For Solo Cello-'Gordon Wright was the friend of a lifetime. For thirty years Gordonand I shared our two greatest passions: music and Alaska. Gordonwas my musical collaborator my next-door neighbor my fellowenvironmentalistand my camping buddy. These miniatures aremusical sketches of three moments and places in our friendship.Like Alaska Gordon was larger than life. He always lived his ownway. And he died just as he would havewanted. We found himlying on the deck of his cabin in the Chugach Mountains curled upagainst his favorite birch tree looking across the waters of Turnagain Arm toward the Resurrection Valley and the tiny settlementof Hope.' - John Luther Adams This music contains no normal stopped tones. All the sounds areproduced as natural harmonics or on open strings. There are noharmonics higher than the sixth. So thesesounds should be clearand resonant. Even so balancing the harmonics with the openstrings requires careful attention. The durations of the individual pieces are given at the end of each.The totalduration of the set is about ten minutes.
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.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.248688
UPC: 888680729080. 9x12 inches. English.
“Gordon 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.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.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.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.
