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- John Luther Adams
Dream in White on White (1992)
- Taiga Press (BMI) (World)
- hp[pf]/str(2.2.2.2.1)
- string quartet
- 17 min
Programme Note
The treeless, windswept landscapes of Western Alaska have long made a powerful impression on me. For much of the year this is a place of seemingly endless, pristine whiteness. In spring, with the return of the sun, the presence of this country is especially overwhelming.
Dream In White On White is a musical response to these landscapes and to the non-chromatic ("white") tones and acoustically-perfect intervals of Pythagorean diatonic tuning.
There are other "white" associations as well. The sounds are predominantly long, broad washes of whole and half notes - "white notes" of a different sort. The scoring - with predominant harmonics, unstopped tones, mutes and no vibrato - creates peculiarly "white" tonal hues. And the title is distantly related to Kasimir Malevich's suprematist canvas, White On White.
John Luther Adams
Dream In White On White is a musical response to these landscapes and to the non-chromatic ("white") tones and acoustically-perfect intervals of Pythagorean diatonic tuning.
There are other "white" associations as well. The sounds are predominantly long, broad washes of whole and half notes - "white notes" of a different sort. The scoring - with predominant harmonics, unstopped tones, mutes and no vibrato - creates peculiarly "white" tonal hues. And the title is distantly related to Kasimir Malevich's suprematist canvas, White On White.
John Luther Adams