A Sonic Ecology: Nature, Sound, and Environmental Aesthetics in John Luther Adams’s Become Trilogy

AUTHOR(S) / АУТОР(И):  Zafer Özgen

Download Full Pdf   

DOI: 10.46793/MinInters.015O

ABSTRACT / САЖЕТАК:

John Luther Adams’s Become trilogy – comprising Become River, Become Ocean, and Become Desert – offers a profound meditation on the relationship between humanity and nature. Commissioned by prominent American orchestras, including the Seattle Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and St Paul Chamber Orchestra, these works transcend conventional categories such as minimalism, programme music, and experimental music, inviting listeners into immersive sonic environments. With ecological crises as an underlying theme, the trilogy engages audiences on both aesthetic and philosophical levels. Although Adams’s work is rooted in environmental awareness, it resists simplistic categorisation as political or activist art, instead embracing a more complex aesthetic purpose. This purpose encourages deeper reflection on the trilogy’s compositional structure, which – while internally consistent – challenges listeners to engage with shifting aesthetic paradigms and global issues. Additionally, the Become trilogy draws on musical traditions that inform a broader analysis of both the trilogy and Adams’s oeuvre as a whole.

KEYWORDS / КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ:

John Luther Adams, ecological soundscapes, environmental awareness, minimalism, programme music

REFERENCES / ЛИТЕРАТУРА:

•  Adams, John Luther. 2016. “Music in the Anthropocene.” YouTube, January 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWG0zpPOGcQ.
• Adams, John Luther. 2018a. “I want my art to matter. I want it to be of use.” The Guardian, 30 October 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/30/john-luther-adams-composer-become-ocean.
• Adams, John Luther. 2018b. “Conversations with Composers: John Luther Adams.” YouTube, 2 April 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNyMNdnYZ5s.
• Adams, John Luther. 2019. “John Luther Adams: Composing Become Desert.” YouTube, 25 June 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUpRBp6CAn0.
• Adams, John Luther. 2021a. “Winter Walk with John Luther Adams.” Interview with Kyu-Young Kim. 20 January 2021. https://thegreatnorthernfestival.com/tgn-blog/winter-walk-with-john-luther-adams.
• Adams, John Luther. 2021b. “Becoming JLA.” Brunswick Review, 8 December 2021. https://www.brunswickgroup.com/john-luther-adams-composer-pulitzer-prize-i20036/.
• Adams, John Luther. 2023a. “John Luther Adams in conversation with Alex Ross.” YouTube, 3 February 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb0WFe3sn8c.
• Adams, John Luther. 2023b. “John Luther Adams: Behind the Score for Become Desert.” YouTube, 30 May 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvFMtVZZuM4.
• Adams, John Luther. 2013. Become River, Orchestral Score. Astoria OR: Taiga Press.
• Adams, John Luther. 2015. Become Ocean, Orchestral Score. Astoria OR: Taiga Press.
• Adams, John Luther. 2017. Become Desert, Orchestral Score. Astoria OR: Taiga Press.
• Anderson, Kayla. 2015. “Ethics, Ecology, and the Future: Art and Design Face the Anthropocene.” Leonardo 48 (4): 338–343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_01087.
• Ap Siôn, Pwyll. 2014. “JL Adams: Become Ocean.” Gramophone, November 2014. https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/jl-adams-become-ocean.
• Ap Siôn, Pwyll. 2024. “Layers, Textures, and Structures: Towards a Theory of Narrative Space in Post-Minimal Music.” In Music and its Narrative Potential, edited by Carolien Van Nerom, Ann Peeters, and Bart Bouckaert. Paderborn: Brill Fink, 239–270. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846767726.
• Brundtland, Gro Harlem, et al.1987. Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. https://www.are.admin.ch/are/en/home/media/publications/sustainable-development/brundtland-report.html.
• Dahlhaus, Carl. 1988. Klassische und Romantische musikaesthetik. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag.
• Dahlhaus, Carl. 1989. The Idea of Absolute Music, translated by Roger Lustig. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• De Munck, Marlies. “From Absolute Music to Sound Experience, On Post-Classical Music and Horizontal Listening.” In Music and its Narrative Potential, edited by Carolien Van Nerom, Ann Peeters, and Bart Bouckaert. Paderborn: Brill Fink, 21–39. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846767726.
• Fairman, Richard. 2021. “John Luther Adams: Arctic Dreams – music of the spheres.” Financial Times, 11 June 2021. https://www.ft.com/content/e28f21c3-2b01-4a5a-8262-548f03ad944f.
• Graham, Cameron. 2016. “Across the Distance, Meltdown Festival, Royal Festival Hall, London.” Tempo 70 (275): 89–90. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040298215000716.
• Hurwitz, David. 2014. “John Luther Adams: Become Ocean, Minimally.” Classics Today. https://www.classicstoday.com/review/john-luther-adams-become-ocean-minimally/.
• Kinnear, Tyler. 2023. “Western Art Music and the Aestheticization of Climate Change: The Case of John Luther Adams’s Become Ocean.” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music and Art, edited by Sarah Mahler Kraaz and Charlotte de Mille. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 193–206. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501377747.
• Klauwell, Otto. 1910. Geschichte der Programmusik von ihren Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
• Morris, Mitchell. 1998. “Ecotopian Sounds; or, The Music of John Luther Adams and Strong Environmentalism.” In Crosscurrents and Counterpoints – Offerings in Honor of Bengt Hambræus at 70,  edited by Per F. Broman, Nora Engebretsen, and Bo Alphonce. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, 129–141.
• Morton, Timothy. 2010. Ecological Thought. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
• O’Brian, Kerry, and William Robin, eds. 2023. On Minimalism – Documenting a Musical Movement. Oakland CA: University of California Press.
• Pymm, John. 2024. “Your Music Tells Stories Now, Sorting Out Narrativity in Steve Reich’s Plastic Haircut.” In Music and its Narrative Potential, edited by Carolien Van Nerom, Ann Peeters, and Bart Bouckaert. Paderborn: Brill Fink, 271–289. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846767726.
• Ross, Alex. 2013. “Water Music.” Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise, 8 July 2013. https://www.therestisnoise.com/2013/07/jlas-become-ocean.html.
• Ross, Alex. 2016. “The Composers of Quiet.” The New Yorker, 29 August 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/05/silence-overtakes-sound-for-the-wandelweiser-collective.
• Service, Tom. 2015. “John Luther Adams: a force of nature.” The Guardian, 2 July 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/jul/02/john-luther-adams-music-across-the-distance-southbank.
• Slatkin, Leonard. 2020. “John Luther Adams Become Ocean DSO Replay Collections Composers.” YouTube, 21 March 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oce8vIc26Eg