And, apparently, it foreshadows the third relationship that will end the song. It’s not quite a real statement of the theme, but it foreshadows it. And, looking backwards, it appears that this relationship is an echo of the very first statement of something like the first theme: the solo descant on the words “sacred expanse,” which begins on C, the third of A minor. So, while avoiding the stark obviousness of just modulating to the parallel major, it also avoids any overall effect of sinking. But the third time, “While clouds dance Across the vast eternal sky,” begins on G–the third of E-flat major. “Snowy patches strewn, Anchored to the craggy earth” in the second section, starting on G. “Of green and white and granite grey,” in the first section, starting on A. I think the answer comes from the main theme. But after the modern, down-one-step modulation, why would a composer to go down another third and change mode?

Then there’s another key change right at the very end to E-flat major–nothing surprising there: chromatic mediants have been our friends since Haydn. But in the midst of all that wide, vast, expanse, we also have a sense of weight, of gravity. And that fits the text and the affect of the music overall, which is expansive and broad of girth, oceanic. More subjectively, I think it evokes grounding.

The modulation is a large-scale reflection of the stepwise descending lines of the introduction’s vocal lines and of the piano’s left hand half notes in mm. That’s not a typical, common-practice-era-style key change, so what’s it for?įirst of all, stepwise descent is a thing throughout the whole song. 29 of 57), which sinks from A minor to G minor. The primary structural axis seems to be the big key change in the middle (m. Now that I’m looking at it like a conductor, I’m looking at the structure to see how it really works. Now I actually get to prepare it for myself, which requires rather more decisions.

So, I’ve already been leading sectional rehearsals in Women’s Choir and begun preparing it with the women of Concert Choir, but I was preparing it for someone else to conduct it. The Baylor University recording is, in my opinion, the best on YouTube by far: It turns out I’m going to get to conduct it, which is fabulous because I really dig it. Women’s Choir and the women of Concert Choir will be combining to sing Ola Gjeilo’s “Tundra” on the final concert of the semester–my final concert at UConn.

Tundra ola gjeilo piano