Talk:Eric Whitacre

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 September 2020 and 12 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kritverm.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:47, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled

I did a lot of cleaning up on this article - a lot of stuff was really awkward and messy. However, I don't have all of the factual information at hand, so there are some contradictions that still remain. Any one have any citations for this one? 68.165.184.207 06:58, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Just got back from performing with Eric at the Sydney Opera House! What an experience.

No mention of his opera, Paradise Lost (the Opera Electronica)? I'd guess that's what he's better known for.

I may expand this article if/when I have time to do more research...

cluth 11:59, July 18, 2005 (UTC)

I expanded and added some brief tidbits. Not sure how I should source it in the article, but the information I contributed in this edit is based on some background information printed on published copies of his scores as well as what I heard from him firsthand during our rehearsals.

Another note that I might work in later: I asked him why he chose a sitar for the opening of "Winter." He told me he had been commissioned by the University of Miami to create a piece for the winter season, but he strongly wanted to avoid the typical cliche sounds of Christmas music. He tried to find the most non-Christmasy instrument possible and originally chose something else (I forget--I'll have to see if I can email him) but then before settling on the sitar. Does this info violate WP's "no original research" principal?

cluth 08:30, August 8, 2005 (UTC)

I saw the citation needed tags. I may be able to add some references when I get back home and can look up the publishing info from the scores. cluth 18:40, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Godzilla vs. Gawd$illa

I don't have many recordings at all of this (in fact, I only have one :)), but my album and liner notes has "Gawd$illa" as a consistent rendering, even in the notes from Eric.

Mariana 03:06, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

It's listed as "Godzilla Eats Las Vegas" on Eric Whitacre's website. That would seem to be definitive! --Ant 21:24, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I included the additional note:

† Note: This piece was originally titled "Gawd$illa Eats Las Vegas!" from fear of legal action. However, Whitacre always hated the name "Gawd$illa ..." as it held no significance to him. It's listed as "Godzilla ..." on his official website.

I know the Wikipedia policy behind referencing that all information must be sourced to some verifiable location, but I'm unsure how to address this. Eric came to my school and during that time someone asked him about the Gawd$illa thingy... to which he gave the above response. All I can say is: it's true, it's not verifiable (maybe someone has an appropriate source?), should it be removed? ChaoticLlama 20:07, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

The answer is yes, it should be removed under WP's no original research policy. Good catch! SingCal 04:57, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Discography

Shouldn't there be a discography section somewhere on the page??????? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.28.225.215 (talk) 03:32, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

The article could do with one. 92.235.199.62 (talk) 12:24, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

It is common for composers to have their "works" listed instead of a discography. [They are almost the same thing.] The question is, is Whitacre more of a composer (who writes "works") or more of a modern musical performer (who has a discography)? Seems like he falls more into the composer category so that his "works" are listed. Negative p (talk) 20:30, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Sections

I decided that the article's gotten to the point where we can break it down further into smaller sections. I also cleaned up a few things and added some new information. Feel free to comment. --SingCal 08:48, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Favorite Piece (if possible!!)

Do you have a favorite song by Eric Whitacre? Tell us! :D

(mine's probably...Lux Aurumque) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Literaturer007 (talk • contribs) 04:59, 13 December 2006 (UTC).

Wikipedia is not a discussion forum. Sign your posts. If you want to talk about Eric's music, there's a link to his website in the article, and there is a forum there. Counterfit 10:55, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I am concerned about the revision history

I am concerned about edits made by EWHITINC (talk · contribs) to this page. I am particularly concerned about this edit: diff (?). The text seems to be elsewhere on the Internet, including domains not known to be Wikipedia mirrors such as Mr. Whitacre's MySpace page. Copying and pasting texts from external sources without providing a source and without indicating how the copyright to the material is licensable under the GFDL is not permissible per established policy and can jeopardize Wikipedia. As such, I am reverting to the edits made before EWHITINC; specifically to revision #75987425 (diff). That revision is from 16 September 2006. That is a long time ago, and I apologize for the inconvenience. I will be working on introducing the information added by other editors after the date. Any help would be appreciated. --Iamunknown 14:07, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree completely. The username would suggest that the author is likely affiliated with Mr. Whitacre's publicity and/or distribution; not to mention most of what he adds serves to make the article look like an advert. I think it's fine to go that far back and start from scratch; I'll be glad to help keep an eye out for such language in the future. SingCal 04:11, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I removed the inappropriate "Reviews" section and the links that were in violation of WP:EL. I also informed the editor who added them that I would be reverting his edits to the biography section unless he cleaned up the WP:NPOV issue. Trusilver 02:22, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Eric Whitacre and the LDS Church

There is nothing in the article to suggest that Eric Whitacre is a Mormon/Latter-Day Saint, yet he is listed as one in the Category:American Latter-Day Saints page. I could not find any information suggesting that he shares anything more than a professional connection with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or Brigham Young University - could someone please explain?

Since I could find nothing anywhere suggesting that his religious background is LDS, I have removed him from the list.24.8.20.66 (talk) 04:56, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Capitalization

* Three Songs of Faith (poems by e. e. cummings)
** i will wade out
** hope, faith, life, love 
** i thank You God for most this amazing day<ref>"most this" is correct; see for the full text http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/03/cdisalvo/cummings1/day.html.</ref>

Are these song titles supposed to be in lower-case? Kareeser|^Talk! 20:31, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Oh hell. The author's name isn't even capitalized. I'm going to go out on a limb and fix it. If I'm wrong, correct me. Kareeser|^Talk! 20:37, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

I have the sheet music for "i thank You God for most this amazing day" in front of me and the lower case is correct, so I have reverted your edits.

e. e. cummings wrote his name and all or most of his poems entirely in lower case, apart from God and pronouns standing for god (e.g. "i think You God").

I've just read the article on E. E. Cummings and it says

Cummings' publishers and others have sometimes echoed the unconventional orthography in his poetry by writing his name in lower case and without periods. Cummings himself used both the lowercase and capitalized versions, but according to his widow did not, as reported in the preface of one book, have his name legally changed to "e e cummings". He did, however, write to his French translator that he preferred the capitalized version ("may it not be tricksy"). One Cummings scholar believes that on the occasions Cummings signed his name in all-lowercase, the poet may have intended it as a gesture of humility, and not as an indication that it was the preferred orthography for others to use for his name.

and obviously spells the author's name with a capital. So we may want to change this Whitacre article to use an initial capital as well. 82.69.72.254 (talk) 23:13, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

I've added an invisible comment just before the titles of the poems, gently asking they shouldn't be changed. Classical geographer (talk) 08:51, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

That is a good idea. Thank you.

82.69.72.254 (talk) 22:11, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Looking much better. Thank you. 92.235.199.62 (talk) 19:08, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Lux Aurumque

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs&feature=player_embedded# Virtual choir - Youtube project?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.9.232.169 (talk) 04:17, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Semi-sold out?

From the opening paragraph "2010 saw a staged, semi-sold out performance at Carnegie Hall. [9]". Either sold out or not I would have thought. I can't amend ti as I don't know which is correctMistleymatt (talk) 12:36, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

"Semi-sold out" would have to be another way of saying "half-empty", but the cited source does not confirm this suspicion. To judge from the junior-high-school writing style of that sentence, I suspect it was meant to say "semi-staged performance", but this is not confirmed, either (in fact, the review contradicts this claim, stating it was a "concert performance"). To add formatting insult to stylistic injury the sentence was made to begin with a date expressed in numerals. A little judicious editing has, I think, set all this right. Thanks for calling attention to this.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 16:58, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Link tidy-up

I tried to keep todays copyedit and link tidyup non-contentious, but have found it necessary to remove some references. In case any are missed, here's what they were and why they went (numbers are old ref numbers):

(3) "Hyperion Records, 2005 Liner notes."

This reference doesn't support any assertion made in the article.

(6) Sleep : Youtube Video

private video

(7) Hyperion Records - Whitacre Biography Accessed 2010-04-15

doesn't support the assertion

(9) TED featured Virtual Choir

over-citation (doesn't add anything over and above the Lux aurumque reference)

(12) [www.ericwhitacre.com Whitacre Official Site]

I removed this and the text citing it ("He is currently working on a commission for the Berlin Rundfunkchor and a major commission for the London Symphony Chorus which will be performed with the London Symphony Orchestra in October 2010." because it is out of date. The reference is too non-specific anyway and no longer describes these events. The official website is still to be found in the External Links.

(16) Sleep

private video

(19) Barbican

This reference is too non-specific. It no longer appears to support the assertion cited.

(20) Berlin Rundfunkchor

This reference is too non-specific. It no longer appears to support the assertion cited.

(21) Wales Millennium Centre

Dead link, and nothing to support the asseertion cited was found on www.wmc.org.uk.

These last three illustrate why it's risky to cite sites - ;) - that are basically promotional and likely to change quickly. But is the Projects section already looking a bit too much like a CV?

(25) Review of the Premiere [1]

there is no assertion to support.

External links removed are those occurring already in the citations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stfg (talk • contribs) 17:32, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Opening Description - "unprecedented"

 The opening paragraph is written well enough - I do however take issue with the misuse (or at least the ambiguous use) of the word "unprecedented" within:

"His virtual choirs have exposed his music to a new audience and have helped it gain an unprecedented popularity."

"Unprecedented" means preceded by nothing, so that used in front of the word "popularity" it describes a degree of popularity that has never before occurred, ever.

1 - Certainly there has been other music with greater volumes of popularity, so we can't use "unprecedented" like this.

2 - Maybe the sentence means that his own specific popularity has never been this great so that the current degree of Whitacre popularity is truly unprecedented. But this is a very (very) awkward way of saying that his popularity is growing (in that if something is growing then each new level is of course "unprecedented") and I hope that wasn't how the word was being used.

3 - Or the word is being used to describe the popularity of "virtual choirs", which are new and so maybe it is really true that never ever before has interest in virtual choirs been at this level so that the popularity levels are legitimately "unprecedented". If this is the way the word is being used then I would like to see the research on how we know the popularity level is higher now than it ever has been. Also, if this is the intended use of the word, "virtual choirs" are a new phenomenon so of course their popularity will just go up from here (and eventually hit a peak like all new things) and so the unprecedented nature of each new level of popularity is implied by the novelty of these "virtual choirs".

Yes I am being picky but can we please stop using the word "unprecedented" unless the thing being described is actually unprecedented in a non-obvious way. If you think about it, almost everything is unprecedented, so if you are going to describe something as such you better have a really good reason. Negative p (talk) 02:37, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Eric Whitacre/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

I rated this article as Start Class. It's not bad, but there's a lot of work to be done. For example, we're seriously lacking in biographical content; as it stands, the article is more about Whitacre's music than it is about him. There are a lot of things that need citations, even if they're cited as program notes in scores. Much of the music section smacks of original research. So we have our work cut out for us... but we're looking in the right direction.

Last edited at 07:25, 6 November 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 14:37, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Pending Divorce from Hila Plitmann

https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la23-whitacre-eric-vs-plitmann-hila-149054 How do we incorporate this? 174.3.41.30 (talk) 00:21, 16 April 2018 (UTC)

• That's a primary source, so Wikipedia doesn't use it until a reliable secondary source comments on it. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 01:54, 16 April 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 April 2018

Spicymamma521 (talk) 13:58, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. L293D (☎ • ✎) 14:08, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

“changed his life”

The section Career starts with “Whitacre states that the first work he sang, Mozart's Requiem, changed his life”. Genereally, it's not a bad idea to start a career section with a life changing event, but that works only if the reader understands how it influenced the career. That information is missing. Neither the fact that KV626 was the first work he sang nor that he was one of the many people impressed by it provides encyclopedically useful information. I will therefore delete it. ◅ Sebastian 07:03, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
P.S.: If ever someone writes an article about me, the first work I sang was “A little dog named Fips” by Hans Friedrich Micheelsen. ◅ Sebastian 07:18, 19 November 2020 (UTC)