The Farthest Place: The Music of John Luther Adams

10 | The Color Field Music ofJohn Luther Adams

* * * * * * * * * Todd Tarantino 10 The Color Field Music of John Luther Adams Generally speaking, the music of John Luther Adams can be classed into four interrelated categories that I will call Alaskan, color field, abstract, and hybrid. As the name implies, the Alaskan works, such as Five Athabascan Dances, Sauyatugvik: The Time of Drumming (both 1996) and parts of Make Prayers to the Raven (1998), are grounded in the culture and musical traditions of Alaska’s indigenous peoples. While defined by their use of Alaskan traditional melodies and techniques, these works exist within a relatively traditional twentieth-century tonal world articulated by clearly delineated phrases and sections. The abstract works, for instance Strange and Sacred Noise (1997), most of The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2002), and parts of Dream in White on White (1992) are more experimental; often their moment-to-moment surface results from the illustration or representation, in musical notation, of mathematic or scientific processes: for instance, the slowly unfolding Shepard tones of the opening of Dream in White on White. The hybrid works seem transitional, while at times grounded in “Alaskan” scenes, they may or may not have a tonal narrative. These compositions stand apart from Adams’s other works and have an almost dramatic narrative sense—many of them consist of small vignettes or melodies juxtaposed; Earth and the Great Weather (1990–93) is probably the most important work in this category; Night Peace (1977) and Forest Without Leaves (1984) are other good examples. Since 1999, the bulk of Adams’s output are color field compositions. In these works the overall sonority changes little from beginning to end; there is no real narrative of phrases and harmonies, and movement within or through a saturated gamut replaces harmonic motion. In their overall sound, color field works present a slowly shifting singularity enlivened by surface disturbances. While Adams’s hand is evident in his Alaskan and hybrid works, it is (perhaps intentionally) obscured in his color field and abstract works. Consequently, over the years, criticism of these pieces has tended toward the poetic and is often limited to generalities about the “timeless” nature of the “sound,” the depth of the “mood” or the “Arctic” colors and “peaceful” harmonies.1 If we assume that the critics themselves are not at fault—reviewers, perhaps understandably , are not writing technically and no one else has—it would seem 158 * tarantino that there is no language for understanding this “Arctic” surface, describing its narrative progress, or identifying deviations and regularities within a form. In the absence of an analytical language, critics resort to clichés; performers and conductors, rudderless, can only play the notes; and analysts must reinvent the wheel with each composition. Adams loses his agency as a creator: becoming a mystic channeling the Arctic North rather than a composer working within a musico-cultural surround.2 This paper attempts to remedy this situation by outlining some of the normative techniques found in Adams’s color field works, while in the process developing a framework for understanding, evaluating , and assessing creative choices. Onaformallevel,Adams’scolorfieldpiecestendtoenactmultiplecoexisting algorithms; once processes are put in motion, there are few deviations. Pitch choice within a work or section is limited to a particular continuum, or gamut, and pitch change is systematized. Often the complete gamut sounds continuously and pitches outside of the gamut are not employed. Adams’s gamuts lack table 10.1. Color Field Works of John Luther Adams. 1992 Dream in White on White 1995 Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing 1998 In the White Silence 1999 In a Treeless Place, Only Snow 1999 Time Undisturbed 2000 The Light That Fills the World 2001 Dark Wind 2001 After the Light 2001 The Farthest Place 2001 The Immeasurable Space of Tones 2001 Among Red Mountains 2002 Red Arc / Blue Veil 2003 for Lou Harrison 2005 . . . and bells remembered . . . 2005 Veils 2005 Vesper 1986/2006 for Jim (rising) 2006 The Place Where You Go to Listen 2007 Dark Waves 2007/2010 The Light Within 2007 Nunataks 2007 Three High Places 1973/2007 Always Very Soft 2008 Sky with Four Suns / Sky with Four Moons 2010 Four Thousand Holes co lor fie ld music * 159 pitch hierarchy; consequently, there is no simple way to measure consonance and dissonance or directed motion within a work. Thus, in this regard, beyond enumerating their mechanics, there is limited language to assess or analyze these works. Nonetheless, Adams’s surfaces...