This video was in the news briefly but I thought this was one of the most creative production I ever saw and heard using Youtube. It was put together by Eric Whitacre, a composer and conductor, and producer, Scott Haines. It took awhile but they put together various singers that sang Eric’s capella choral work, Lux Aurumque, on Youtube. That is, a total of 128 participants from 12 different countries who individually sang their part in soprano, alto, tenor or bass.
This was an amazing example of how technology helped developed a form of crowdsourcing, a concept where a project is an open collaboration, that is, anybody is invited to participate in developing the project and in this case, it was the Virtual Choir.
In his blog, Eric says, “My goal with this ‘chapter’ of the Virtual Choir was to see if we could not just sing our parts separately and cut them together; I wanted to see if we could actually make music. There is a lot of rubato in my conducting (slowing down, speeding up) and some very specific dynamic gestures, and the singers responded beautifully.”
Fortunately, this isn’t the end of the project. His goal is to put together an original piece to make it’s first premier in cyberspace, once again inviting others to participate in a harmonious union of art and technology.
I must also say, that this is a prime example of how emerging media can bring people together, despite their political, cultural and racial differences to prove that music is the universal language.
