Northern Lights by Ola Gjeilo, performed by Elektra

Elektra | https://elektra.ca Morna Edmundson, C.M. https://mornaedmundson.com
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The SSAA version of Ola’s “Northern Lights”, well-known in its original SATB setting, was written for Elektra in 2014. In describing the work, the composer says:

“Most of all, this piece and its text is about beauty. About a ‘terrible’, powerful beauty, although the music is quite serene on the surface. Looking out from an attic window one Christmas close to Oslo, over a wintry lake under the stars, I was thinking about how this ‘terrible’ beauty is so profoundly reflected in the northern lights, or aurora borealis, which, having grown up in the southern part of the country, I have only seen once or twice in my life. It is one of the most beautiful natural phenomena I’ve ever witnessed, and has such a powerful, electric quality that must have been both mesmerizing and terrifying to people in the past, when no one knew what it was and when much superstition was attached to these experiences.”

Translation
Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely daughter of Jerusalem. Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem. Terrible as an army set in array. Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have made me flee away.

Video editing: Shannon Lythgoe https://shannonlythoe.ca