I can very clearly picture in my mind a crackle of green swirling above my head, coming to a peak, and then gradually dimming away.
The denouement features a reprise of the first section, with some slightly different harmonies, and then the piece ends with a sustained note from the altos and the rest of the parts slowly diminishing into a soft pianissimo.
The piece climaxes with all parts coming together in another breathtaking dissonance on “…for they have overcome me, my love.” The lines build and then pause in a dissonant chord before moving on to the “B” section, which again features the melody being passed between the women’s parts. Gjeilo’s a cappella Northern Lights starts off very quiet and serene, with sopranos and altos taking turns with the melody. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin… Swimming in an ocean of glow… In some moments it feels like Earth is actually alive.” “Words can’t describe how it feels flying through an aurora,” said European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst. Two years ago, the crew aboard the ISS was treated to a spectacular show as the station actually flew through the aurora during a period of particularly heavy solar activity. International Space Station as a swirling, green cloud reaching more than 250 miles above the Earth’s surface. How can something so scientifically simple as solar particles colliding with Earth’s upper atmosphere inspire such awe? Or imagine viewing it from the While doing the real thing little justice, photographs of the aurora show a raw, primal beauty that pulls at the spirit of adventure in all of us. “And it has such a powerful, electric quality that must have been both mesmerising and terrifying to people in the past, when no one knew what it was…” “It is one of the most beautiful natural phenomena I’ve ever witnessed,” he says. However, as he was reflecting on the text, he thought about the terrible beauty (in this case meaning “formidable”) that is so profoundly displayed in the aurora. Having grown up in the southern part of the country, he had only seen the northern lights once or twice in his life. He wrote Northern Lights in the winter of 2007 while staying near Oslo, Norway. Gjeilo’s inspiration for this piece is beauty… the beauty of the exquisite prose reflecting the words of Christ to His bride, the Church… and the beauty the terrible beauty of one of nature’s most powerful phenomena, the aurora borealis. Turn your eyes away from me, For they overcome me.”
Northern lights ola gjeilo full#
“Sweet and comely as Jerusalem, As terrible as an army in full array. The text is from the Song of Solomon, chapter 6: You are beautiful, O my love… Gjeilo, a young Norwegian composer is well known for his sacred texts set to modern melodies, his hauntingly beautiful harmonies, and for naming his pieces after who or what inspired its creation in the first place.
One such piece the ACC will be performing on October 8 is Ola Gjeilo’s Northern Lights.
I mean, makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and everything. In every concert’s repertoire, there is at least one piece that truly connects with me on an emotional or spiritual level, or both. Today, we share with you an article written by Rachel Robison, a member and soloist of the ACC, concerning the work Northern Lights by Ola Gjeilo, which will be featured on our October 8 “Star-Made Shadows” concert…