Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir is a most tantalizingly,beautiful example of digital rhetorics that spans many genres to communicate a shared vision. What started as an homage to composer and conductor Whitacre in a seemingly innocent YouTube video led to the unprecedented creation of a choir of voices that spanned continents, genres and age groups and has wide reaching influence in its delivery. Keith Grant-Davie, in Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents defines rhetorical situations as "sets of interacting influences from which rhetoric arises, and which rhetoric in turn influences" (264). Whitacre chooses to create rhetorical discourse within the context of YouTube, with audio and video, spanning space and time in ways that are unprecedented. As Grant-Davie points out exigence doesn't necessarily have to arise from a problem but can be a reason to celebrate, and I believe that Whitacre indeed celebrates the exigence of creating a medium in which a wide, diverse audience can appreciate a form of music they may not have had the opportunity to enjoy or the desire for that matter. The Virtual Choir is an example of kairos or good timing that is crucial for wide spread acceptance or "virality".
Multiple rhetors and audiences can be identified in the creation of the Virtual Choir. Over 2000 voices in 58 countries are represented by the "choir" members, each with their own experience and intention. Whitacre has a vision for what he intends to communicate through the music and the composition itself, as does the editor and creator of the YouTube video; each having a unique identity to transmit a message to millions of online viewers each with their own capacity to understand and identify with the rhetorical device. Using the platform of YouTube creates a universal audience in which the "roles of rhetor and audience are dynamic and interdependent" (271). The actors (rhetor and audience) negotiate new identities which may or may not be roles they intended to play. Whitacre described the participants or rhetors in this project as "these souls all on their own dessert islands sending electronic messages in bottles to each other" (8:31 Ted Talk) Could we then view these rhetors not as human beings at all but collections of 0s and 1s acting as digital rhetoricians not constrained by geographical issues such as space and time? Does this form of rhetorics transcend constraints because of virtual proximity?
Covino and Jollife in the essay What is Rhetoric? define style or elocution in postmodern rhetorical terms as "the process of 'giving presence' to ideas that rhetors want their audiences to attend to...'events which, without his intervention, would be neglected but now occupy our attention'". Had Whitacre chosen to ignore the single voice that reached out to him to create a rhetoric that uses a medium (choral composition) unfamiliar and underutilized by many in the YouTube audience he would have neglected to occupy the attention of such a vast and diversified audience. He would have missed the opportunity to advance a truly remarkable vision of truth and unity in the beauty that is the music and the editorial comment of the video itself.
What voice does The Virtual Choir speak with? Is it the voice of the vision that is Whitacre's? Are the individual voices of the singers the composers of the text? What role does the discourse community play in the intertextuality of the choir? The discourse community that is the YouTube community has determined that the choral piece is important and appropriate to examine. The ethos that Whitacre brings to the project creates an element of validity and importance that appeals to the community's values. It seems from the enormous amounts of "hits" on the video, many members of the community appreciate the beauty and brilliance of the composition and appreciate the intertextuality which makes this choral piece accessible and relevant. The Virtual Choir's success can be summed up by James Porter in Intertextuality when he states "success is measured by the writer's ability to know what can be presupposed and to borrow that community's traces effectively to create a text that contributes to the maintenance or, possibly, the definition of the community" (Porter 43). I believe the Choir has hit the right note!
You did an excellent job of tying Whitacre's Virtual Choir into the principles of rhetoric! Pointing out that the virtual choir wasn't just urgency but a reason to celebrate is true. I was mostly focused on the urgency of the choir members to be accepted as a part of something while I should have spent more time recognizing the beauty of the situation.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I would love to know more about you. You should post an introduction. :)
I think from the readings I had never considered the idea that an exigence could be something to celebrate and Whitacre's Choir really drove the point home. I have always associated rhetoric as a bunch of "talking heads" blowing smoke, or angry citizens at a City Commission meeting attempting to come to an agreement, but never had I thought about it as a celebration. I will definitely post an intoduction!
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