Partitions de Taiga Press

John Luther Adams' Red Arc/Blue Veil for Mallet Percussion Piano and Processed Sounds. Composed in 2001. Duration: 12 minutes.

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 reddens and expands his mighty aspiration is lastingas the shell of his substanceone day will bewhite with frost. In the radiant field of Oriongreat hordes of stars are forming just as we see every night fiery and faithful to the end. Out of thecold and fleeing dustthat is never and always the silence and waste to come... This arm this hand my voice your face this love - John Haines

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

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 andjuggling pebbles. Aside from the obvious difference in instrumentation my settings of these songs differ from the Yup'ik originals in other respects. I have extended and varied the melodies and addedcountermelodies ostinato figurations introductions interludes and codas. The first four melodies are drawn from the collection Yup'ik Eskimo songs compiled by Thomas F. Johnston and Tupou L. Pulu andpublished by the University Of Alaska. The fifth was 'loaned' to me by Yup'ik singer and dancer Chuna McIntyre who learned it in his village of Eek Alaska. The poems preceding each piece are rough translationsof the words to the songs. These verses are often cryptic and enigmatic. Their obscurity is increased because some of the words or their meanings have been lost over time.' - John Luther Adams

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 which isthe image behind 'Sky With Four Moons.' 'Sky With Nameless Colors' and 'Sky With Endless Stars' evoke the extraordinary depth and clarity of Sonoran Desert skies. This music is drawn from Canticles of the Holy Wind– a concert-length work for four choirs and vocal soloists. In this version sixteen separate choral parts have been condensed into the string quartet. String designations should be carefully observed. Frequent stringcrossings are employed to create as lush and continuous textures as possible. All sounds should be legato. Bowing is free and full throughout. Total performance duration is about 18:00

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 minor triads - thosemost basic elements of Western music (both pop and classical). But I've tried to assimilate them fully into my own musical world. Approaching these simple chords as found objects I've superimposed them in multiple streams oftempo to create darker harmonies and lush fields of sound. In recent years I've been fortunate enough to form a close musical partnership with Stephen Drury. Steve's extraordinary gifts inspired me to exploreexpansive forms and textures (similar to those of my orchestral music) with only one or two performers In essence Four Thousand Holes is a concerto. To begin I composed the score for the electronic tracks. Steve recorded all ofthe individual chords that occur in the score. I took these recordings time-stretched them reversed their envelopes and knit the reversed sounds together with their original decays. The resulting waves of sound I layered intoten independent tracks to create the virtual 'orchestra'. Next I composed the Piano part articulating the peaks of all the electronic tracks simultaneously - a feat of coordination that demands considerable virtuosity from thepianist. Finally I composed another multi-layered part for metallic Percussion sounds that I think of as sparks emanating from the Piano. In Four Thousand Holes strong musical currents fall and rise again andagain as points and lines are juxtaposed with heavy hammered chords. The mix of 'live' and electronic sounds blurs the distinction between musical figure and ground. As in much of my recent music I conceive of the entire piece

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 resonate so fully with theimmediacy and power of authentic experience. This is art stripped to the bone with no sentimental embellishments or extraneous flourishes; art which is at once spiritual and utilitarian; art which helps usunderstand how to live and die. Ultimately what moves me most in these two poems is not their uniquely 'Eskimo' qualities but the startling clarity with which they sing of these two greatest mysteries - life anddeath.' - John Luther Adams

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.' - John Luther Adams

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.

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 Eskimodrumming and dancing. An optional tape of Inupiat language and natural sounds - thunder wind melting ice and calving glaciers - is available for use in performance with these quartets.' - John LutherAdams

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 sounds areproduced either as natural harmonics or on open strings. The highest harmonic utilized is the 10th. Some of the harmonics may be more resonant when played as double harmonics. For example the 6th harmonic can beproduced by simultaneously touching the nodes for the 2nd and 3rd harmonics. Dynamics are free. But all the sounds in the air at any moment should be equally balanced. - John Luther Adams

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 ecstatic.The title of the piece is borrowed from an Inuit song which sings of the close relationship between beauty and terror risk and revelation.' - John Luther Adams Fairbanks Alaska August 1999

John Luther Adams' For Jim (Rising) for Brass Sextet (3 Trumpets 3 Trombones). Score and parts. Duration: 6 minutes 30 seconds.