Isn’t it amazing how, just as the world dissolves into fractious battles and no one can seem to get along with anyone else, the Internet is bringing people together more and more? There is something so satisfying about taking the sincere, uncompensated efforts of thousands of people, and putting them together into a piece of art. Composer Eric Whitacre has done just that with his new concert piece, “Lux Aurumque.” Whitacre spoke at the TED Conference about how he came to create music that merges the voices of hundreds of strangers into a chorus of beauty.
Here’s how it works: Each person records their own part of the concert in their own country in their own home using their own equipment. No one is assigned anything – they just pick the part they want and start singing. The whole idea started when one 17-year-old girl, Britlin Losee, sent Mr. Whitacre a YouTube posting she’d made of herself singing some of his work. Whitacre was so impressed, he imagined what it would be like to have 50 people singing, then maybe hundreds, and finally thousands. A chorus of people who didn’t know one another but had that one connection – the attempt to make music.
Via YouTube, Whitacre downloaded the music and created instructions for the singers. Then the videos were edited into an amazing concert piece that is so much bigger than any individual part. Truly a work of art.
Want to see the resulting Eric’s “Water Night?” You can check it out here:
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/18/152883399/how-do-you-make-a-virtual-choir
Or go to the NPR Web site and read more about this amazing composer: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/06/135181815/theyve-never-met-but-2000-singers-perform-together?ps=rs
How do we overcome our personal animosities? Well, one way might be to concentrate on creating works of art together. When you listen to “Water Night” and see the joy of creation on the faces of all those strangers who just wanted to contribute to something bigger than themselves, you can see a potential for the future.
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