lUX aurumque “Light of Gold”

Background Information Lux Aurumque is originally a choral a capella work. This piece is based off of a poem by Edwin Esch. Commissioned for symphonic winds in 2005.

The Poem Eric Whitacre fell in love with the simplicity and elegance of Esch’s poem. He had it translated into Latin by the American poet Charles Anthony Silvetri. Light, warm and heavy as pure gold and the angels sing softly to the new-born baby.   Lux, calida gravisque pura velut aurum et canunt angeli molliter modo natum

Choral Recording vs. Wind Ensemble Recording Try to distinguish the various textures written for both forms of the work. Choir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ty3HVeAkdc Band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW1Hrpnf8i0 What are some differences you hear? What are some of the difficulties that we may encounter due to the nature of wind instruments?

General Elements of the Music Form- Lux Aurumque is a motet due to the fact that it is an a capella work with sacred text. There are four major portions to the work. The melodic material makes it hard to distinguish where phrases begin and end. Can you see where the sections are? Section 1: measure 1-17 Section 2: measure 17 (horn solo)-29 Section 3: measure 30-43 Section 4: measure 44-54

Elements continued… Rhythm- Primary motive is the whole note moving to the dotted half note. The rhythm in this piece is simple and elegant. Melody- There are discrepancies as to whether or not there is a real melody in this piece. The melody (better said as feeling) of the piece is projected through the combinations of multiple voices and not clear in a single part. Harmony- The harmony is the main topic of interest in this piece. The trend in most of the piece is to move from a thinner sounding chord to a very full and dissonant chord. This piece gets its feeling through the motion of suspensions. Due to the unique chords, it is hard to define a key of the piece. It has a combination of both major and minor phrases throughout.

More Elements Timbre- Woodwinds have split parts within parts. The reason why this is a grade 4 piece is because a mature sound is necessary to pull off all of the unique harmonies. It is not meant to be dark, due to the text. Texture- The interesting part of this work is that all of the voices work together to create the ‘melody.’ The piece is more homophonic because there is really no obvious melody part. Whitacre wants the listener to primarily feel the music. Expression- This piece creates a sense of calmness to the listener. The varying tempo creates the most sense of expression along with dynamics in the piece. The ensemble must be a unified whole in order to execute the dynamics and tempo fluctuations.