"The Sacred Veil may be the single most important musical contribution in our time, perhaps in any time, to a non-religious, as well as non-political—perhaps we might say non-teleological understanding of death and loss. [...] to experience it in performance with 40 singers, or perhaps in recorded form, may be transformative for those whose grief, recent or deep-seated, has never completely found closure."
The Sacred Veil
programme notes
The Sacred Veil
American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre (1970) needs little introduction. With his accessible musical style and pioneering projects, he has transformed the choral world. Ever since his debut album Light & Gold won a Grammy Award in 2012, he has collaborated with leading ensembles across the globe, from VOCES8 to The King’s Singers. He also shares a particularly close relationship with the Flemish Radio Choir. When he first came to Belgium in 2016, it was, in his own words, love at first sight. He has since returned almost every year to conduct the choir and has found a second home here.
During one of his previous visits, Whitacre presented the Belgian premiere of his largest and most deeply personal work to date: The Sacred Veil. The composition gives voice to the grief of his childhood friend and long-time poet Charles Anthony Silvestri (1965), who lost his wife in 2015. The Sacred Veil explores the fragile threshold between life and death, between profound sorrow and gratitude for all that has been. After those performances, Whitacre continued refining both the music and the text, and now returns to Brussels to present the complete work once again. As before, amateur choirs will provide a special prelude and bring the evening to its close.
The magic and fragility of life
Bringing people together through choral music has always been one of Whitacre’s defining ambitions. His celebrated Virtual Choir series stands as perhaps the clearest expression of that vision. The project began with a simple question: could people sing together even when separated by physical or social barriers? The answer proved to be an unequivocal ‘yes’. Harnessing technology and social media, Whitacre succeeded in uniting some 20,000 singers from every corner of the world and every walk of life across the series. For the very first edition in 2010, participants recorded individual vocal lines for Lux Aurumque, a short choral work depicting angels gently singing to a newborn child. To ensure everyone performed together, Whitacre recorded himself conducting the piece. The resulting 185 submissions were combined into a single video that has since been viewed millions of times.
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The Sacred Veil
The Sacred Veil likewise reflects on life’s most profound experiences. Its immediate inspiration came from a poem Silvestri left on Whitacre’s piano one morning in 2017. In it, he described the almost imperceptible passage from eternity into life – and back again. It was his deeply personal response to the emotions and reflections that had accompanied him since the death of his wife, Julie. That very morning, Whitacre resolved to devote an entire work to his dear friend’s story, tracing his journey from meeting Julie for the first time to saying goodbye to her. At the same time, he sought to express a universal meditation on life and its transience: ‘The whole idea of The Sacred Veil was to be as honest as possible about what actually happens when someone goes through this.’ Instead, as Whitacre explained, he wanted to tell the story ‘not in some grand, liturgical way, but in a very human, personal way.’
Gradually, Whitacre and Silvestri shaped the work’s overall structure, continually refining and reshaping each movement until all twelve felt exactly right. Alongside Silvestri’s own poetry, the score also incorporates verses by Whitacre and personal writings by Julie herself, capturing the couple’s love, her courageous struggle with illness, and the inevitability of her death. Whitacre originally envisaged a chamber orchestra of ten players alongside the choir, but as the composition evolved he stripped away every unnecessary layer. The atmosphere needed to remain as intimate as possible, and in the piano and cello he found the perfect companions.
At around an hour in length, The Sacred Veil occupies a unique place within Whitacre’s output. Several movements received their premieres during 2017 and 2018, while the complete work was first performed in early 2019. The LA Times described it as ‘a celebration of the precarious beauty of life’. Yet perhaps the most poignant response came from People's World: 'The Sacred Veil may be the single most important musical contribution in our time, perhaps in any time, to a non-religious, as well as non-political—perhaps we might say non-teleological understanding of death and loss. [...] to experience it in performance with 40 singers, or perhaps in recorded form, may be transformative for those whose grief, recent or deep-seated, has never completely found closure.' For Silvestri himself, the creative process was profoundly cathartic. He later expressed his gratitude to Whitacre ‘for taking this journey with me, for revisiting old scars, and for bringing me so much closer to healing.’
Finding peace in death
The belief that music can offer consolation in times of profound grief is both ancient and universal. J.S. Bach’s (1685–1750) Komm, süßer Tod, komm selge Ruh remains one of his best-loved sacred songs. Both text and music express a serene acceptance of death. The work has inspired numerous arrangements, but the version by American composer Edwin London is particularly striking. After the opening section is sung exactly as Bach wrote it, each successive phrase is gradually deconstructed. Every sound is stretched until the voices begin to overlap, creating a remarkable sense of suspended tension. ‘At the very end, all the voices come together again – that moment moves me every single time,’ Whitacre has said.