![]() Happily, at least on evidence here, Norwegian-born/New York-based composer Ola Gjeilo (nearly every review or article about him comes with the tag after his name: “pronounced Yay-lo”) is not one of the latter. I’m not talking about composers who thoughtfully and creatively influence the development and possibilities of choral music, encouraging us to listen and think about choral singing in new ways I’m referring to those who appear to equate advancement of art with making its practice and expression (performance) just more difficult, and thus less and less accessible to both performers and consumers. ![]() In these cases, meaningful musical or emotional connection is elusive, as is any relationship of music to the text. Instead, I’m confronted with sounds and effects, complexly constructed and technically difficult, seemingly for the sake of complexity and difficulty. But in recent years, so often on recordings of new choral works the pleasure is missing. ![]() There are many reasons to listen to a recording of choral music: pleasure ranks high on my list.
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