john luther adams
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Year
    
Title
John Luther Adams
Winter Music
1999
A composer’s journal (1998-1999).
For the past twenty-five years composer John Luther Adams has made his home in the boreal forest near Fairbanks, Alaska. From there he has created a unique musical world, grounded in the elemental landscapes and indigenous cultures of the North. Each winter— which, he says, “is the season when I burrow most deeply into my music”—he keeps a daily journal as he tries to understand where the music is leading him. The winter of 1998–99 was a time of change, as he com- posed a major new piece entitled The Immeasurable Space of Tones. The present article comprises journal selections from that period and is excerpted from Winter Music: Selected Writings 1974–2000 - a book in progress that includes journals, essays, and other writings by John Luther Adams.
His music perfectly echoes the landscape he loves: impersonal, relentless, larger than human scale, yet gorgeous, a quiet chaos of colors, suffused with light. It’s not a climate everyone could live in. But for those who want to bathe their ears in an aural aurora borealis while staying warm inside, it’s a spiritual odyssey well worth taking. - Kyle Gann
john luther adams
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