I hope you enjoy “The Ground” by Ola Gjeilo as much as I do.
There’s this seeming stop after a very quiet part in the music and then it launches into a quiet, accompanied finale using the words “Dona Nobis Pacem” or “Give Us Peace.” I think that’s just beautiful and is honestly one of the most peaceful things I’ve heard in a composition anywhere. When I hear that opening piano part accompanied by the strings and choir, I feel this extreme sense of relaxation that persists throughout the entirety of the work. I believe very strongly in my heart that Ola Gjeilo accomplished his goal. Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.Īgnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,Īgnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed is he who comes in the name of God.īenedictus qui venit. This album features Tenebrae, Voces8, Ola Gjeilo (piano), Kristian Kvalvaag (guitar) and the Chamber Orchestra of London conducted by Nigel Short. Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.īenedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Gjeilo wrote this piece as a conclusion and he “wanted to convey a sense of having ‘arrived’ at the end of the Mass to have reached a kind of peace and grounded strength, after the long journey of the Mass, having gone through so many different emotional landscapes.” The text to the piece is: Ola Gjeilo is a Norwegian composer and this particular composition is from one of his larger works, “Sunrise Mass.” This piece, while not part of the Mass itself, is based on the chorale that is the finale of the mass and is written as such. Neither expressly sacred nor secular, this is an. The four movements bring us on a metaphysical journey from the heavens to earth, from the echo of The Spheres (Kyrie) to Identity & The Ground (Sanctus) with its earthlythemes. The piece we’ll be looking at today is: “The Ground” By Ola Gjeilo This spiritual, extended work uses the liturgical Latin text. I was recently brought back to it when asked to submit pieces for a choral bracket that we are now doing in Concert Choir. This was a piece I sang in a regional choir my junior year and it’s what ignited the spark in my passion for choral and classical music. This survey concludes by reviewing Gjeilo’s notable compositional techniques.įrom “Northern Lights” to “The Ground”: A Stylistic Survey of the Choral Works of Ola GjeiloHello all! Welcome back to another installation on the Classical Connections Blog! Today we are going to be looking at a choral piece that is very special to me. In addition to this, Gjeilo’s use of mediant relationships causes a sense of tonal ambiguity through his use of polyfunctional and polytonal harmonic structures.
These relationships play a critical role in Gjeilo’s sectional divisions and chordal progressions. Neo-Riemannian analysis supports this claim through Gjeilo’s incorporation of tertian relationships. In addition to text, this research demonstrates Gjeilo’s consistent devotion to the number three through tripartite forms and mediant harmonies. This research deconstructs Gjeilo’s approach to text painting, which portrays the broader idea of a text and exploits its coloristic elements. In his undergraduate career, Gjeilo studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music (19992001), transferred to the Juilliard School. Gjeilo studied classical composition with Wolfgang Plagge. Multi-parametric analyses of Gjeilo’s works reveal the characteristics of his music. Ola Gjeilo was born to Inge and Anne-May Gjeilo, and grew up in Skui, Norway.He began playing piano and composing when he was five years old and learned to read music when he was seven years old. Using formal and harmonic analyses of several of Gjeilo’s most notable pieces, this research dissects Gjeilo’s treatment of text, his use of tertian relationships, his consistency in formal designs, and his use of polytonal and polyfunctional relationships. But do not let that stop you in your tracks. This research provides a stylistic survey of contemporary choral composer Ola Gjeilo’s compositional style. Choral work is not the most commercially viable music and if your intent is to fulfill the musical appetite you sort via Gjeilo’s outstanding 2007 effort Stone Rose, then this might not be the album for you.