He\u2019s the poster boy of modern choral music. He\u2019s the master of music and social media. He appears in choir programs all over the world. He\u2019s the lusciously long-haired creator of the Virtual Choir. He\u2019s Eric Whitacre.<\/p>\n
The man is everywhere, and I want to explore why this is the case. I argue that Eric Whitacre owes a majority of his success to the culture of the 21st<\/sup> century, the consistent rise in modern humanism. The disinterest in institutionalized religion combined with the desire for spirituality is resulting in a market for unabashedly beautiful music like Whitacre\u2019s, but at what cost? I then argue that this a theologically unstable (from a Christian perspective) market to rely on, and therefore, regardless of fame and recognition, this music may not stand the test of time as, say, Bach\u2019s music has.<\/p>\n I\u2019m interested to see what scholarship I can find on the disinterest in institutionalized religion; I can make fair assumptions that a lot of these sentiments stem from centuries of oppression, and that should not be ignored. However, I need still need to find theological debates that back my argument saying shallow spirituality isn\u2019t the key to solving this problem.<\/p>\n As far as challenges go, I\u2019m arguing something so recent that there aren\u2019t many publications on the subject. Eric Whitacre is so new that \u201cfresh off the press\u201d doesn\u2019t even begin to describe how current the writings on him and his phenomenon are. My best bet would be doing more research on evolving dogmas in recent years and tying it to the arts.<\/p>\n My thinking has changed slightly in that I want to focus more on how music doesn\u2019t have to be \u201cbeautiful\u201d in order for it to be \u201cspiritual.\u201d Bach wrote plenty of pieces that captured the essence of the Lutheran theology, that may not be considered aesthetically beautiful, but that still remain relevant today. Eric Whitacre puzzles me because I feel that he is more than a social media wizard with long hair; there\u2019s something about his music that may be more problematic than we know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" He\u2019s the poster boy of modern choral music. He\u2019s the master of music and social media. He appears in choir programs all over the world. He\u2019s the lusciously long-haired creator of the Virtual Choir. He\u2019s Eric Whitacre. The man is … Continue reading