From “Northern Lights” to “The Ground”: A Stylistic Survey of the Choral Works of Ola Gjeilo

This research provides a stylistic survey of contemporary choral composer Ola Gjeilo’s compositional style. 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. Multi-parametric analyses of Gjeilo’s works reveal the characteristics of his music. This research deconstructs Gjeilo’s approach to text painting, which portrays the broader idea of a text and exploits its coloristic elements. In addition to text, this research demonstrates Gjeilo’s consistent devotion to the number three through tripartite forms and mediant harmonies. Neo-Riemannian analysis supports this claim through Gjeilo’s incorporation of tertian relationships. These relationships play a critical role in Gjeilo’s sectional divisions and chordal progressions. 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. This survey concludes by reviewing Gjeilo’s notable compositional techniques.