A Northern Suite/Night Peace
John Luther Adams
Tone paintings of Alaska and Okefenokee Swamp, performed by the Arctic Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta Singers. Recorded on the New Albion CD.
"No, not that John Adams. This one is from Alaska and his music is appropriately icy, distant and spacious." John Schaefer, New Sounds
Coyote Builds North America (Five Pieces for Mixed Ensemble)
John Luther Adams
Music from the music-theater collaboration with Barry Lopez, scored for clarinet (e-flat and bass), violin, doublebass and two percussion. Pieces include Coyote's Dance, Water Music, A Little Joke, Coyote's Complaint and Death and the Meadowlark. "Threatening and horrific like a gale wind, and nurturing and comforting like a heartbeat..." Bangor Daily News
Dream in White on White
John Luther Adams
Scored for string quartet, solo harp and string ensemble. A sweeping musical landscape in the acoustically perfect tones of Pythagorean diatonic tuning, evoking the treeless, windswept expanses of western Alaska. Recorded on a New Albion CD.
Dust into dust (for two snare drums and two field drums)
John Luther Adams
A translation of the fractal forms of "Cantor dust" into musical time. This is the first piece in Strange and Sacred Noise, an extended cycle for percussion quartet which explores chaos, fractal geometry and noise.
Five Yup'ik Dances
John Luther Adams
Short pieces for solo harp, based on the indigenous music of the Yup'ik Eskimo people of Western Alaska.
Forest Without Leaves (excerpts) (for choir and orchestra)
John Luther Adams
A setting of poems by John Haines, recorded on Owl album #32. "...Sensitive, stately, solemn, dramatic..." Option magazine
Green Corn Dance (for six percussion)
John Luther Adams
An homage to the classic percussion works of Cowell, Cage and Harrison, and to the rich traditions of native American drumming.
Magic song for one who wishes to live/the dead who climb to the sky
John Luther Adams
Two songs for voice and piano, with texts from the Ammassalik and Thule Eskimo.
Resonance of Place
John Luther Adams
Subtitled "Confessions of an Out-of-Town Composer," this essay explores the powerful influence of the physical and cultural geographies of the Far North on twenty years of Adams' work. Containing numerous musical illustrations, this is the complete version of a piece which has appeared in The North American Review, The Utne Reader and several other publications.
The Far Country of Sleep (in memoriam Morton Feldman)
John Luther Adams
This recent orchestral work pays homage to the imaginary landscapes of Feldman's music and evokes the unbroken distance and silences of the arctic. "...A ravishingly beautiful landscape..." San Francisco Examiner
