Eric Whitacre - The Seal Lullaby (Album version w Lyrics)

Eric Whitacre:
"In the spring of 2004 I was lucky enough to have my show Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings presented at the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop. The workshop is the brainchild of legendary composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell), and his insights about the creative process were profoundly helpful. He became a great mentor and friend to the show and, I am honored to say, to me personally.

Soon after the workshop I received a call from a major film studio. Stephen had recommended me to them and they wanted to know if I might be interested in writing music for an animated feature. I was incredibly excited, said yes, and took the meeting.

The creative executives with whom I met explained that the studio heads had always wanted to make an epic adventure, a classic animated film based on Kipling’s The White Seal. I have always loved animation (the early Disney films; Looney Tunes; everything Pixar makes) and I couldn’t believe that I might get a chance to work in that grand tradition on such great material.

The White Seal is a beautiful story, classic Kipling, dark and rich and not at all condescending to kids. Best of all, Kipling begins his tale with the mother seal singing softly to her young pup. (The opening poem is called The Seal Lullaby).

I was struck so deeply by those first beautiful words, and a simple, sweet Disney-esque song just came gushing out of me. I wrote it down as quickly as I could, had my wife record it while I accompanied her at the piano, and then dropped it off at the film studio.

I didn’t hear anything from them for weeks and weeks, and I began to despair. Did they hate it? Was it too melodically complex? Did they even listen to it? Finally, I called them, begging to know the reason that they had rejected my tender little song. “Oh,” said the exec, “we decided to make Kung Fu Panda instead.”

So I didn’t do anything with it, just sang it to my baby son every night to get him to go to sleep. (Success rate: less than 50%.) And a few years later the Towne Singers graciously commissioned this arrangement of it. I’m grateful to them for giving it a new life. And I’m especially grateful to Stephen Schwartz, to whom the piece is dedicated. His friendship and invaluable tutelage has meant more to me than I could ever tell him."

Recreated and re-uploaded video because I found a better audio source (FLAC/Lossless) instead of MP3. The audio is also very quiet even at it's loudest so a significant 6 dB boost was added to the volume. I made sure there is no clipping, so there has been no degradation of quality.

I also was having issues with Youtube miss identifying the artist as Seal, the UK pop singer. I opened a ticket with them and realized that they had already fixed the issue. So to prevent my account from getting a strike I removed the video and re-uploaded it. Sorry to everyone who had this video bookmarked.

Video: 1080p, x264, const.18, High Profile
Audio: AAC-LC, 512 Kbps

Artist: Eric Whitacre
Label: Decca
ASIN: B003ODHXEG

[ArcanineTamer]

We got to sing this WITH Eric Whitacre conducting us in LA around....3 years ago! He was amazing! Funniest moment was before we started he did a Q&A with the Choir. One of our girls raised her hand like a fangirl and shouted "WHAT CONDITIONER DO YOU USE!?" And, as majestic as a lion, he flipped his glorious mane of hair and replied: I don't use women in the theater immediately got pregnant.

[squiggles]

My choir teacher left because she is having a baby and our new "sub" is teaching us this song so when she visits, we can sing her baby this lullaby *-* so cute

[lunarequine]

This was the last choir song that our high school choir teacher taught my class in senior year before he passed away from cancer. He was like a father to us more than a teacher. Losing him was like losing a parent. Rest easy, Wes Rainer, you left a wonderful and powerful impact on every student to set foot in your classroom. ❤️

[JoshSaysStuff]

This is one of my favorite songs, period. It just has that special something that makes me nostalgic for things that never happened.

[emeraldfire]

can i just point out that "wee flipperling" is pretty much the cutest description of any animal ever?

[michaelpeters]

Note to self: listening to Eric Whitacre’s “Seal Lullaby” when rocking your one year old grandson to sleep really helps him relax and fall asleep. 🎶❤️🎶

Note to self: listening to Eric Whitacre’s “Seal Lullaby” while looking at your beautiful sleeping grandson makes Grandpa cry… a lot. ❤️😢

[godzilla]

Perfect song to play when sitting on the beach at night, with a full moon.

[gduck]

I do seal rescue in Orkney, and recently had to put a pup to sleep because they weren't going to make it. Thank you for giving me a song to say goodbye to my 'weary wee flipperling'.
I sing to the seals, and sometimes they sing back. This song isn't far from the voices of a seal colony singing as the sky and sea changes colour on a calm midsummer night.

[rebeccathlick]

I sang this in my high school choir...years later, I'm out of college and when I listen to this song I still feel the calmness of it all. I can listen to this masterpiece and look back, grateful to have been able to sing/perform it with my group. I miss my high school/choir days so much! If I could go back I would, but for now I look back with much fondness🤍

[foxkrystal]

Fun fact, this song was composed for a Dreamworks film about a seal but got cancelled. I learned this when I was given this song for my choir back in High School.

[gabrielapollard]

I’m 3.5 years into college and I still remember every word from my time in choir 🥺 I miss music

[chaaaaaaaance]

my DREAM is to sing this beauty w my high school choir. i don’t care if it’s TMEA, school choir, or whatever else. i’m going to sing this. I MUST

[ponybottle]

Choking back the sobs listening to this....
Gets me every time....

[MonsterHighAddict]

We're doing this for choir and I'm just crying because it's too beautiful like FINALLY A GOOD SONG TO SING

[userv]

Am I the only one who gets super tingly vibes at the “so green” and “thy ease” part?

[gingergiggles]

We sang this in my choir back in High School, its still one of my favorites. I would have loved to see the movie Disney had originally intended to make.

[thewayofway]

Let it be known that on this day of September 25th 2017, "The Seal Lullaby" reached 1 million views. Such a gorgeous piece.

[katarinasutherlin]

Im singing this in my school choir, it is truelly an honor.

[ArchistYT]

The dislikes are a result of the slipping fingers from the chills this song gave them

[rikkiz]

My senior choir is learning this for our winter concert. It’ll be my last winter concert as a senior in highschool and the last time I see my choir teacher before she leaves on maternity leave. It’s such a beautiful song