ERIC WHITAKER’S VIRTUAL CHOIR: INNOVATIVE TRENDS OF DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSIC

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine the significance of Eric Whitaker’s choral innovations in the context of actual style trends in the development of modern choral music. The style uniqueness of the composer’s creative project to organize a choir collective in virtual Internet reality is explained, respectively, and the definition of the basic principles for the formation of performance stylistic. The scientific novelty of the work is an attempt at a musicological evaluation of the new functionalities of the virtualized choral Internet reality of language in choral music, invented by Eric Whitaker, which turned out to be included in the modern choral repertoire. The research methodology is based on the analytical, musicological, chorological, functional approaches, that create a that create a single basis for the study of genre and performance stylistic of Eric Whitaker’s choral work. Conclusions. The cultural-historical and situational-applied significance of Eric Whitaker’s choral innovations opens in the context of current stylistic trends in the development of modern choral music. Currently, particular relevance is being revealed in the study of the peculiarities of the performance stylistic of Whitaker’s choral works, which are actively involved in the cultural reality of modern musical art. The American composer and conductor struck a globalized cultural consciousness with the unprecedented idea of musical and communicative co-creation, expanding the volume of performers, and the sound of the choir, infinitely and endlessly. A new substantial space of choral music is being created, literally realizing the idea of “Embrace Millions” using Facebook, Twitter and You Tube – the virtual choir. This reproduces the virtual, simultaneously real, coverage of the choral sound of all mankind. The new chronotopes of XXI century choral music, which led to the forefront of sound technology, sonoristics and alleatorics, thus provide leading semantic positions in the sound colorfullness of the choral timbre, along with this a fundamentally different organization of texture with its harmonic components. The current level of development of choral art makes high demands on the study of choral sonority, its basic elements. Innovative choral reality organizes new functionalities of a virtualized choral reality.