# Eric whitacre: beautiful mess: masterclass in composition & creativity



## ism (Oct 7, 2021)

There's approximately zero substantial information on this yet. But given how fabulous it sounds, just thought I'd create a thread to keep an eye on it.









Eric Whitacre's Virtual School


Direct access to practical and artistic insights gained over more than 30 years by one popular living composers




ericwhitacre.com








Update: And here it is:









Eric Whitacre's Virtual School


Direct access to practical and artistic insights gained over more than 30 years by one popular living composers




virtualschool.ericwhitacre.com


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## ism (Oct 7, 2021)

For one thing, I'm hoping it will be a properly pedagogical expansion of some of the kinds of things he talks about in this:




Because that would be fabulous.


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Oct 7, 2021)

Amazing! Cant wait.

Is it free or paid? I cannot tell.


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## Scamper (Oct 7, 2021)

This seems really promising. It's always invaluable to have deep insights into the whole composition process of composers like Eric Whitacre.
Am also very curious about the price, but it says: "There will be pathways for individuals and for education with pricing to be confirmed." So likely not free.


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## Markrs (Oct 18, 2021)

Very interested in this! Will wait on content and pricing as to whether this is for me or not.


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## hummersallad (Oct 18, 2021)

ism said:


> There's approximately zero substantial information on this yet. But given how fabulous it sounds, just thought I'd create a thread to keep an eye on it.


Thanks for posting. I just hope it will not be too expensive.


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## ism (Oct 18, 2021)

I think I may even have sat out a Spitfire sale in anticipation of this …

(Though only because I already have EWC)


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## Maximvs (Oct 19, 2021)

ism said:


> There's approximately zero substantial information on this yet. But given how fabulous it sounds, just thought I'd create a thread to keep an eye on it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks a lot for sharing, I really like Eric's music.

Blessings,

MaxT


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## ism (Nov 1, 2021)

And here it is:









Eric Whitacre's Virtual School


Direct access to practical and artistic insights gained over more than 30 years by one popular living composers




virtualschool.ericwhitacre.com


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## Pier-V (Nov 1, 2021)

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Many Eric Whitacre's compositions have a special place in my heart.


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## mopsiflopsi (Nov 1, 2021)

Anyone bought this yet? I just watched the preview Snake Wearing Pants preview video, and am not sure I've seen anything to set it apart content-wise from other courses yet.


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## CT (Nov 2, 2021)

mopsiflopsi said:


> Anyone bought this yet? I just watched the preview Snake Wearing Pants preview video, and am not sure I've seen anything to set it apart content-wise from other courses yet.


I think the person behind the course is what sets it apart from the vast majority of other stuff out there....


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## markit (Nov 3, 2021)

I enrolled in the course just last night, and I'm halfway through it. I've been really enjoying it so far, and I'm happy about the purchase.

The masterclass has approximately four hours of content, and it truly is a deep dive into Eric's mind and the way he works. It focuses on the journey behind the compositional process from both a creative and emotional perspective.

The concepts are first explained at a high level. After that, Eric always maps them to practical examples by referencing his own compositions. Full scores of the works mentioned are attached.

This is not the right course for anyone looking for technical blueprints or step-by-step orchestration / choral writing guidelines. However, I really think this masterclass has planted some seeds for me, unlike HZ's one.

If you enjoyed Eric's interviews with Spitfire Audio and found yourself wanting to understand more about him and his process, this course is for you.

Personally, I found all of this very refreshing; I'm a total beginner, and I got into composition full of ideas and hopes. Eventually, I got stuck in checking for parallels and tweaking my VEP template. This masterclass made me realize I'm slowly losing track of the reasons I wanted to compose in the first place.


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## ism (Nov 3, 2021)

markit said:


> I enrolled in the course just last night, and I'm halfway through it. I've been really enjoying it so far, and I'm happy about the purchase.
> 
> The masterclass has approximately four hours of content, and it truly is a deep dive into Eric's mind and the way he works. It focuses on the journey behind the compositional process from both a creative and emotional perspective.
> 
> ...


Thanks for this persepective. I'm really struggling with just what to make of this myself.


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## ism (Nov 3, 2021)

Michaelt said:


> I think the person behind the course is what sets it apart from the vast majority of other stuff out there....


Yes, but is it Eric Whitacre the composer, or Eric Whitacre the Acclaimed Corporate Motivational Speaker, beloved by Google and Apple and the World Economic forum? 

I really want to buy this ... but I'm not sure what it is. I don't need a motivational speaker on creativity, I want insights on the very particular qualities of choral music that Eric, in his unique and brilliant voice as a *composer*, brings to his music. And his Spitfire video is so suggestive that he has these insights, and sharing them could be powerful ... 


Yet he marketing seems to focus on that latter more than the former. Is it a course in composition, or in motivatially getting in touch with your inner creativity (via some ideology of creativity de jour)? Lots of value in motivational speaking, of course. And I'm sure Eric killed it when he (apparently) addressed the billionaires at World Economic Forum. 


But just how much of this is a course is:


- actual composition, sharing the unique insights of the (fabulous) Eric Whitacre into music at the level of notes of melodies and harmonies and orchestrations and textures?

- a motivational talk on creative process? Nothing against this, at all. But I have a creative process already, have sat through lots and lots of stuff like this, (including Corporate Motivational Speakers galore). And while I'm of course interested in Eric sharing his process ... what I really want to invest my time and money in is deepening my compositional skill and practice. Not that the snake with no pants isn't charming. It really is. I'm not trying to be critical of this, I just want to know what I'm buying. It's also market explicitly by invoking the genre of the TED talk. And I'm trying to remember the last time I say a TED talk about was more about actual ideas more than an exercise in personal branding for the speaker.

- a quick cash-in to the online course market by reading off the bullet point in the back of a voice leading text? You can get these by the dozen for about $10 on Udemy. The fact that it's marketed as suitable for 11 year olds is additionally puzzling. It also seems to over voicing in 8 minutes, and counterpoint in 11. (And I already know what parallel 5th are.). Not that this is necessarily a bad thing - I'd love to be able to buy this and work through it with my 12 year old niece. But I just don't understand what's going on here pedagogically. 

- A celebrity "Vanity Masterclass"? You know, like how you don't buy Astronaut Chris Hatfield's Masterclass on Space Exploration to refine and develop your practice and skill of actual Space Exploration. You buy Astronaut Chris Hatfield's Masterclass on Space Exploration so you have pithy quotes to share at dinner parties. 


- Something deeper? My cynicism of the absurd corporate focus of the marketing (seriously - look at all the corporate logos it displayed to sell us a course on composition. Including such respected forces in music pedagogy as "Forbes" and "Buzzfeed") is greatly, greatly tempered by how great Eric's music is, and how great - or at least how deeply suggestive - his Spitfire videos were. 


Still, bracketing off my cynicism with marketing in general (important to get that out of the way, I think), I retain some cautious optimism about this course. I've recently bought a very excellent book on Arvo Pärt's choral works. And absent such a book on the Whitacre repertoire, this course seems to be the best hope for an accessible entry to similar insights into what's so uniquely beautiful and innovative of Eric as a composer. 


Which could well be worth $200, on multiple levels.


(And the other thing to consider is just how many perusal scores it comes with - although, I've bought Whitacre scores to study, and they're not necessarily very expensive)


So anyone able to shed more light on this, beyond the cynical marketing, would be very welcome.


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## ism (Nov 3, 2021)

Actually, I particularly enjoyed the giant pyramid made of cheese.


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## markit (Nov 3, 2021)

To draw a parallelism, the course expands on lots of the content brought up during his interview with Spitfire. It is more aligned with the interview with Chris, though, and not the walkthrough of EWC itself.

I hate TED talks. Ultimately, I don't think this is a motivational course as it has practical advice in every lesson. In fact, I have found myself thinking, "I'd love to know even more about this" or "I have never considered this" rather than "Hey, this is fluff."

But yes, this is not a course to be the next EW, nor a comprehensive study for chorale. Still, it certainly gave me a few tools to improve my compositional process and take a peek into how Eric's approaches music.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience, not trying to market the course. I bet EW won't lose any sleep by missing a bit of revenue coming from us, if you know what I mean ;D

@ism My understanding is that more courses will be released. However, my friend, I wouldn't enroll based on your previous comments, to be entirely honest with you. I think you could quickly end up scrutinizing the content and second-guessing your investment rather than enjoying it!


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## ism (Nov 17, 2021)

I've got a link to Eric talking about the pedagogical structure of the masterclass. Haven't had time to view it yet, but it does promise more insight.


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## ism (Nov 17, 2021)

ka00 said:


> Is that the webinar? I should have registered for that, didn't read it closely enough to note that you couldn't watch it after the fact if you didn't register.
> 
> If you can, please let us know your thoughts once you have a watch/listen.


It might be a couple of weeks, but will do.


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## osterdamus (Dec 4, 2021)

markit said:


> It focuses on the journey behind the compositional process from both a creative and emotional perspective.


I saw the teaser video where he starts fleshing out a new piece in diagram form, and spends some time developing it without writing a single note. I found that interesting because I'm looking to work more in this part of project development and creativity, before i put my fingers on the keyboard. Does the course deliver on the teaser's promise, you think?


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## markit (Dec 6, 2021)

osterdamus said:


> I found that interesting because I'm looking to work more in this part of project development and creativity, before i put my fingers on the keyboard. Does the course deliver on the teaser's promise, you think?


Yes, absolutely!

It's exactly what I was trying to convey over my previous messages; Eric eventually does write down a few notes at some point, but the subjects covered do not precisely fit into the music theory realm. A very unique course, I must say.

Both the course's teaser and the interview with Spitfire are excellent references to understand the format and content of the complete course.


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## osterdamus (Dec 6, 2021)

markit said:


> Yes, absolutely!
> 
> It's exactly what I was trying to convey over my previous messages; Eric eventually does write down a few notes at some point, but the subjects covered do not precisely fit into the music theory realm. A very unique course, I must say.
> 
> Both the course's teaser and the interview with Spitfire are excellent references to understand the format and content of the complete course.


Ok, great, thank you.


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## Maximvs (Oct 7, 2022)

I am wondering if anyone has eventually enrolled into this masterclass and if so, what are your comments, observations and did it fulfill your expectation based on the masterclass curriculum?

Thanks for any feedback... Best regards,

Maximus


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