Minimalist intersections (2024) [pp. 15-30]
AUTHOR(S) / AUTOR(I): Zafer Özgen 
DOI: 10.46793/MinInters.015O
ABSTRACT / SAŽETAK:
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 / KLJUČNE REČI:
John Luther Adams, ecological soundscapes, environmental awareness, minimalism, programme music
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