John Luther ADAMS (b. 1953)
The Become Trilogy
Become River (2014) [14:57]
Become Ocean (2013) [42:13]
Become Desert (2018) [40:22]
Seattle Symphony & Chorale/Ludovic Morlot
rec. 2013-18, S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, USA
CANTALOUPE CA21161 [3 CDs: 97:32]
John Luther Adams, not to be confused with his more famous older contemporary, plain John Adams, started out as a drummer in rock bands, then worked in environmental protection. He lived in Alaska for over thirty years and now divides his time between New York, Mexico and Chile. His music has always been dominated by environmental concerns, long before they became both fashionable and pressing. He has always been admired and recorded but his breakthrough work with a wider public was Become Ocean of 2013, which was a huge success, rather like Gorecki’s third symphony a generation ago.
This was followed by Become River, which is for chamber rather than full orchestra, and then by Become Desert, again for large forces. Luther Adams says it is a trilogy that he never set out to write. It was while writing Become Ocean that he was encouraged to write about the river delta which flowed into it, inspired by his time in Alaska and so, although this was the second work to be written, it is the first of the trilogy. Become Desert followed after he had moved from Alaska and was spending time in the deserts of Mexico and Chile. He says that these pieces ‘are not symphonic stories about rivers, deserts, or the sea. This is music that aspires to the condition of place. The titles are not ‘Becoming . . .’’ They’re ‘Become . .’ The invitation is for you, the listener, to enter into the music, to lose yourself, and perhaps to discover oceans, deserts, and rivers of your own.’ He has also said that he might add further works, dealing with ‘mountain, tundra and perhaps other landscapes and waterscapes.’
The idiom of the three works derives from minimalism and shares its rejection of the developmental processes which dominated Western music after Beethoven. However, I hear other influences at play: long pedal points as in Sibelius, whose feeling for nature Luther Adams seems to share; the use of different orchestral groups playing different material simultaneously, as in Ives’s Three places in New England or Boulez’s Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, and they may be moving at different speeds, as in some of Elliott Carter. I throw out these names to demonstrate that Luther Adams is still part of the tradition and there are features for the listener to hold on to. This is important as there are no themes or development in the usual sense.
Become River is the shortest and most approachable of the three works and it helps to have it first. It begins very quietly in the high treble. Bell sounds emerge and then a steady pulse. Arpeggio motifs dominate. The work gradually descends in pitch, the brass enters and we have a full-blooded climax before a retreat.
In Become Ocean the orchestra is divided into three groups and the time span is more than twice that of Become
River. It is divided into six parts, each seeming like a slow, enormous wave, which at times rises to crashing climaxes. There is also a cautionary aspect to it: Luther Admas writes ‘As the polar ice melts and the sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that we may once again quite literally become ocean.’ The second half of the work is a direct reverse of the first, a form of palindromic construction which has some distinguished forebears, notably the film interlude in Berg’s Lulu and the Praeludium and Postludium from Hindemith’s Ludus tonalis. This impressive work can take its place in the long list of musical works dealing with the sea; I am thinking particularly of Debussy’s La Mer, Bridge’s The Sea, Enescu’s Vox Maris and Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes.
Become Desert is even finer. The composers says ‘it is both a celebration of the deserts we are given and a lamentation of the deserts we create.’ This time the orchestra is divided into five instrumental groups and also at one point there is a wordless chorus. If this sounds like Scriabin’s Prometheus, Become
Desert resembles that in other ways: there is a constantly gleaming, flickering and shimmering texture over very slow harmonic changes. (Adams, like Scriabin, experimented with visual projections during performances.) Like Become
River, the work opens quietly with bell sounds in the high treble. It then builds very slowly with the bass instruments and then deep drums slowly coming in, but in their own rhythms. We realize that chords are increasing and descreasing in volume in what would be waves if this were a sea piece. After the passage with the chorus the work slowly retreats, using a similar palindromic construction to Become
Ocean.
The performances here are given by the creators of the three works, the Seattle Symphony with conductor Ludovic Morlot, and, in Become
Desert, the Seattle Chorale. They play with quite wonderful control and power, and the flickering figures in Become
Desert in particular, are beautifully done. The brass are given powerful writing but are not allowed to blare or force their tone. The recordings of Become
Ocean and Become Desert have been previously issued (review ~ review) but have been remastered for this reissue; the recording of Become
River is new.
The three pieces are presented on three discs, each with an evocative picture of its subject (detailed credits are given) and in a smart box. However, the documentation is minimal, with no dates or timings. You will see from the listing above that the first disc has less than fifteen minutes of music on it, and that the trilogy could have been accommodated on two instead of three discs. However, this issue is noted as being a limited edition, so, despite the short measure, I advise those interested to snap it up. You will not be disappointed.
Stephen Barber
Previous review: Simon Thompson
