John Luther Adams’ Mix of Natural and Synthetic

from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed

One week from today Cold Blue Music will release its latest album of music by John Luther Adams. The entire album is devoted to a seven-section composition entitled “Arctic Dreams.” Adams describes the piece as having been based on listening to the reverberations of wind harps on the tundra, which he describes as his “‘aeolian’ sound world.” The performance of “Arctic Dreams” requires four string players, four singers, and three layers of digital delay, which contribute to the creation of 32-part canonic structures. As usual, Amazon.com has created a Web page to process pre-orders for this new release.

The music itself is derived from natural overtones. A low D on a double bass serves as the fundamental for the first seven odd-numbered harmonics above that pitch. If my fingers to not fail me, that means the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, and fifteenth harmonics, all of which may be familiar to listeners of adventurous compositions for natural horn. On the other hand the textures arising from blending the eleven different pitches tend, for the most part, to be thick, suggesting that Adams does not expect listeners to distinguish specific overtones. In other words one is readily aware of a gradual flow of change in sonority without having to be aware of the specific factors responsible for those changes.

Similarly, one can be aware of vocal sounds without having to worry about what is being sung. The words of the texts are all names of Arctic places, plants, birds, weather, and seasons; but none of them are in English. Rather they are from two languages likely to be encountered north of the Arctic Circle, Iñupiat and Gwichʼin. By way of disclaimer, I knew nothing about either of these languages before reading the notes for this album, which then led to my consulting Wikipedia; so I doubt that I would be able to recognize the vowel sounds of either of them! I would thus conjecture that the vocal work contributes as much to that aforementioned blend as do the instrumental sonorities.

Each of the seven sections is given an evocative title, which is probably applied to associate sounds with settings. However, while the sections are designated as separate tracks on the album, the transitions themselves tend to be subtle. Those determined to “parse” the performance into its component parts will probably need to hone their auditory skills through a series of listening experiences. There are usually noticeable pauses, but the distinguishing factor is a shift in timbral qualities. Personally, I find that I can listen to the piece in its entirety without worrying too much about its “syntactic joints!”