Eric Whitacre – Cloudburst

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Early February in Los Angeles typically brings the “wet season” into full fruition. While certainly creating it’s fair share of annoyances and disturbances, I’ve got to admit that I’m certainly glad at how GREEN it’s making everything around here.

Finally, after months of brown, smoggish ambivalence, the skies, now washed clean of all their soot, are displaying the utter majesty of the Southern Californian landscape, complete with snow capped mountains in full view, hillsides of green, and rays of beautiful light (between breaks in the rainfall).

My students certainly aren’t enjoying the wet weather and many of them, lacking the foresight to properly prepare with umbrella and/or raincoat and/or goulashes, simply remain outside in the inclement weather, bringing the rain inside with them as they start to learn algebraic inequalities.

Posted above in this blog is one of my favorite “wet weather” songs: Cloudburst, by contemporary choral composer Eric Whitacre. This is best listened to on a rainy day, in a darkened room, turned up to 11.

If classical is not much of your thing, here’s perhaps my next favorite “wet weather” song, profoundly titled The Rain Song, by Led Zeppelin. Enjoy.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.