Hyperion Records

There is a similar ambiguity with Whitacre’s three E E Cummings settings, which he describes as ‘Three Songs of Faith’ (or ‘of Praise’ elsewhere), and as ‘a cycle of pieces about my own personal faith’: personal faith, then, as a private ‘belief system’ and reflections on the spiritual and unknowable, not circumscribed by ‘religious’ faith. In his note for i thank You God for most this amazing day Whitacre comments: ‘The poetry strikes me as shiny and brilliant, and many of the chords (especially settings of the words painting the indescribable, i.e. “infinite”, “You”, “opened”, “God”) are intentionally designed to shimmer.’ And about hope, faith, life, love he admits to having had trouble setting the whole poem, which would call for vibrant and virtuosic music, ‘a real show piece … the more I thought about faith however, the more introspective I became, and I modified the poem entirely to fit that feeling. I took only the first four words (“hope, faith, life, love”) and the last four (“dream, joy, truth, soul”) and set each of them as a repeating meditation.’

from notes by Meurig Bowen © 2006