Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine - Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

Text by Charles Anthony Silvestri

Eric Whitacre's Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine (2001) is one of the most imaginative choral works of the 21st century — a vivid sonic portrait of Leonardo da Vinci as inventor, artist and dreamer. Commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association and premiered by the Brigham Young University Singers, it completes Whitacre's so-called “Dream Trilogy,” alongside Sleep and Lux Aurumque.

Charles Anthony Silvestri's libretto is written partly in English and partly in Italian, drawing upon Leonardo's notebooks to evoke both his analytical mind and his poetic vision. The English narration depicts the restless inventor “tormented by his vision” as he sketches and constructs, while the Italian passages — “Ma che bel sogno di volare!” (“What a beautiful dream, to fly!”) — give voice to Leonardo's inner imagination. The result is a text that feels both historical and dreamlike.

Whitacre's music turns the choir into Leonardo's machine itself: breathy effects and rhythmic repeated patterns imitate the whirring of gears, the flutter of experimental wings and the mechanical rhythm of invention. Against this, sweeping melodic lines rise from the texture, expressing the yearning of flight and the fragile beauty of Leonardo's dream. Whitacre's lush yet open harmonies — built from close clusters and parallel chords — create a sense of weightlessness, as if the sound itself is defying gravity.

The work builds to an ecstatic climax as the chorus exclaims “E vola!” (“And he flies!”). In that moment, Leonardo's dream is realized and the music soars with radiance and momentum. But the triumph is brief, the machine's hum returns, fading into the same mysterious murmurs that began the piece. The cycle of dreaming and creation begins anew.

More than a portrait of a Renaissance genius, Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine is a meditation on the human spirit — on invention, imagination and the longing to transcend our earthly limits. Through the fusion of Silvestri's text and Whitacre's evocative harmonies, we are invited to experience Leonardo's vision from within: the delicate, dazzling moment when dream becomes flight.