Eric Whitacre: "When David Heard" performed by BYU Singers 

When trying to get absorbed into this piece and a loud ass ad starts to play. Ads in compositions should be illegal

I am a secular Jew and when I was at school, we learned about the story of David and Absalom, so I even remember the verse (in Hebrew though). It is amazing how different it is to read the verse for 20 seconds than to listen to this whole composition for 15 minutes. The bible has no pictures so as a kid, you don't think much about the verses, you just read them. However, when listening to this 15-minute song, while knowing what it is about, suddenly stops you and makes you think about the story of a king, who mourn the death of his son, who rebelled against him and started a war. The country was plagued with war and Absalom, the "bad guy" who unrightfully tried to take the throne, was killed and thus the rebellion was crushed, but instead of being content, David mourns, because Absalom, no matter what he had done, is still David's son. Amazing.

The first time I heard this, I had taken my daughter to the Colorado Rockies for some skiing at Christmas last year. We were driving in the high, ethereal snow covered mountains. I was already being transported by the majesty I was seeing before me. Then she pulled out her phone, hooked it up to the car audio and unleashed THIS on me. Almost forgot to breathe. Play this at 10,000 plus feet, and see where it takes you...

A few thoughts: 1) if you're reading this before you listen, be forewarned. You cannot listen to this and walk away the same person you were before. You will be changed. In my opinion, for the better, but changed. 2) this particular recording has a profound back story. Dr. Ronald Staheli is the conductor of the BYU Singers, Brigham Young University's top chamber choir and one of the premiere collegiate choirs in the world right now. He is a long time friend of Eric Whitacre. Long before When David Heard, Eric has sent many of his non-commissioned pieces to Dr. Staheli to premier and set the standard with the BYU Singers. According to Eric, he finds Dr. Staheli's most profound musical work in his silence, how he is able to turn rests into musical moments, not just pauses between music. In a tragic accident Dr. Staheli lost his son and and subsequently, he commissioned Eric to write a piece for him. Whitacre's composition exceeded his normal genius and entered the realm of divinely inspired for, says he, he is still discovering elements of connectivity in the piece to the circumstances that he did not know were there during its writing. Here, in this recording we have the culmination of Dr. Staheli's loss, arguably Whitacre's greatest compositional achievement, and Dr. Staheli's courageous commitment to its performance after many tear filled rehearsals. If you ever wanted to taste how profound a means of communication can be, this is the piece and the recording for it.

If you do not believe in the power of music, you have never heard this song.

At 9:47 when the choir does that brief pause and then burst into this grand display of agony and grief...my God moves me to tears every time. Eric Whitacre will go down in history as one of the great composers of all time.

I have never heard anything like this before. EVER. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. I couldn't get through the first two minutes without fighting back tears. The wailing, the regret, the pain...that's amazing.

anyone here in 2021, sent by Fr. Mike Schmitz? love it.

My best friend Caleb died today. I dont think you could get any closer to describing anguish/sadness as well as this piece does. You will sorely be missed buddy. Rest in peace.

This is my most cherished choral piece. I don't listen to it often, because it makes me weep so intensely. I'm a big fan of Whitacre, and I dearly love Ron Staheli, who is one of the greatest mentors and teachers that I have had throughout my life. I cannot fathom how Ron worked through the rehearsals for this magnificent recording.

Ron Staheli, the director of the BYU Singers, lost his son in a tragic accident in 1996, three years before this was written. His son was 19. I'm fairly certain this piece was composed in memory of Staheli's son, and with reverence for Staheli's unparalleled ability to touch upon the subtlety and beauty of Whitacre's compositions. This piece will always access some remote part of my emotions that I live in fear of, and evoke much more than I could ever speak to. Much love for R.S., E.W. and the work the BYU Singers do.

In ‘99 I visited my sister during one of her many years singing with BYU Singers, and I attended a couple of rehearsals when they were learning this song to prepare for their tour that summer to Israel, Jordan, London, and Carnegie Hall - amazingly Eric Whitacre would send them a few pages of the completed score each week. He was still writing it as he sent it to them (in giant 14x17 inch double sided sheets) - as I sat in those rehearsals I watched them sing through what they’d already learned and then sight read his most recent pages. It was incredible! Years later I was at a community sing-along in Minnesota and E.W. was asked who he thought did the greatest job singing and conveying his work - without a pause he said “BYU Singers led by Dr. Staheli”. No one else sounds like this - and it’s 32 college students creating this sound!

This piece takes you on a journey through the waves of emotion that wash over you when someone so close to you dies...son, brother, mother, father, friend. It starts off as a single note...a single unbelievable announcement to your soul of a tragedy that you can't hardly believe, but that overtakes you, building to overwhelming emotion. I have felt that emotion only twice in my life, first when my father died and again when my mother died. You can feel yourself rocking back and forth in grief as the music builds, until you finally have cried yourself into a inevitable calm that comes from the exhaustion of the emptiness and disbelief that envelopes you. If you've ever experienced profound loss, this piece, and this performance, is all the explanation you will ever need to explain your feelings to the world. Absalom is your father, your mother, your child, your brother or sister, your friend who has died. The level of our grief expresses the immense love we felt for them in life. In the end, peace overtakes our hearts, bittersweet, but peace and acceptance, and love that lives on within us.

Who is here after Bible In A Year?

We learned this piece in high school! That 18 part harmony is no joke. It was so hard but it was so worth it when we nailed it!

The high C at 10:06 gives me huge goosebumps. It emphasizes the agony and tension and literally screams emotion. Definitely one of my favorite moments in the whole song.

I passed by Absalom's tomb most every day during a semester in Israel in 1978. I marveled at it, but after listening to this piece, my memory of that site has been enhanced beyond measure. Thank you, Eric, and the marvelous BYU Singers!

Well, thank you Whitacre and BYU. Now I no longer need to cry. I just let you wail my sadness away through this melody, and I feel the same release. To me, this song is the gift of crying.

I think if people would meditate on music like this more the anger in their hearts would be softened. Still, last week's bombing in Boston and all. I found Eric's music 10 days or so ago and have been weeping every since. I am 28 years in recovery and I am using it for devotion and meditation.............the doorway to heaven opens a little and I am more secure in my day, Thanks, Eric

And as much as it was painful for David to lose his son, as it would be for any parent, he lost a son who rebelled against him, tried to kill him, and did not appear to have faith. To lose a son on those kinds of terms, knowing that he rebelled against him and his God, would be the ultimate pain. Incredible job of portraying that deep sorrow in this song.

I first heard this when driving to work on classical radio. I had to stop and wipe the tears from my eyes. Certainly made me think about those in my life and other peoples who have passed away. Beautiful.

Lyrics: My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son My son Seriously though, what an amazing piece.

For just one paragraph of lyrics I have never been so astounded by the beauty and gut wrenching emotion of a piece before. This is so beautiful.

My son died two days ago. This song expresses my pain.

I could never have gotten through this song singing... It is so beautiful I would have just sat and cried

The first piece of music that has brought me to tears

This piece makes my heart ache. To create the feeling of such loss through music is a gift. That Eric Whitacre has created so many great works is testament to his talent.

I love this piece so much! I feel it is one of the most perfect rendering of the emotion that a parent feels at the loss of a child, The wailing, the deep seated pain, the soul rending outbursts of uncontrolled emotion. This captures the complete anguish David felt. I sit here listening to this piece with my 2 year old son on my lap...it puts a whole different feel to it to put myself in David's place. "Would God I had died for thee"...yep that sums up just about any parent's feelings No better composer than Eric Whitacre and no better choir to perform his discordant, close bound harmonies than the BYU singers. Their vocal control is quite possibly the best in the Collegiate world.

I'm normally looking up hip hop, metal or edm videos, but this song... let's see any other music make me cry like this. I am not one to cry, either.

First song i have listened to with such lovely comments. 'Heartwrenchingly" beautiful

You can always count on top-notch singing from the BYU Singers.

I feel bad for the people that disliked this video. They must not get the chills or goosebumps or tears or raw emotions the rest of us do when listening to this piece.

the chord transitions starting at around 1:20 are so immaculate it's unreal

The first time I heard this song was in 11th grade choir. Our director blasted it over the choir room speakers. And to this day it’s the most ethereal piece of music I’ve ever heard. I love to put headphones on and just dissolve into it.

I feel like... religious or not, if/when a parent hears this song, it like, does something. idk, I'm not a parent yet so I'll never imagine what this would mean to a parent vs someone who isn't. I do cry when I hear this song but that's because I'm weak for good, powerful music lol.

01:55 was eargasmic. 'Nuff said. 👌

I have never lost a live child, thank the heavens. I have one child, and cannot begin to imagine the horror of that pain. There is nothing right about losing a child. It is the most wrong, the most backwards thing this horrific universe can hurl at us, and this universe can hurl some ugly stuff. I have been a fan of Whitacre's since I first heard of him. That he wrote this without personally experiencing this pain is amazing. Just, wow. Wow.

An alumni of the UofU, I am conditioned to ignore and berate BYU at every opportunity, but when I hear and watch the BYU choral department's perfection of Whitacre's creativity, like this, I am a "Y" supporter at a deep level of conviction.

This song, along with adagio for strings are the most emotional songs I've ever heard. I must find more!

And the crazy thing is that David lamented after Absolom's death even though Absolom took his throne, raped his concubines, and tried to kill him and his followers. Right there is a true father's love.

I had to come and comment here, just to add my sentiments on this being quite possibly the most beautiful piece of music ever written. I just made the mistake of throwing it on at work with some new headphones I got, and I am sure I looked quite the fool sitting with tear stained eyes in my cubicle as several people passed by. It's transcendent, awesome, inspiring, everything.

How have I lived my life until today never hearing this beauty??

Great song. Every time I listen to the Soprano 1 singing the high C, I just shiver. Her tone is very sweet so it mixes well with the choir, yet she puts emotions into it that connect deeper than if someone with a darker timbre had sang it. I find it more heartbreaking to hear a bright, sweet timbre sing with lamentation and woe in straight tone. Absolutely splendid.

Couldn't agree more, Revelation319. The profound sorrow, grief and loss expressed in this piece gives the listener a glimpse of such a wrenching experience. Each uttered "my son"...such torture. What utter pain David felt to know that his son was literally "hell-bent" to self-destruction! How much more for GOD to see HIS children turn from HIM even at the cost of HIS Only Begotten Son...

Still the best recording of this piece. The group does a beautiful job of giving the chords gravitas and doesn't pull away from the piece due to blend or balance.

9:00 onward just breaks my heart

4:54 those chords right there are amazing, I love the depth of them. Eric Whitacre is an amazing composer and we are so lucky we are living in the same time period as him where we can experience his music first!

The chord progression from 13:54 to 14:02 makes my insides shake!!! He truly captures the essence of grief and lose through his music!! Even this is hard as hell to sing, it is so beautiful!

Music has never done this to me... I feel enlightened and just overall better. I'm not a religious person but this speaks to me. I am a 13 year old and I can't stop listening to this beautiful piece.

i loved singing this my senior year in highschool..its such an amazing piece...we put everything we had into. not a dry eye really...even our choir teacher was red faced. and every time where they first shout out Absalom. i get chills throughout my entire body. thank you for posting the full song on here. :)

True... After that horrible tragedy happened, I listened to this song and it finally came to me, that this song REALLY paints a musical picture of the pain a parent goes through losing a child. God help those families

What they didn't tell you is that at the time of Absalom's death, he was fighting his father's men and attempting to take over the kingdom. When David heard that his son had died though, he broke down into a sobbing mess, because he still loved his son so much. I think that's how God feels when we chose to turn away from him. He's willing to defend himself, but he's grieving the whole time because he absolutely still loves us even more than we can ever know.

If we had more than 18-19 people in my chamber choir, I would want to do this... Whitacre is brilliant. I wish we could pull off an 18 part chord and have it balanced like that.... Impressive!

This is a monumental choral piece. It reminds me of Song for Athene... I believe it to be Whitacre's magnum opus.

I rarely visit this piece. I do not have a son, yet i well up in tears EVERYTIME i hear that cluster chord resolve at 1:56.

This song shattered my soul the first time I heard it. Affects me every time I listen. Such an amazing and powerful song.

Indeed. I've said it so many times before, NO parent should have to bury their child :(

I kept it together until the last "Absalom" around 13:58ish and I just lost it. Eric, I can't even fathom how you brought this expression to life.

Incredible. Utterly jaw dropping the whole time. I love Eric whitacre.

Never have I heard music that truly expressed pure,, raw grief in the way this piece has. Absolutely heart-wrenching. I have never felt so moved to tears by music and sound alone. I've always loved Whitacre, but this piece was just so emotional, even for a Whitacre piece.

I love this song so much because I just feel the emotion and I can't help but get teared up. For chorus we sang Glow by Eric Whitacre and I'm just in love with his music. Best composer of all time.

I am in absolute floods of tears.

I think you'll find that's the point. It's a lament. For a son. Who has profoundly wounded his father's heart. And yet a father weeps. My son. My son. Achingly, agonisingly beautiful.

This is such a heart breaking depiction of this story...how the heck does he do it!?

Yeah, that high C in the sopranos is heart-wrenching

8:30 - 10:17 ...A song made me cry for the first time.The soft, agonizing whispers slowly grow strong as they turn into a heart wrenching scream of loss and sadness.Amazing...

I can see tears falling as I listen to this song. So beautiful. Eric Whitacre you are a genius!

A loud advertisement in the middle of this marvelous piece completely breaks the mood...

It gave me the chills! I love the intonation, intensity, resonance, harmony, and beautiful tone of the BYU Singers!

Singing this for highschool choir.... Amazing

This song was composed by Eric Whitacre for his friend, Ronald Staheli, the BYU Singers' conductor, after Ronald's son died. I can't imagine the emotions going through Staheli's mind as he conducted this piece the first time. Absolutely beautiful. I cry every time.

When David Heard was premiered by the BYU Singers in March of 1999 and was recorded in the Museum of Art on the BYU Campus. It appears on the Singer’s CD: Eric Whitacre: The Complete A Cappella Works, 1991-2001.

This song kills me every time.

Astounding. Stunning. Heart and soul abundant.

I heard this song at a governors school west concert and I just have to say that you may think you can hear all the emotion and pain now, but in person it's quite chilling to hear all of it together. Most all the audience was in tears afterwards. Even the "hard core" men.

from 7:56 onwards is just so amazing, by far my favorite part of the entire piece.

who on god's green earth downvoted this??

I very much appreciate people like you who have made these comments and love this type,of music just as I. I often get hate because of my preferred music styles.

CAST THE RING INTO THE FIRE, FRODO!!!

10:06 stabbed me in the gut and i instantly burst into tears. eric is truly an artist.

I haven’t listened to this in years. When my choir in University sang this, my great aunt who was like a mother to me had just been declared a vegetable after negligence in a surgery she had resisted getting for the exact reason she ended up eventually dying - she was nervous about the same negligence that caused her death. I was absolutely devastated and heart broken when she passed. I can’t tell you how cathartic it was to sing this piece with my best friends at the time around me. I will never understand how Eric Whitcre figured out how to depict the stages of grief so perfectly. From the onset of the news, to the denial, even down to the repressive feeling of being so sad that you feel like you can’t breath, and finally acceptance with the pain still bubbling under the surface. 8 years after her death and we performed this and I’m on the other side of the intensity of grief, and finally in a place where I feel okay to listen to it, but it took me right back to all those emotions. In a strange way, it makes me feel like I’m closer to my aunt because when I was having those emotions, my memories of her were still fresh and had not faded with time yet. Accessing those feelings opened up those memories too. Thank you Eric Whitacre ❤️

I just listened to the Royal College of Music choir sing this in London this evening. I'd never heard it before. It's just so harrowing, so emotive.

thanks for uploading this!!!

and when david heard he wept and went to his bed chamber and grieved...o, absalom, o absalom, my son, my son, would to God i have died, would to God i have died, would to god i have died for thee. my brothers and i lost my eldest brother suddenly, w/ no warning, as he sat in the waiting room, in order for him to see his doctor for supposed bronchitis. 6 hours prior, his 5th child was born and named after him. how cruel life can be, for my brother stood up, when called back to the examination room, after an hour wait. unfortunately, he failed to make his first step, as he died in that very spot. dead before he hit the floor. a year prior, my younger brother lost his first male baby, who was 9 mo's old. misdiagnosis of pneumonia.

1:55 gets to me every time. I love this composition and performance. Beautiful.

Basses....incredible! You can really hear their control at 12:50 ish. So amazing!

A masterpiece. Captures the emotions, reactions and grief contained in that brief scripture passage. This a great performance, the choir is inside the music.

Literally crying. No words.

Thank you for this masterpiece.❤️🙏

Thank you so much for posting this. It is a time tragedy in my community and this is it. And thank you Eric Whitacre for taking the time and love to create this.

This is utterly, utterly beautiful. Thank you so much for posting.

Wonderfully done

1:06 - 1:56 .. how it builds and layers and grows.. and crescendos ... omg ... so so moving.. Love it. Eric is so brilliant. How I would love to meet this artist ;)

Wonderful!!

This is so amazing live

I absolutely Love this song !!!!!!

Heart stopping.

Heart wrenching musical masterpiece.

sang this in an a capella choir, when in university. i am glad to find it hear. it is still as moving as i remember. neither could he, in his grief, be comforted.

chills and a loss for words. this is art.