scale, the

piece actually departs from the narrative of the poem, that of the Irony archetype. The

poem itself ends with verse three; the coda is Whitacre’s own addition. It seems that

Whitacre has chosen to usurp the archetype and end on an idea of hope. Even though the

love of a single couple will not endure, the undesirable will defeat the desirable on a

small scale, love itself will never be defeated, and the desirable will never truly be

defeated on a large scale.

Since Whitacre set a poem that deals with love, each verse can be seen as a

separate period in the relationship between the boy and girl. The first verse represents

them at an early stage of their relationship. Dynamically, the first verse resides in the p-

mp range, reaching a climax of mf only twice, once in measure three, and again in

measure 9. The boy is portrayed as (0247), realized as an Ab-Major triad with an added

Bb, at a piano dynamic, while girl is also portrayed as (0247), but realized as an F-Major

triad with an added G, at a mezzo-piano dynamic; both the boy and girl are set to a

simple SATB voicing, as shown below in Example 4.5.


Example 4.5: A Boy and a Girl, Boy and girl in verse one

The giving of kisses is set with a single quarter note triplet in measure 9, as

shown below in Example 4.6; the triplet is a delicate rhythm, used to show the tenderness

of said kisses.

65


Example 4.6: A Boy and a Girl, Measures 8-10; kisses from Verse I

Verse two can be seen as a depiction of the evolution and maturation of their love.

This can only be understood after one examines and looks at verse one in retrospect, just

as people can only understand the evolution of their own love in hindsight. This growth

generally occurs by going through hardship in one’s relationship, an idea that is

represented, as mentioned earlier, by the added notes creating dissonances in the triads

throughout the piece. Dynamically, the second verse is much more dramatic than verse

one, residing primarily within mp-mf range, with a dynamic climax of f in measure 16.

Here, the boy is portrayed as (0237), realized as a C-Major triad with an added F, set at a

mezzo-piano dynamic, and girl is portrayed as (0247), realized as an A-Major triad with

an added B, set at a mezzo-forte dynamic. In this verse, both the boy and girl are written

in SSAATTBB voicing, as shown below in Example 4.7.

66


Example 4.7: A Boy and a Girl, Boy and girl from verse two

From verse one to verse two, the boy and girl have evolved and developed both

dynamically, as each one is one dynamic marking louder, and texturally, each having

double the voicing. The intervallic range of each has also increased. In verse one, the

boy only covered an octave and a major third, but in verse two the boy covers two

octaves and a major second. In verse one, the girl also covered a single octave plus a

major third, compared to verse two where she covers two octaves and a perfect fifth, a

much greater range. The actual sonorities, realized as triads (without their added notes),

used to represent the boy and girl in verses one and two, show the evolution of their

relationship. In verse one, the boy is realized as an Ab-Major triad with an added Bb, and

the girl is realized as an F-Major triad with an added G, two triads that are a major sixth

apart. In the second verse, the boy and girl are realized with a C-Major triad with an

added F and an A-Major triad with an added B, respectively. These two chords are also

related by a major sixth, and each is related to the respective chord from verse one by one

67


major third higher. This increased span of the chord parallels the increase in dynamic

level and voicing from verse one to verse two, all of which combine to articulate the

growth of the love between the boy and girl from verse one to verse two. The kisses they

share in verse two are more tender than in verse one, being set with two triplets as

opposed to one, as shown below in Example 4.8.

Example 4.8: A Boy and a Girl, Kisses from Verse 2

In verse three, we find that the boy and girl are now dead, the inevitable end of all

earthly relationships. As mentioned before, this is first acknowledged by the shift from

(0247) to (0237) for the C and F sonority in the opening frame of the verse. The poem

states that they are now “stretched out underground” and Whitacre depicts this with

descending melodic motives for this text. In verses one and two, the boy and girl were

stretched out on the grass and on the beach respectively, and the musical material

expanded outward both in range and dynamics, with verse two more developed than

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verse one. Verse three has all the voice parts descending into the lower parts of their

range, and decrescendoing from p to pp. Dynamically, this is the quietest of all the

verses, with the dynamic range of pp to mf, but staying around the piano range for most

of the verse. For the first time, the boy and girl are represented by musical material that

is unrecognizable as a distinct chord. The boy is represented by a F-G-A-B-C tone

cluster, set class (01357), set to a dynamic of piano, and the girl can be seen as a D-F#-A-

C-E tone cluster, which is set class (02469). The girl is set at a dynamic of piano as well,

and both the boy and girl have the voice parts in the lower part of their registers as well.

The boy and girl from verse three are shown below in Example 4.9.

Example 4.9: A Boy and a Girl, Boy and girl from verse 3

At this point in the previous two verses the boy and girl are depicted as savoring

fruit together, oranges in verse one and lime in verse two. They then kiss, and the kisses

are compared to something light and foamy, waves in verse one and clouds in verse two.

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The third verse does not follow this pattern. It is this break in the poetic form that

Whitacre chooses to make the climax of the piece. In verse three Paz writes that now the

boy and girl are “saying nothing” and “never kissing.” It could be argued that the fruit in

verses one and two could represent sweet nothings that the couple share and savor

together, which eventually lead to the kisses they give each other. In verse three, this

cannot happen, as the couple is dead. It is this idea that they will never again share an

intimate moment together that is the structural downbeat of the piece. Whitacre gives

this moment the greatest dynamic of verse three, a mezzo-forte, and the longest single

phrase of the entire piece. The sopranos and altos also have the most energetic melodies

at this point, with their parts written almost entirely in moving eighth notes. The

structural downbeat is shown below in Example 4.10.

Example 4.10: A Boy and a Girl, Structural Downbeat

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71

The last poetic phrase of the verse, “giving silence for silence” is set, except for

the pickup in measure 38, entirely without discernable triads, similar to the setting of the

boy and girl at the beginning of the verse. The word silence is set with the first syllable

on an F-major plus a C-major triad, set class (01358), and the second syllable on simply a

C-G-D trichord, set class (027). This musical material is repeated three times, with the

last time sung simply on a hum. This third iteration is the transition from verse three to

the coda, which is sung entirely on a hum. Each measure of music in the coda

corresponds to a measure of music in verse one, as shown in Table 4.3 below.

Table 4.3: A Boy and a Girl, Coda/Verse 1 comparison chart

Measure of coda Measure of verse 1

45 1

46 2

47 3

48 10

49 11 (in augmentation)

50 12 and pick up there of

51 13

52 13


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With verse three containing the structural downbeat of the piece, each verse prior,

and the coda after, can be seen as leading to and moving from this moment. Table 4.4

below provides a diagram of this motion.

Table 4.4: A Boy and a Girl, Structural Chart

Verse 1 Verse 2 Verse 3 Coda

mm. 1-13 mm. 14-27 mm. 28-43 mm. 44-52

/ ∪ \ ↓

The material repeated in the coda corresponds to the beginning and end of the

verse that was the beginning and end of the love between the boy and a girl. Despite the

fact that the coda is sung on a hum to show that the boy and girl will never experience

their love again, the fact that the music harkens back to the beginning of their love tells

the listener that love itself will endure, will begin again somewhere new with a new boy

and a new girl. Again, it is this coda that breaks free from the archetype, allowing the

listener to hope for love that will come again; the undesirable order may win the battle,

but the desirable order will win the war.


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Chapter 5

Conclusion and Directions for Further Research

Despite exhibiting a relative absence of a unifying tonal framework, Eric

Whitacre’s choral music can be understood as unique and unified through the application

of concepts such as internal framing, structural downbeat, and narrative archetypes. Such

techniques definitely provide insight into his compositional choices.. These devices are

flexible enough to adapt to each individual piece, as we saw in the three pieces analyzed

in this thesis, When David Heard, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, and A Boy

and a Girl. Each piece contained all the elements mentioned above, but each was used in

a different way to reinforce the narrative archetype and mood of the piece.

In When David Heard, Whitacre employs a distinct opening and closing frame to

set off the body of the piece in which he presents the grief associated with this tragic

narrative. Musically, Whitacre portrays grief with disjunct melodic lines, large cluster

harmonies, and duple against triple metrical groupings. The structural downbeat is set

apart from the body of the piece with unified duple metrical groupings, and it is here that

the text of the piece is finally completed.

In Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Whitacre uses text painting to create

entire scenes in this opera-bréve-like piece. Whitacre uses an opening frame of a

consistent text to begin each act, and each act brings us closer to the victory of the desired

over the undesired in this romantic archetype. This victory occurs at the structural

downbeat, where we see Leonardo taking a literal leap of faith to answer the call of the

air he has been tormented by for the entire piece. Whitacre also uses imitation and chain

suspensions to hearken the listener back to da Vinci’s Renaissance.


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In A Boy and a Girl, which is an example of the Irony archetype, Whitacre uses

an opening frame of identical text to begin each of the three verses, and uses the

sonorities of the opening frame to indicate the mood of each verse. In verses one and two

the boy and girl are in love and that loves grows. Verse three finds the boy and girl dead,

and the structural downbeat is here when we realize that they will never again share in

their love. The coda of this piece is unique of all the pieces examined in this thesis, since

Whitacre uses the coda to provide a last glimmer of hope, to suggest to the listener that

love will never die. This is contrary to the archetype, and shows that the composer is

always allowed to provide his own take on an archetypal text.

Further Research

This thesis examined only a small portion of Eric Whitacre’s a cappella choral

works, to say nothing of his accompanied choral and instrumental works. I believe that

internal framing, narrative archetypes, and a structural downbeat will be found in the

majority, if not all, of Whitacre’s choral works, but it would be worth investigating how

they are employed in each piece to gain a better understanding of his compositional style.

Whether or not his instrumental works contain these elements remains to be seen; of

particular interest would if Whitacre tries to employ narrative archetypes in his

instrumental works.

This project also bears consequence on the music of other triadic/tertian post-

tonal composers. The devices employed by Whitacre are not widely known theoretical

devices, but they allow Whitacre’s music to be understood on a deeper level, both

musically and structurally. I hope this thesis provides other theorists the motivation to


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examine other tertian post-tonal composers in nontraditional ways to help build a

repository of tools for this style of music.


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Works Cited

Almén, Byron. Spring, 2003. Narrative Archetypes: A Critique, Theory, and Method of Narrative Analysis. Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 47, No. 1: 1-39.

Cooke, Mervyn. 1993. Britten and Shakespeare: Dramatic and Musical Cohesion in

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Music and Letters, Vol. 74, No. 2: 246-68.

Cone, Edward T. 1968. Musical Form and Musical Performance. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Eric Whitacre Homepage, “Biography,” http://www.ericwhitacre.com.

Jones, Douglas Loyd. 2000. Aspects of textual treatment in Benjamin Britten’s

unaccompanied choral music with commentary on the history and meaning of the text. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International.

Larson, Andrew Lloyd. 2004. Textural and harmonic density in selected choral works

(1992-2003) by Eric Whitacre. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International.

Paetsch, Annabelle. 1998. Aspects of Narrativity and Temporality in Britten’s

‘Winter Words.’ Music and Letters, Vol. 79, No. 4: 538-54.

Whitacre, Eric. “Talk-back Session.” Session, annual meeting of the Texas Music Educators Association, San Antonio, TX, February 12-16, 2008.

Whitacre, Eric. A Boy and a Girl. Eric Whitacre, 2004. Whitacre, Eric. Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine. U.S.A.: Walton Music

Corporation, 2002. Whitacre, Eric. When David Heard. U.S.A.: Walton Music Corporation, 2000.


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