We are LIVING IN THE FUTURE.

[icepixie]

Not only can we now print 3D objects, but someone is has figured out how to make glass objects out of sand using only solar energy. Not to mention getting a start on printing human organs from cultured cells.

Other reasons it is great to be living in the future: This person has put up nearly 200 choral, orchestral, and operatic works with the sheet music as the video part. It is WONDERFUL. Okay, the amount of Rutter* isn't wonderful, but everything else is.

Check out Whitacre's Water Night, which I have been wanting to see the sheet music for for some time. DUDE, at 3:58, there are five simultaneous notes in the soprano line alone, and three each in the other lines, for a grand total of fourteen pitches being sung at the same time, what is this MADNESS. It sounds awesome. :D

(Also: Pärt's setting of De Profundis. OH MY GOD. I am now a quivering mess on the floor. In a good way.)

Since this is turning into a music recs post anyway, have some more:

1. My Wailin' Jennys station on Pandora has seen fit, of late, to serenade me with a ton of James Taylor tracks. I am not going to complain about two of them, and they are Copperline and Carolina in My Mind. (I prefer the version of "Copperline" from the same live album as the second song, but c'est la vie.)

2. Full Sail, by Ryan Farish. A little more electronic than I've been going for lately, but very catchy.

3. More Whitacre: Go, Lovely Rose and Her Sacred Spirit Soars. I wouldn't mind just living in either one of these pieces.

4. To go back to the "living in the FUTURE!" theme for a moment: Virtual Choir 1.0 ("Lux Arumque") and Virtual Choir 2.0 ("Sleep"). It's described in the comments to the videos, but in brief: Eric Whitacre made a video of himself conducting the songs, and people all over the world watched it while filming themselves singing whatever part they sing. The magic of sound editing put them into an entire choir. That is so cool. ...If he does a 3.0, I kind of want to submit a video.


* Is it a law that everything the man composed has to sound so twee as to make me want to find the nearest cute stuffed animal and set it on fire?

Comments

[bessemerprocess]

I am just BLOWN AWAY by the virtual choir thing. So amazing.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Oh, Pärt! Have you ever heard the Te Deum? I love a lot of his stuff, but that disc (which contains more than just the Te Deum, but I tend to listen to it all at once and so it blends together in my head) is my favorite. It is amazing. I got to sing several movements of the Missa Syllabica about 9 years ago, which was pretty awesome, even if the conductor was a schmuck.

Is it a law that everything the man composed has to sound so twee as to make me want to find the nearest cute stuffed animal and set it on fire?

Probably. But dude, stay away from my teddy bear!!

[elflore.livejournal.com]

OMG, Rutter! I'd forgotten that guy, and how much I loathed singing his pieces in high school choir. I don't think he believed in vocal ranges below tenor, given the parts he wrote for basses/baritones.

[idharao.livejournal.com]

O.M.G. A Whitacre post! He's great, I love all his music. Have you sung anything by him? My favorite is "Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine." Awesome post!