The soprano line follows an interesting melodic pattern: starting on E, they move down to C# – D# – B – C# – A.
The piece flows in and out of C-sharp minor each new syllable adds to or subtly changes the harmony, which results in a constantly shifting mood. The music is a gorgeous layering of sound, each voice overlapping and slowly changing as the harmonies progress. The text is taken from the traditional Latin Kyrie Eleison: Latin text Most of my favorite composers are film composers working in America today, and this piece is partly influenced by movies and film scores from the past few years that I love dearly.” The Spheres I wanted the musical development of the work to evolve from the most transparent and spacey, to something completely earthy and grounded from nebulous and pristine to more emotional and dramatic, and eventually warm and solid – as a metaphor for human development from child to adult, or as a spiritual journey. “The reason I used English titles, seemingly unrelated to the (mostly) Latin texts, for the movements in this setting of the Mass has mainly to do with the initial idea behind Sunrise Mass. 1978) created this 30-minute work for choir and strings with four sections: The Spheres (Kyrie), Sunrise (Gloria), The City (Credo), and Identity & The Ground (Sanctus/ Benedictus & Agnus Dei). Called Sunrise Mass, Norwegian composer Olja Gjeilo (b. Since then it has released several joint recordings with its sister choir, the Kansas Chorale, featuring among others Alexander Grechaninov’s Passion Week, the disc nominated for a Grammy in no fewer than four categories, including Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance, winning in the Best Engineered and Classical album categories.Remember earlier this week when I posted about O Magnum Mysterium, a 16th century motet taken from Catholic Mass? Well, today I want to share another Mass with you – but this one is from the 21st century. The Phoenix Chorale made its first appearance on Chandos in 2004 with Shakespeare in Song. The music reflects the powerful and electric quality of the northern lights, which must have seemed both mesmerising and terrifying to people in the past when no one knew what they were, and superstition prevailed. In contrast, Northern Lights takes its inspiration from Gjeilo’s homeland, Norway, and the ‘terrible beauty’ of the natural phenomenon that may be observed there. He describes Phoenix as ‘symphonic in nature… one of those pieces where the text is very much the servant of the music, not the other way around’. When Gjeilo first visited the choir in Arizona, he had never been to the desert before, and the ‘quiet beauty and barrenness of the landscape’ moved him deeply. Phoenix, a setting of the Agnus Dei, is dedicated to Charles Bruffy and the Phoenix Chorale in honour of its fiftieth anniversary.
Soon after, Gjeilo was invited to be the Chorale’s first Composer-in-Residence.
Bruffy brought Gjeilo’s music to the Chorale and its audiences, and the response was immediate. When he first heard Gjeilo’s Ubi caritas, Charles Bruffy was instantly hooked, finding the music ‘refreshing and magnetic’. On this album the Choir performs choral works, and settings of sacred texts by the Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. The critically acclaimed, Arizona-based Phoenix Chorale (formerly Phoenix Bach Choir) originally focused on music of the Renaissance and baroque periods, but today is equally dedicated to the creation and performance of new music.
0 kommentar(er)
