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The Choral Music of Ola Gjeilo: a New Vision of the Choral Instrument in the 21St Century

The choral music of Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo (pronounced “yay-loh”) is gaining international acclaim and is widely performed and commissioned by prominent high school, university, and professional choirs. It represents a philosophical approach and vision of the choral instrument for which the conductor must have a clear understanding in order to prepare a meaningful performance. in particular, his music merges diverse musical influences, which results in a product of unique character among choral compositions in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Gjeilo draws inspiration from a text but then uses its sonic qualities (the sounds of vowels and consonants) to create an atmosphere of sound instead of following the traditions in choral and vocal music of using musical mechanisms (melody, rhythm, and harmony) to reinforce the text poetically. This study provides an overview of Gjeilo’s background, in Chapter 1, and discusses its influence on his compositional philosophy. Chapter 2 contains musical examples from selected works, which are used to illuminate unique attributes found in Gjeilo’s music. Chapter 3 presents important implications to consider aiding choral conductors in their preparation of future performances of Gjeilo’s music.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc115152
Date05 1900
CreatorsSchmidt, Brian A., 1980-
ContributorsMcCoy, Jerry, Morscheck, Stephen, Sparks, Richard
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatv, 41 pages : music, Text
RightsPublic, Schmidt, Brian A., 1980-, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.
RelationRecital: February 24, 2011, ark:/67531/metadc171999, Recital: October 14, 2010, ark:/67531/metadc89432, Recital: October 20, 2011, ark:/67531/metadc171673, Lecture: March 12, 2012, ark:/67531/metadc1913166

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