John Luther Adams: The Immeasurable Space Of Tones: Chamber Ensemble: Score and

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 Rothko's work Brian O'Doherty observes: 'After this the lines disappear completely.' In recent years gesture and figuration have disappeared from my music. What used to bebackground has emerged to become a musical world composed entirely of floating color fields. In this new world I've changed media moving from the orchestra to smaller combinations of acoustical instruments andelectronically-processed sounds. I still think in orchestral terms but this hybrid medium allows me to create orchestral textures for more practical and readily available ensembles. Initially I imagined this as akind of monolithic music -an entire piece as one rich and complex sound. Then I came to hear it as homophonic or heterophonic. And now -in this musical world that I thought was completely free of lines -I've come to hear apolyphony of harmonic clouds. Maybe the lines never disappear completely. Maybe Christian Wolff was right when he quipped: 'No matter what we do sooner or later it all sounds melodic'.' - John LutherAdams