Anna Lapwood conducts Eric Whitacre's Seal Lullaby - Pembroke College Girls' Choir

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Eric Whitacre's Seal Lullaby, introduced here by one of our youngest choristers, Mia Arana Tagle. The Seal Lullaby is another one of our lockdown pieces. The girls were encouraged to request repertoire for us to look at in our remote rehearsals when we couldn’t meet in person, and this was one of the pieces they chose. It quickly became a choir favourite. Whitacre described how this piece started its life as a song for an animated film based on Rudyard Kipling’s The White Seal, which begins with a mother seal singing softly to her young pup. The film never happened in the end, but the piece was already written, and Whitacre describes how he sang it to his baby son every night to try and get him to go to sleep. The piece now exists in several different configurations for multiple different voice parts, but I’m particularly fond of this version for upper voices. There is something about the slight fragility and innocence of young voices which I find incredibly moving when combined with Kipling’s text.

[@christopherjones8168]

I just love 'musical niceness'. Thank you Mia for such a lovely description.

[@davestelling]

That Anna and her talented young choristers all have Christian souls is a thing of peace & joy...

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

This song frequently reduces me to tears. No exception with this performance. Thanks to Anna and Ladies.

[@arkanjoc]

Anna Lapwood always making me cry (now with choir) hahahaha I love Eric's compositions, huge fan of both, him and Anna. SUCH passion for music! Cheers from Brazil, thank you for always share your connection with us

[@MarthalieThurstonSachemPiper]

Beautiful arrangement performed gently with a nice flowing tempo. Most enjoyable.

[@dan92677]

Lovely, just lovely !

[@annemuirhead7841]

Thank you for gentling me into the weekend! Such a sensitive rendition - I feel billowed by the waves.

[@JaydeJAC]

My choir had to sing this song. Since I couldn't sing the Bass, I had to sing alto. Its bringing back so many memories.

[@RalphLooij]

So simple and delicate. I've sung many Whitacre pieces (the cluster pieces mainly), this is quite different but very nice and musical.

[@Cuccius]

Lovely piece magnificently sung! Thank you

[@mirtafratnik7012]

Moving piece, conduction and execution.

[@susanne5803]

Yes!✨🖖

[@dnbeckmann]

Lovely! Brilliant work, ladies.

[@fibbooo1123]

Wonderful!

[@georgeboyce3883]

Loved this

[@leslieackerman4189]

Great looking choirs, superbly filmed. They choose beautiful music and beautiful singing as their premise. The aesthetics include how they themselves (and their director!) reach our eyes. Yes: beauty.

[@ahoughton]

Beautiful sound! Loved it!

[@PortsladeBySea]

Superb! 👏🏆👏

[@nkanduchama6071]

I remember the time you came to Zambia that was healing

[@joari123]

Great! 😊👍

[@Ronald7077]

I came across this by accident - truly relaxing and a choir of angels spring to mind - maybe off screen they are not though 😉

[@andreadamasceno34]

🇧🇷🥰🥰🥰🥰 so beautiful

[@Truthtouch-ke4yv]

Hm.. Children Are the soil of any land. 🙂❤️

[@Truthtouch-ke4yv]

P.S. "Musical niceness" - yep! 😁👍❤️

[@autumnleaf1973]

Beautifully done, tempo is a little fast though given this piece is a lullaby

[@edwing71]

Very enjoyable tempo, I'd say. A bit faster than suggested by Whitacre, but it gives the piece a fresh and fluent touch.

[@stan.rarick8556]

👍