John Luther Adams' Among Red Mountains for solo Piano. 'I've always been intimidated by the Piano. As a performer I never played it very well. And as a composer I've never felt as if Icould make the instrument my won.On a recent trip to New York I heard the premiere performance of a lovely chamber work by Kyle Gann that embraces multiple tempos without sustaining them all at the same time.On the…
Little Cosmic Dust Poem by John Luther Adams for Voice and Piano. This work features a text by John Haines and is dedicated to Fred and Alexandra Peters on the 30th anniversary of theirwedding. Out of the debris of dying stars this rain of particlesthat waters the waste with brightness... The sea-wave of atoms hurrying home collapse of thegiant unstable guest who cannot stay... The sun's heart re…
John Luther Adams' Night Peace for antiphonal chorus (SATB) solo Soprano Harp and Percussion. 'Night Peace is based entirely on a single melodic line which is heard only once sung by thesolo Soprano at the end of the piece. This melody was conceived in the luminous stillness of a moonless winter night.' - John Luther Adams
From Coyote Builds North America-John Luther Adams' Five Percussion Quartets From Coyote Builds North America. These pieces are drawn from the music-theater work Coyote Builds North America a collaboration with writerBarry Lopez based on traditional Native American stories. They feature poems from Coyote's Bones and Indian Tales by Jaime de Angulo.
John Luther Adams' Five Yu'pik Dances for solo Harp. Composed in 1991. Duration: 7-8 minutes. 'This set of miniatures is based on traditional dance songs of the Yupik Eskimo people ofWestern Alaska. In their original forms these melodies would be sung in unsion. The first third and fifth songs would be accompanied by frame drums. The second and fourth are game songs for jumping rope andjugglin…
John Luther Adams' Canticles Of The Sky for String Quartet. Composer's Note: In the Arctic sky the low angle of the sun and heavy ice crystals in the air often produce vivid halos arcs andsundogs (parhelia). Sometimes these phenomena create the illusion of multiple suns. 'Sky With Four Suns' is a musical evocation of such an apparition from sunrise to sunset. Similar visions also occur at night…
John Luther Adams' Four Thousand Holes for Piano Percussion (Vibraphone and Orchestra Bells) and Electronic Aura. Composed in 2010 and dedicated to Stephen Drury. Duration: 32 minutes 30 seconds.'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 m…
Player Score-John Luther Adams' Always Very Soft for Percussion Trio. Player score. 'I began Always Very Soft in the spring of 1973 and completed it more than three decades later. Originally the piece was scored for percussion trio and de-tuned 'cello. I conducted that version in my nal semester at the California Institute of the Arts. In time I came to regard it as my last student work andwit…
And The Dead Who Climb Up To The Sky-John Luther Adams' Magic Song For One Who Wishes To Live and The Dead Who Climb Up To The Sky. This work for Voice and Piano features texts adapted from the Ammassalik and ThuleEskimo. 'The wild landscapes and indigenous cultures of the far north are deep and enduring influences in my work. I have the highest respect for Eskimo music dance and poetry which r…
John Luther Adams' Nunataks (Solitary Peaks) for solo Piano. Commissioned by Music Northwest. Duration: 7 minutes. 'Nunataks are mountains that rise up outof ice elds and glaciers. The jagged contours of nunataks contrast sharply with the smooth whiteness that surrounds them. As the ice melts and the sea rises these solitary peaks stand as stark reminders of humanisolation and vulnerability.' - J…
John Luther Adams' Five Athabascan Dances for Harp and Percussion. Duration: 16 minutes. 'These pieces are inspired by the music and spirit of the Athabascan people ofAlaska'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'ingpeople of the Kenai Peninsula as r…
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.
Score And Parts/Download-John Luther Adams: Dark Waves for two Pianos and Electronics (included as a download). Duration: 12 minutes. 'As I composed this music I pondered the ominousevents of our times: terrorism and war intensifying storms and wildfires the melting of the polar ice and the rising of the seas. Yet even in the presence of our deepening fears we find ourselves immersed in the my…
From Earth And The Great Weather-John Luther Adams' Three Drum Quartets from 'Earth And The Great Weather'. 'These three pieces are drawn from 'Earth And The Great Weather' anevening-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…
John Luther Adams' Make Prayers To The Raven for Flute Percussion Harp Violin and Cello.Approx. duration: 16 minutes 30 seconds. 'This little suite is drawn fromthe score of a music-theater work for children. Movements II and IV are based on my settings of poems in the Gwich'in Athabascan dialect written by Adeline Peter Raboff. The title is borrowed from the book byRichard K. Nelson about the…
Player Score-John Luther Adams' Untouched for String Quartet. Player score. Over the years my large ensemble works have sometimes included String Quartet. However I didn't write my first piece forString Quartet alone until I was fifty-nine. Now in my second String Quartet the fingers of the players still have yet to touch the fingerboard. This music contains no normal stopped tones. All the sou…
John Luther Adams' The Immeasurable Space Of Tones for Violin Vibraphone Piano sustaining Keyboard and Contrabass. Duration: 30 minutes. 'Number 5 1950 was MarkRothko'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 thispainting and its pivotal position in Ro…
John Luther Adams' The Light That Fills The World for Chamber Ensemble (6 players). Score and parts. Duration: 13 minutes. 'The Light That Fills The World' was written in late winter andearly 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 ecstati…
John Luther Adams' Poem Of The Forgotten for Voice and Piano. Duration: 5 minutes. This work sets a text by John Haines and is dedicated to Haines on the occasion of his 80thbirthday. I came to this place a young man green and lonely. Well quit of the world I framed a house of moss and timber called it a home andsat in the warm eveningssinging to myself as a man singswhen he knows there isno one t…
