aworks :: "new" american classical music

Dark Waves (2007). John Luther Adams /mesmerizing foreboding/

Steve Hicken on John Luther Adams' Dark Waves:

Dark Waves is an aptly titled piece for two pianos and electronic sounds. The piece moves through time in a series of swelling and receding sounds lurking in the lower registers of the pianos for most of the piece. The feeling is one of mesmerizing foreboding.

Stephen Drury and a former Drury student Yukiko Takagi are the pianists. The album is on eMusic.

The composer:

Amid the turbulent waves we may still find the light, the wisdom and the courage we need to pass through this darkness of our own making.

The Place Where You Go to Listen (2006). John Luther Adams

Kyle Gann on John Luther Adams' The Place Where You Go to Listen:

He worked out just the effects he wanted on some other software, and then hired a young Max-programming genius, Jim Altieri, to replicate it. He envisioned the sound, the effect, the affect, but he knew he didn’t possess the genius to create the instrument he needed.

By the way, I like the conceptual art of Sol Lewitt.

the place where you go to listen: article on the museum installation. kyle gann. liner notes by howard klein (pdf) mentioning how the music of zappa led adams to the avant-garde of varèse, cowell etc. and eventually to tenney and feldman.

In the White Silence (1998). John Luther Adams /gann/

Kyle Gann posts about the music of John Luther Adams:

He's written an astonishing number of pieces that use only "white" notes, no sharps or flats, including his large orchestra piece In the White Silence, which I've posted in its gorgeous 75-minute entirety.

I  blogged on this piece last summer -- not a particular favorite. It's been awhile but I prefer The Far Country of Sleep composed in memory of Morton Feldman. And, New Albion reports some new compositions:

Other works in progress include "Crow and Weasel" - a new collaboration with Barry Lopez and the Sundance Institute - and "Alaskan Dances", a cycle of pieces for solo harp or guitar, based on music of Alaska's indigenous peoples.

The barren aspect of the arctic appeals to me but I had my fill of cold and snow, having lived in the Midwest. The Barry Lopez book is recommended, though. But can you believe Californians voluntarily drive up to the Sierra Nevadas to have winter fun?  Crazy. Great in the summer, though...

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Update: Richard Friedman recommends John Luther Adams' book Winter Music: Composing the North (and points out Adams as one of the featured composers in this month's Other Minds Festival):

A number of composers have written about their world, craft, and music before. Hindemith wrote a number of books, mostly technical though. Stravinsky wrote Poetics of Music, but revealed little. John Cage, of course, wrote many books, and revealed much. Here Adams writes about what it is like to be a composer, especially a composer in the North, and how that works its way into his music.

In the White Silence (1998). John Luther Adams

Let's disambiguate the "John Adams." Bear with me.  John Adams was the second President of the United States, defeating Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1796. John (and Abigail) Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, was the sixth President of the United States, defeating Andrew Jackson in the election of 1824, when, lacking a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives voted him to ofice. John Coolidge Adams is the Berkeley-residing, post-minimalist, baby boomer composer who wrote the music for the opera Nixon in China.  John Luther Adams, slightly younger than John Coolidge Adams, is the Alaska-residing, post-minimalist composer who writes music greatly influenced by his Northern environment.  Note that at a panel session of the Cabrillo Music Festival that included John Coolidge Adams, composer Lou Harrison, an advocate of John Luther Adams (and presumably of John Coolidge Adams as well), thought it important to point out that this was John Coolidge Adams on the panel, not to be confused with John Luther Adams.  For blog completeness, John Calvin Coolidge Jr. became President upon Warren Gamaliel  Harding's death and was elected President in 1924. Richard Milhous Nixon won the presidency in 1968, was re-elected in 1972, and resigned in 1974, due to the Watergate Scandal.  Thanks for your patience.

Ok, this piece is by John Luther Adams.  Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about it.   A CD-length piece written as a memorial to his mother, parts are quite poignant.  However, much of the work also contains what I presume to be a celesta and bells, which end up dominating the aural space to the point of distraction.  I generally like metallic instruments and sounds but not in this case.

As a further complication, this piece reminds me of John Coolidge Adams' El Dorado, especially in the latter's portrayal of the land of California and its serenity after humanity.

Nicholas Croft on Amazon was more positive about this work by John Luther Adams:

In the structural center of 1998's "In the White Silence", a string quartet, celeste, harp and vibraphone each transmit echoes of a cleanly resonant luminosity, amidst sensual drone like clusters of sustained string work. In these lush sustained string clusters, the listener is drawn gently into the spirit of the work's intoxicatingly ethereal presence.

Disclaimer: I never knew until today what the "G" in Warren G. Harding stood for.

26 from the Library: Intro & Lucier Lang Antheil Rzewski

Make Prayers to the Raven (1996-98). John Luther Adams

Allan Kozinn reviews a concert by the Locrian Chamber Players including "Make Prayers to the Raven" by John Luther Adams, not to be confused with John Adams of Berkeley.  He says the piece avoids sinking into New Age by its varied textures.