CWU Chamber Choir: Gjeilo - "Dark Night Of The Soul"

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• published: 05 Oct 2015
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“Dark Night of the Soul” (Ola Gjeilo) is sung by The Central Washington University Chamber Choir (Gary Weidenaar, director) joined by Ola Gjeilo on the piano and the Kairos String Quartet (comprised of CWU string faculty) TEXT: One dark night, fired with love’s urgent longings —ah, the sheer grace!— I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. In darkness, and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised, —ah, the sheer grace!— in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled. On that glad night, in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look at anything, with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart. - St. John of the Cross (1542-1592) ABOUT THE WORK: “Dark Night of the Soul was written in 2010, and premiered that year by the Phoenix Chorale. The text, three stanzas from St. John of the Cross’ magical poem Dark Night of the Soul, was suggested to me by Joel Rinsema, Executive Director of the Phoenix Chorale, and I fell in love with its passionate spirituality right away. One of the things I wanted to do in this piece was to make the choir and piano fairly equal, as if in a dialogue; often the piano is accompanying the choir, but sometimes the choir is accompanying the piano (or violin) as well, with the choir kind of taking the role of a soft, but rich “string orchestra” texture. I just love the sound of voices humming chords, it creates a sound that can be so evocative and warm, especially when doubled by a string quartet. To me, that sound combination has a similar effect to a great synth pad, only it perhaps feels more organic and alive.” – Ola Gjeilo ABOUT THE COMPOSER: Ola Gjeilo (pronounced Yay-lo) was born in Norway in 1978, and moved to the United States in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City. Ola’s concert works are performed all over the world, and his debut recording as a pianist-composer, the lyrical crossover album Stone Rose, was followed by its 2012 sequel, Piano Improvisations. Many of Ola’s choral works are featured on Phoenix Chorale’s bestselling Northern Lights album, which is devoted entirely to his music for choir. All three albums are available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. A full-time concert music composer based in New York City, Ola is also very interested in film, and his music often draws inspiration from movies and cinematic music. Ola’s choral works are published by Walton Music, wind band works by Boosey & Hawkes, and piano pieces by Edition Peters. For more information, find Ola on Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, Instagram, and at his YouTube channel. ABOUT THE CHOIR: Since 2009, the choir has held annual recording sessions to create videos specifically designed for YouTube. All are under the baton of Dr.Gary A. Weidenaar, who has been the director of the choir since 2006. As of 2015, there are more than 20 videos. Ten of those feature the music of Ola Gjeilo and are the result of working with Mr. Gjeilo in 3 recording sessions over a 5 year period. The choir has videos of Gjeilo’s Sanctus, Across the Vast Eternal Sky, Contrition, Luminous Night of the Soul, the Ground, Ubi Caritas I and II, and Northern Lights This was Ola's third time on CWU's campus. His first visit was in the spring of 2011 and yielded 5 videos of his music, a wide-ranging interview with the composer and other bonus material. It also resulted in a DVD entitled "In the Moment", available for purchase at http://goo.gl/Xld0o. The CWU Chamber Choir also has recorded videos of music by Byrd, Gretchaninoff, Monteverdi, Muehleisen, Singh, Victoria, and Rautavaara. To follow the choir on Facebook (page includes selected audio clips and URL's to all videos): https://www.facebook.com/CWU.Chamber.Choir OR - - A complete listing of the videos of the CWU Chamber Choir and other CWU Music Ensembles can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/CWUmusicdept ABOUT THE VIDEO: This Video was produced by Matt Woodard at WoodSong Productions. http://www.woodsongproductions.com Camera operators were: Allen Larsen, Chris Smart, Rick Spencer and Matt Woodard. All CWU Chamber Choir videos found on YouTube are posted only after an agreement is reached or a contract is signed with the composer and/or copyright holder(s) of the piece(s).