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Red Arc / Blue Veil

by John Luther Adams

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1.
Dark Waves 12:29
2.
3.
Qilyuan 15:38
4.

about

The four pieces that make up this album—Dark Waves, Among Red Mountains, Qilyuan, and Red Arc/Blue Veil—are for various combinations of one or two pianos, percussion, and electronics. Each piece is built from a complex, polyrhythmic layering of voices that combine to form large, multi-arch musical shapes that explore a rich palette of harmonic and timbral colors, lush textures, and clear, simple compositional forms. This is music of broad strokes and ever-changing ebb and flow.

Performed by pianists Stephen Drury and Yukiko Takagi and percussionists Scott Deal and Stuart Gerber.

The composer writes about these pieces:

Dark Waves: “An earlier version of Dark Waves, for orchestra and electronic sounds, was commissioned and premiered by the Anchorage Symphony. This version (2007) for two pianos and processed tracks is a substantially new piece. As I composed Dark Waves I pondered the ominous events of our times: war and terrorism, 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 mysterious beauty of this world. Amid the turbulent waves we may still find the light, the wisdom and the courage we need to pass through this darkness of our own making. . . .
In it, the pianists ride the crests of an electronic ‘aura’ composed of sounds derived from the acoustic instruments. Waves of Perfect Fifths rise and fall, in tempo relationships of 3, 5 and 7, cresting in a tsunami of sound encompassing all twelve chromatic tones and the full range of the pianos.”

Among Red Mountains: “On a visit to New York I heard the premiere performance of a lovely ensemble work by Kyle Gann that embraces multiple tempos without sustaining them all at the same time. On the way home to Alaska I passed through Seattle. In the Seattle airport there’s a large painting by Frank Stella, in which arcs of bright colors weave in and out of one another in a dizzying counterpoint of imaginary planes. Studying this painting (after hearing Gann’s music), it occurred to me that I might be able to do something similar with the piano. Virtually all my recent music has been composed of four, five or six simultaneous tempo layers. If those ensemble and orchestral pieces are sculptures, Among Red Mountains (2001) 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 pianist Vicki Ray calls ‘the Big Black Box.’ For three decades I’ve admired the piano music of Peter Garland. I hope this piece is worthy of its dedication to him. The title is the translation of the Gwich’in Athabascan name for a place in the Brooks Range, north of Arctic Village.”

Qilyaun: “‘Qilyaun’ is the Iñupiaq word for the shaman’s drum. Translated literally, it means ‘device of power.’ The drum is the shaman’s vehicle for spirit journeys. The shaman rides the sound of the drum to and from the spirit world. . . . Qilyaun (1998) may be performed by four drummers, or by a single drummer with electronic delay. Commissioned by the Fairbanks Symphony Association, the piece is dedicated to Scott Deal, who gave its first performances. Qilyaun traverses a continuum of rhythm. From the rapid-fire streams of the opening, the drummers gradually decelerate to sustained rolls in the middle, then gradually accelerate again to the unison ending.”

Red Arc/Blue Veil: “Red Arc/Blue Veil (2001) is the first piece in a projected cycle exploring the geometry of time and color—what Kandinsky called ‘those inner sounds that are the life of the colors.’ As in all of my recent music, I imagine the entire ensemble (piano, percussion, and processed sounds) as a single instrument, and the entire piece as a single complex sonority. The processed sounds are derived directly from the acoustical instruments…. In Red Arc/Blue Veil, the electronic sounds are layered in tempo relationships of 3, 5 and 7, while the piano and mallet percussion trace a single arc, rising and falling from beginning to end. Red Arc/Blue Veil was commissioned and premiered by Ensemble Sirius.”

REVIEWS:

“There’s a sense of vast, open space in John Luther Adams’s music that’s without a ready parallel among American composers. Carl Ruggles, from the early 20th century, probably comes closest, but composition has largely been an urban pursuit, and Adams, living in Alaska, breathes different air from the rest of his colleagues.… The four postminimalist works here each play out over 10 to 15 minutes, but sound as if they could go on forever.” —Marc Geelhoed, Time Out Chicago

“John Luther Adams has been making an original music in a solitary mode for decades now, drawing his inspiration from his adopted home state of Alaska. If one has not heard his music before, it’s important to emphasize that his voice is not ‘picturesque,’ nor does he indulge in historical tropes of pioneers or Inuit ethnology. Rather, in the tradition of such American mavericks as Harry Partch and Carl Ruggles (and more recently James Tenney and Peter Garland), he writes music that is often extremely complex and abstract in its details, yet gripping and immediately accessible in its large-scale vision. The Alaskan geography is an inspiration to him mostly in its overwhelming expansiveness and its suggestion of vast natural forces beyond human scale, pointing toward infinity.… This new collection includes two works for piano duo, one for two bass-drum players, and one for pianist and percussionist.… As is characteristic of the composer, the music in each piece tends to project a ‘template’ of a particular sound and texture that then gradually changes over about 15 minutes. . . . If anything distinguishes these pieces to my ear from earlier works of Adams, it’s the harmonic content … There seems to be a stronger engagement with what one might call ‘beauty’ than I’ve heard before. I also feel there’s some connection with harmonies built out of the overtone series, though that may be coming as an offshoot of the stacked perfect fifths that make up much of the music. Whatever the reason, I found the waves of sound more sensually satisfying than usual; there has always been enormous force and power in Adams’s music, but I’ve experienced more pleasure and delight in this round…a rich an satisfying program, and one that shows continued growth by one of our most committedly adventurous composers.” —Robert Carl, Fanfare magazine

“American composer John Luther Adams roots the provocative pieces comprising Red Arc/Blue Veil in a distinctive universe where pianos and percussion sonically evoke the majesty of natural phenomena. Despite changes in instrumentation (one piece features two pianos, while another two bass drums), each of the four works emphasizes a buildup of multi-layered, polyrhythmic blocks of sound and compositional development that seems to unfold in slow motion.… Adams’s music might be likened to powerful glacial masses whose movements are so slow they’re imperceptible. —Ron Schepper, Textura

“Alaskan composer John Luther Adams makes his own kind of music, creating expansive and slow-brewing sonic places with echoes of Minimalism and Ambient. Adams has his own side entry into existing ‘isms,’ evoking the mystery and majesty of nature as much as he dwells in a purely musical realm. On his recent release Red Arc/Blue Veil (Cold Blue), four intriguing pieces combine pianists and percussionists—two each—to swell and recede and encircle harmonic areas. Happy hypnosis is the upshot.” —Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara Independent

“Red Arc/Blue Veil, the latest from acclaimed minimalist composer John Luther Adams, swirls with the majestic highs and lows of a mountain range.… [T]he album is a soaring, shimmering exploration of texture and tone. The resplendent mood of the album, which is one of incredible scale, is immediately rendered on Dark Waves.… Here, Adams introduces a stabbing, scalar piano melody through a fog of piano drone and pulsating feedback. The piano volleys extend in scope, reaching new heights before crashing down in dramatic rivulets of sound. Among Red Mountains is a formal study of chords that clash and crash together. A challenging composition, it lacks some of the visceral force of Dark Waves but offers more texture in return. Qilyuan is a tour de force of tectonic rhythm, halfway between Japanese Koto and classical timpani. Red Arc/Blue Veil closes this highly recommended album on the same vast panoramic scale as it began.” —Max Ritts, Musicworks (Canada)

credits

released November 13, 2007

CD produced by John Luther Adams and Jim Fox.
Tracks 1, 2 and 4 recorded by Patrick Keating, Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston,MA, September 2005–July 2007.
Track 3 recorded by Scott Fraser, Charles W. Davis Concert Hall, University of Alaska Fairbanks, March 17-20, 2004.
Mixed and edited by Nathaniel Reichman and Rick Martinez.
CD mastered by Nathaniel Reichman.
Design by Jim Fox.
Photographs of Owens Valley and White Mountains, CA by Kazys Varnelis
used courtesy of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (www.clui.com).
All music © Taiga Press (BMI)
CD p & © Cold Blue Music 2007. www.coldbluemusic.com

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John Luther Adams New Mexico

John Luther Adams’ music has won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award and has been performed by such ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and Int'l Contemporary Ensemble. Cold Blue Music has released seven albums of his work, including Lines Made by Walking, The Wind in High Places, The Light That Fills the World, and Red Arc/Blue Veil. ... more

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