EQUUS: LATIN FOR HORSE. THIS PERFECTLY CAPTURES THE FURY AND MAJESTY OF THE EQUINE AND THE HORSE RACE AND IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. PERFORMED AT THE TMEA CONVENTION 5A HONOR BAND CONCERT FROM CY-FAIR ISD. WRITTEN BY THE TALENTED ERIC WHITACRE.
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Story behind the song
Equus is the Latin word for horse, and this moto perpetuo perfectly captures the fury and majesty of this magnificent animial. Commissioned by Gary Green and the University of Miami, Equus is not for the faint of heart.
From Eric Whitacre's website:
At the Midwest Band convention in 1996, Gary Green approached me about a possible commission for his wind ensemble at the University of Miami. I accepted, and the commission formally began July 1st, 1997. Two years later I still couldn't show him a single note.
That's not to say I hadn't written anything. On the contrary, I had about 100 pages of material for three different pieces, but I wanted to give Gary something very special and just couldn't find that perfect spark.
Around this time my great friend and fellow Juilliard composer Steven Bryant (Monkey, Chester Leaps In) was visiting me in Los Angeles, and as I had just bought a new computer I was throwing out old sequencer files, most of them sketches and improvisational ideas. As I played one section Steve dashed into the room and the following conversation ensued:
Steve: "What the hell was that!?!"
Me: "Just an old idea I'm about to trash."
Steve: "Mark my words, If you don't use that I'm stealing it."
The gauntlet had been thrown.
That was the spark, but took me a full eight months to work out. There are a LOT of notes, and I put every one on paper before sequencing it. I wanted to write a moto perpetuo, a piece that starts running and never stops (equus is the Latin word for horse) and would also be a virtuosic show piece for winds. The final result is something that I call "Dynamic Minimalism," which basically means that I love to employ repetitive patterns as long as they don't get boring. We finally premiered the piece in March 2000, nearly three years after the original commission date, and the University of Miami Wind Ensemble played the bejeezus out of it. Equus is dedicated to my friend Gary Green, the most passionate and patient conductor I know.
Eric Whitacre (born 2 January 1970) is an American composer of choral, wind band and electronic music. He has also served as a guest conductor for ensembles throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
As a student at Douglas High School, Eric Whitacre was expelled from the school band. Whitacre began his musical training while an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he studied composition with avant garde Ukrainian composer Virko Baley and choral conducting with David Weiller. It was here that he wrote his Cloudburst, Water Night, and Three Flower Songs for mixed chorus, and his Ghost Train triptych for concert band. Whitacre received a Master's degree at the Juilliard School with composition studies under both John Corigliano and David Diamond.
In the past decade, Whitacre has become a prominent composer for concert band, and his choral music is widely performed.
Whitacre premiered his first work for stage, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, in 2004 at California State University, Northridge, one year after premiering the work's musical suite in Berlin, Germany in the summer of 2003. The show is only distantly related to Milton's Paradise Lost. The music of this opera is a mixture of many different styles of music including trance, classical, electronica, and traditional opera. Paradise Lost premiered at the Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena in July and August 2007 with full cast, taiko drums, DJ, anime, and flying rigs.
Whitacre is probably best known for his choral works, however both his choral and instrumental styles are immediately recognizable, namely by his signature "Whitacre chords." These are often seventh or ninth chords, with or without suspended seconds and fourths. Perhaps his most famous chord is a root-position major triad with a suspended major second and/or perfect fourth. Whitacre makes frequent use of quartal, quintal and secondary harmonies, and is also known for his use of