John Luther Adams: In the White Silence

The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Tim Weiss, conductor *** Featured in The Encounter - Special Broadcast May 15-22, 2020 ***  Since 1978, Alaska has been John Luther Adams's (b 1953) home and a major inspirational source for most of his compositions. Almost all of his compositions evoke natural phenomena, in particular the wintry Northern landscapes, light, and colors as well as elements of indigenous Alaskan cultures. Adams's music thus shares aesthetic features with nature-inspired works of such composers as Debussy, Ives, Sibelius, and Hovhaness. Due to the use of certain "minimalist" strategies, Adams's music is often classified as "minimalist" or "post-minimalist." He avoids expressive musical rhetoric, prefers reduced and elementally simple musical material, and frequently uses sustained tones and static textures. Adams's compositions embrace just intonation, consonance, and modal harmony, and they often feature a meditative quality and extended length reminiscent of Feldm