Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC
Composer: Eric Whitacre
Arranger: Alan Fernie
In the spring of 2004 I lucky enough to have my show
Paradise Lost presented at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop. The workshop is the brainchild of legendary composer Stephen Schwartz (
Wicked,
Godspell), and his insights about the creative process were profoundly helpful. He became a great mentor and friend to the show and, I am honoured to say, to me personally.
Soon after the workshop I received a call from a major film studio. Stephen had recommended me to them and they wanted to know if I might be interested in writing music for an animated feature. l was incredibly excited, said yes, and took the meeting.
The creative executives with whom I met explained that the studio heads had always wanted to make an epic adventure, a classic animated film based on Kipling’s
The Seal Lullaby. I have always loved animation (the early Disney films; Looney Tunes; everything Pixar makes) and I couldn’t believe that I might get a chance to work in that grand tradition on such great material.
The Seal Lullaby is a beautiful story, classic Kipling, dark and rich and not at all condescending to kids. Best of all, Kipling begins his tale with the mother seal singing softly to her young pup:
Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o‘er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
Where billow meets billow, there soft by thy pillow;
Ah, weary wee fIipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.
I was struck so deeply by those first beautiful words, and a simple, sweet Disney-esque song just came gushing out of me. I wrote it down as quickly as I could, had my wife record it while I accompanied her at the piano, and then dropped it off at the film studio.
I didn’t hear anything from them for weeks and weeks, and I began to despair. Did they hate it? Was it too melodically complex? Did they even listen to it? Finally, I called them, begging to know the reason that they had rejected my tender little song. "Oh," said the exec, "we decided to make Kung Fu Panda instead."
So I didn’t do anything with it, just sang it to my baby son every night to get him to go to sleep. (Success rate: less than 50%). And a few years later the Towne Singers graciously commissioned this arrangement of it. I’m grateful to them for giving it a new life. And I'm especially grateful to Stephen Schwartz. to whom the piece is dedicated. His friendship and invaluable tutelage has meant more to me than I could ever tell him.
Eric Whitacre
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