Eternity in an Hour Eric Whitacre

• Eric Whitacre (b. 1970): Eternity in an Hour:
• 1 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: I. To See a World 06:13
• 2 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: II. In a Grain of Sand 05:45
• 3 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: III. And a Heaven 06:06
• 4 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: IV. In a Wild Flower 06:47
• 5 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: V. Hold Infinity 07:26
• 6 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: VI. In the Palm of Your Hand 10:43
• 7 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: VII. And Eternity 07:08
• 8 Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour: VIII. In an Hour 05:55
• Eric Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence:
• 9 Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: I. And Eternity 06:32
• Jess Gillam (b. 1998), Eric Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence:
• 10 Gillam, Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: II. When the Soul Slept 04:55
• Eric Whitacre:
• 11 Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: III. In Beams of Light 05:26
• 12 Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: IV. Auguries 05:48
• 13 Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: V. Of Innocence 05:00
• 14 Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: VI. William Blake 05:29
• 15 Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: VII. London 05:43
• 16 Whitacre: Auguries of Innocence: VIII. 1803 05:40
• Total Runtime 01:40:36

Info for Eternity in an Hour

Decca Classics releases "Eternity in an Hour", the new album by Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. A deeply meditative hour-long work for choir, cello, piano and live electronics, it is one of Whitacre’s most ambitious projects to date and the first of his classical compositions to place synthesizers at its center. Recorded with the Eric Whitacre Singers, the album brings together his lifelong fascination with electronic sound and the choral writing for which he is renowned. Unfolding across eight uninterrupted movements, Eternity in an Hour explores ideas of presence, wonder and the slowing of time. Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to mark the centenary of the BBC Singers, the work received its world premiere at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 2024, with Whitacre conducting and performing the electronics live on stage.

The hour-long work sets the opening lines of William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence, expanding four short lines of poetry across eight uninterrupted movements: "To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour." (From Auguries of Innocence by William Blake, 1757 to 1827.)

“I decided to take those four lines and see if I could create an hour-long piece that was a journey deeper and deeper into that grain of sand,” says Whitacre. "Even in the simple there is perfection.” — Eric Whitacre

Whitacre first encountered the poem as a teenager and was struck by its parallels with Zen Buddhist philosophy. For him, Blake captures “that elusive state where past and future cease to exist, and all that remains is a profound sense of wonder in even the most ordinary objects.” Reflecting on the pace of modern life, he says: “These days every moment seems to be chopped up into oblivion; all of reality is like TikTok. My idea was to make an hour’s worth of music setting just those four opening lines, to do exactly what Blake compels us to do and find ‘Eternity in an Hour.’” Each movement introduces another fragment of the poem until all four lines are heard in full in the finale.

Eric Whitacre, conductor, piano, synthesizer & electronics
The Eric Whitacre Singers
Emma Denton, cello
Jess Gillam, saxophone

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Eric Whitacre is one of the most popular and performed composers of our time, a distinguished conductor, broadcaster and public speaker. His first album as both composer and conductor on Decca/Universal, Light & Gold, won a Grammy® in 2012, reaped unanimous five star reviews and became the no. 1 classical album in the US and UK charts within a week of release. His second album, Water Night, was released in April 2012 and went straight to no. 1 in the classical iTunes chart on the day of release. It features seven world premiere recordings and includes performances from his professional choir, the Eric Whitacre Singers, the London Symphony Orchestra, Julian Lloyd Webber and Hila Plitmann. His compositions also feature on multiple other recordings made in Europe, North America and Australasia.

Eric’s ground-breaking Virtual Choir, Lux Aurumque, received over a million views on YouTube in just 2 months (now 3 million), featuring 185 singers from 12 different countries. Virtual Choir 2.0, Sleep, was released in April 2011 and involved over 2,000 voices from 58 countries. Virtual Choir 3, Water Night, received 3,746 videos from 73 counties and was launched at Lincoln Center, New York and revealed online in April 2012.

He has written for the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chanticleer, Julian Lloyd Webber and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Berlin Rundfunkchor and The King’s Singers among others. His musical, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, won both the ASCAP Harold Arlen award and the Richard Rodgers Award, and earned 10 nominations at the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. A versatile musician, he has also worked with legendary film composer, Hans Zimmer, co-writing the Mermaid Theme for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In 2011, Eric was one of the judges and conducted the winning entries of the Abbey Road 80th Anniversary Anthem Competition, recording the London Symphony Orchestra and his professional choir, the Eric Whitacre Singers, in Abbey Road Studio 1.

His latest initiative, Soaring Leap, is a series of dynamic workshops for singers, instrumentalists, conductors and composers to read, rehearse and perform his works, digging deep into the poetry and exploring compositional tools. Guest speakers, other composers and musicians make regular appearances at Soaring Leap events.

An exceptional orator, he was honoured to address the U.N. Leaders programme and give a TEDTalk in March 2011 which earned the first full standing ovation of the conference. He has addressed audiences at Duke & Harvard, The Economist, Seoul Digital Forum and JCDA Conference in Tokyo.

Many of Eric Whitacre’s works have entered the standard choral and symphonic repertories and have become the subject of scholarly works and doctoral dissertations. Whitacre has received composition awards from the Barlow International Composition Competition, the ACDA and the American Composers Forum. In 2001, he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the ACDA, despite coming to classical music relatively late in life when he joined his college choir in Las Vegas. The first piece he ever performed – Mozart’s Requiem – changed his life. Inspired to compose, his first piece Go, Lovely Rose, was completed at the age of 21. He went on to the Juilliard School (New York), earned his Master of Music degree studying with Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning composer, John Corigliano.

This album contains no booklet.