John Luther Adams' ...And Bells Remembered... for five percussionists playing: Bowed CrotalesOrchestra BellsVibesChimesBowed Vibes Commissioned by the UniversityOf Wisconsin - River Falls.Duration: 10 minutes 30 seconds.
SKU: HL.233153
9.25x12.0x0.117 inches. English.
For five percussionists playing: bowed crotales, orchestra bells, vibes, chimes, bowed vibes. Commissioned by the University of Wisconsin - River Falls. Duration: 10 minutes 30 seconds.
SKU: HL.233293
9.25x12.0x0.39 inches. English.
These three pieces are drawn from Earth and the Great Weather, an evening-length 'sonic geography' of the Arctic. Although purely 'abstract' in form, it is my hope that they are in some small measure informed by the elemental power of natural forces in the Arctic, and by the Inupiat Eskimo drumming and dancing. - John Luther Adams Plastic spiral bound score.
SKU: HL.233155
9.0x12.0x0.076 inches. English.
Virtually all my recent music has been composed of four, five or six simultaneous tempo layers. If those ensemble and orchestral pieces are multi-dimensional sculptures, then Among Red Mountains is more like a drawing. In this piece, the challenge I set for myself was to suggest five independent tempo planes, within the limitations of two hands and what Vicki Ray calls 'the Big Black Box'. For three decades I've admired the Piano music of Peter Garland. At last I have a piece that I hope is worthy of this dedication. The title, Among Red Mountains, is the translation of the Gwitch'in Athabascan name for a place in the Brooks Range, north of Arctic Village.'- John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.50602057
UPC: 888680951900.
SKU: HL.234540
9.0x12.0x0.09 inches. English.
'This set of miniatures is based on traditional dance songs of the Yupik Eskimo people of Western Alaska. In their original forms, these melodies would be sung in unison. The first, third and fifth songs would be accompanied by frame drums. The second and fourth are game songs, for jumping rope and juggling pebbles. Aside from the obvious difference in instrumentation, my settings of these songs differ from the Yup'ik originals in other respects. I have extended and varied the melodies, and added countermelodies, ostinato figurations, introductions, interludes and codas. The first four melodies are drawn from the collection Yup'ik Eskimo songs, compiled by Thomas F. Johnston, and Tupou L. Pulu, and published by the University Of Alaska. The fifth was 'loaned' to me by Yup'ik singer and dancer Chuna McIntyre, who learned it in his village of Eek, Alaska. The poems preceding each piece are rough translations of the words to the songs. These verses are often cryptic and enigmatic. Their obscurity is increased because some of the words or their meanings have been lost, over time.' - John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.233157
9.25x12.0x0.13 inches.
Includes two copies of the performance score These pieces are inspired by the music and spirit of the Athabascan people of Alaska's boreal forest. The first and third dances are based on songs by Joe Beetus, a Koyukon elder from the village of Huslia. The second dance is based on a short traditional song of the Dena'ing people of the Kenai Peninsula, as remembered by the late Peter Kalifornsky and transcribed by the late Thomas F. Johnston. In their original setting these melodies would be sung in unison, with no harmony or counterpoint. Working as a composer in the Western tradition, I have extended and transformed them in many ways. I have 'borrowed' and 'set' these melodies with permission and with the hope that my treatment of them conveys my profound respect for their origins. The second and third pieces are derived from my setting of poems by Adeline Peter Raboff written in the dialect of her Gwich'in people, who inhabit the country from Arctic Village to Old Crow. I offer this music as a gesture of respect to the first peoples of the Northern Interior and the Kenai Peninsula. - John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.234541
9.25x12.0x0.571 inches. English.
'Four Thousand Holes is my own effort to re-appropriate and reclaim for myself something of my own musical past. For the first time since my days as a rocker, I've chosen to restrict myself to major and minor triads - those most basic elements of Western music (both pop and classical). But I've tried to assimilate them fully into my own musical world. Approaching these simple chords as found objects, I've superimposed them in multiple streams of tempo, to create darker harmonies and lush fields of sound. In recent years, I've been fortunate enough to form a close musical partnership with Stephen Drury. Steve's extraordinary gifts inspired me to explore expansive forms and textures (similar to those of my orchestral music) with only one or two performers, In essence, Four Thousand Holes is a concerto. To begin I composed the score for the electronic tracks. Steve recorded all of the individual chords that occur in the score. I took these recordings, time-stretched them, reversed their envelopes, and knit the reversed sounds together with their original decays. The resulting waves of sound I layered into ten independent tracks to create the virtual 'orchestra'. Next I composed the Piano part, articulating the peaks of all the electronic tracks simultaneously - a feat of coordination that demands considerable virtuosity from the pianist. Finally I composed another multi-layered part for metallic percussion sounds that I think of as sparks emanating from the piano. In Four Thousand Holes, strong musical currents fall and rise, again and again, as points and lines are juxtaposed with heavy, hammered chords. The mix of 'live' and electronic sounds blurs the distinction between musical figure and ground. As in much of my recent music, I conceive of the entire piece as a single complex sonority that evolves slowly. As we settle into the sound, we begin to hear longer lines, counterpoint, and maybe even the occasional trace of a tune.' - John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.233290
12.0x9.25x0.467 inches. English.
John Luther Adams' The Light That Fills the World for Chamber Ensemble (6 players). Duration: 13 minutes. The Light That Fills the World was written in late winter and early spring when - following the long darkness of winter - the world is still white and filled with new light. If the unrelenting texture of this music embodies stasis, I hope its prevalent tone evokes the ecstatic. The title of the piece is borrowed from an Inuit song which sings of the close relationship between beauty and terror, risk and revelation. - John Luther Adams, Fairbanks, Alaska, August 1999 Includes Score and parts plus spiral-bound keyboard part.
SKU: HL.233283
12.0x9.0x0.486 inches.
Nunataks are mountains that rise up out of icefields and glaciers. The jagged contours of nuntaks contrast sharply with the smooth whiteness that surrounds them. As the ice melts and the sea rises, these solitary peaks stand as start reminders of human isolation and vulnerability. - John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.263038
UPC: 888680952907. 12.0x16.5x0.565 inches.
“Over the years my orchestral music has become simpler and more expansive. Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1991-95) contains four different musical textures. In the White Silence (1998) has three. For Lou Harrison (2002) reduces this to just two. In Dark Waves (2007), I finally got to one. When I first heard that piece I began to wonder if I could sustain a similar sound for a longer span of time. The result is Become Ocean, a meditation on the vast, deep and mysterious tides of existence. The title is borrowed from a mesostic verse that John Cage wrote in honor of Lou Harrison's birthday. Likening Harrison's music to a river in delta, Cage writes: Listening to it we become ocean. Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. And as the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.†John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.233289
12.0x9.25x0.43 inches.
Score and separate parts with spiral-bound keyboard/organ part. Number 5, 1950 was Mark Rothko's last painting before the breakthrough into his mature format. In it the luminous color fields of a classic Rothko are inscribed across the middle with three delicate lines. Describing this painting and its pivotal position in Rothko's work, Brian O'Doherty observes: 'After this, the lines disappear completely.' In recent years gesture and figuration have disappeared from my music. What used to be background has emerged to become a musical world composed entirely of floating color fields. In this new world I've changed media, moving from the orchestra to smaller combinations of acoustical instruments and electronically-processed sounds. I still think in orchestral terms, but this hybrid medium allows me to create orchestral textures for more practical and readily available ensembles. Initially I imagined this as a kind of monolithic music -an entire piece as one rich and complex sound. Then I came to hear it as homophonic or heterophonic. And now - in this musical world that I thought was completely free of lines - I've come to hear a polyphony of harmonic clouds. Maybe the lines never disappear completely. Maybe Christian Wolff was right when he quipped: 'No matter what we do, sooner or later it all sounds melodic.' - John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.248688
UPC: 888680729080. 9x12 inches. English.
“Gor don Wright was the friend of a lifetime. For thirty years Gordon and I shared our two greatest passions: music and Alaska. Gordon was my musical collaborator, my next-door neighbor, my fellow environmentalist and my camping buddy. These miniatures are musical sketches of three moments and places in our friendship. Like Alaska, Gordon was larger than life. He always lived his own way. And he died just as he would have wanted. We found him lying on the deck of his cabin in the Chugach Mountains, curled up against his favorite birch tree, looking across the waters of Turnagain Arm toward the Resurrection Valley and the tiny settlement of Hope.” - John Luther AdamsThis music contains no normal stopped tones. All the sounds are produced as natural harmonics or on open strings. There are no harmonics higher than the sixth. So these sounds should be clear and resonant. Even so, balancing the harmonics with the open strings requires careful attention.The durations of the individual pieces are given at the end of each.The total duration of the set is about ten minutes.
SKU: HL.236804
UPC: 888680720100. 9.5x12.0x0.632 inches.
Grammy-winn ing composer John Luther Adams always speaks with reverence about capturing “the tone within the noise,†and if any of his recent work can be said to take that mission directly to heart, it's Ilimaq. A true electro-acoustic recording that channels the energy, passion and precision of Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, Ilimaq (which loosely translates from the native Alaskan Inupiaq language as “spirit journeysâ€) maps a vivid, phantasmagorical progression through liquid cascades of percussion, otherworldly ambient soundscapes, harmonic dissonance, melodic convergence and almost everything that's musically – and sonically – possible in between.
SKU: HL.231892
9.25x12.0x0.098 inches. English.
John Luther Adams' Dark Wind for instrumental quartet (Bass Clarinet, Piano, Marimba and Vibraphone). Score and parts. Dedicated to Marty Walker.
SKU: HL.243883
9.0x12.0 inches.
This John Luther Adams commission is a gorgeous piece for piano and percussion in 3 movements. The percussion part calls for orchestra bells, vibraphone, maracas, woodblock, ratchet, guiro, and whip.Includes biographical note on the composer. This edition includes two players' scores.
SKU: HL.231894
9.25x12.0x0.17 inches. English.
John Luther Adams' Green Corn Dance for six percussionists. Score and parts. Duration: 7 minutes 30 seconds.
SKU: HL.284555
UPC: 888680912901. 9x12 inches.
Composers note:I never imagined I would write a string quartet. Then I heard the JACK Quartet, and I understood how I might be able to make the medium my own. The result was The Wind in High Places - a twenty-minute work composed entirely on natural harmonics and open strings.Over the next few years, two more quartets followed. The second quartet, untouched, is a further exploration of the aeolian sound world of the first. Then, in Canticles of the Sky, the musicians finally touch the fingerboards of their instruments.And now comes Everything That Rises.This fourth quartet is more expansive, both in time and in space. It grows out of Sila: The Breath of the World - a performance-length choral/orchestral work composed on a rising series of sixteen harmonic clouds.Everything That Rises traverses this same territory, but in a much more melodic way.Each musician is a soloist, playing throughout. They surround the audience. Time floats.Over the course of an hour, the lines spin out - always rising - in acoustically perfect intervals that grow progressively smaller as they spiral upward... until the music dissolves into the soft noise of the bows, sighing.
SKU: HL.234539
UPC: 000234539000. 9.0x12.0 inches. English.
For 3 Trumpets and 3 Trombones.