Eric Whitacre is one of the most popular and performed composers of our time, a distinguished conductor, broadcaster and

public speaker. His first album as both composer and conductor on Universal, Light & Gold, won a Grammy in 2012. His groundbreaking Virtual Choir, Lux Aurumque, received over a million views on YouTube in just 2 months, featuring 185 singers from 12 different countries. Virtual Choir 2.0, Sleep, was released in April 2011 and involved over 2,000 voices from 58 countries. Virtual Choir 3, Water Night, received 3,746 submissions from 73 counties and launched at Lincoln Center, New York and revealed online in April 2012. I have chosen to study two compositions by Whitacre: October and Equus. October is a contemporary piece for concert band written in 2000. Eric Whitacre composed October with the intention of evoking a peaceful musical representation of the month he called his favorite, and the feelings this month evoked for him. October has an introduction, four main themes, a short interlude and a final coda. A new theme is heard in measures 1930: the woodwinds continue to play, and the texture builds up progressively as the brass instruments enter. After the second theme, the first theme returns briefly, this time in tutti. The clarinets and horns play an alternating rhythm, and the bassoon and the trombone create a hocket as they play the transition to the next section. The third theme, in Amajor, is heard in measures 4065, beginning with a passage for solo euphonium accompanied by clarinets playing tremolo, muted trumpets and stopped horns. The section grows as more instruments enter, and the phrase reaches its climax with a metric modulation. Theme three is followed by a four-bar interlude in which the oboe solo that began the piece is heard once more, but this time in Bmajor. Measures 7289 present the fourth and final theme in the key of G major, again with the upper woodwinds playing first and then growing until all the instruments have entered. The first theme returns in measures 7397, played by the entire ensemble. The piece concludes with a coda from measure 98 to the end (m. 113). The horn, trombone, euphonium and trumpets, ending with a climax in G major, play a six-measure melodic hocket. October concludes with the low brass and woodwinds playing a long diminuendo into silence. October begins with the solo oboe playing an introductory melody (I) in Dmajor, consisting of eighth and quarter notes embellished by grace notes. The next melody, played by all the upper woodwinds, the tenor saxophone and the horns (II), uses a variety of intervals fourths, fifths, sevenths and an octave making it somewhat angular. The melody of theme two, played by the upper woodwinds, also uses eighth and quarter notes (III). The motion of this melody is more stepwise than the previous one. The next new melody, for solo euphonium, mixes many leaps with stepwise motion and repeated notes (IV). The melody of the interlude is a restatement of the opening melody in a different key. The final theme presents a new melody played by the flutes, clarinets and alto saxophones; it is rhythmically simpler than previous material (V). The melody in the coda is distributed among the saxophones, trombones, euphonium, and trumpet (VI). The piece begins in Dmajor with a single held note in the 1st clarinets and gentle

wind chimes underneath. The remaining clarinets join the chimes to support the oboe melody. Proceeding to the first theme, the texture becomes thicker, and the bass clarinet, bassoons, euphoniums and tubas now play the accompaniment. In theme two, the whole brass section accompanies the melody of the upper woodwinds. In the transition to theme three, the bassoons play a harmony that sets up a modulation to Amajor. In this new key and new theme, the accompaniment returns to the clarinets, which play trills. The effect depends not so much on the notes as on the contrast between the sonority of the trills and the euphonium solo. The music modulates to Bmajor, and the bassoons, euphoniums and tubas play harmonic ostinatos. All of the brass play the harmony during the fourth theme, now in G Major. In the coda, all the woodwinds play trills above the melodic brass. The piece concludes with the brass quietly playing a final G major chord.