Become Ocean

Become Ocean is an orchestral composition by John Luther Adams. It was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and first performed in Seattle's Benaroya Hall on 20 and 22 June 2013. It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.[1]

The work, in a single movement, was inspired by the oceans of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The composer provided the superscription: "Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. As the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean."[2]

Commission

The work was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and composition began in 2012. The orchestra's music director, Ludovic Morlot, has said "What really attracts me to a composer is the individuality in the voice, and John Luther Adams' music is very much inspired by the natural landscapes that are all around us."[3]

Instrumentation and structure

The bulk of the orchestra is split into its three natural groups, full-sized strings, woodwind and brass sections. Each group is given slowly moving sequences of sound, often in the form of arpeggios for the strings, and each block has its own rise and fall. Thus the groups overlap in an ever-changing pattern. Harmonies are fundamentally tonal; simple diatonic intervals form the basis of the wind instruments' staggered chords. The phrase lengths are constructed so that there are three moments when all the groups reach a climax together; the first is early on, and the second represents the greatest surge of sound. From that point, the music is played in reverse: the entire piece is a palindrome. A diagram drawn by the critic Alex Ross[4] brings clarity to the organization.

Underlying this pattern, a rippling effect is provided by a centrally placed piano (which plays continually throughout), four harps, celesta, one percussionist on bass drums, timpani, tamtam and cymbals, and two percussionists, placed on each side, on mallet instruments.

The composer specifies colored lighting to match the activity of the orchestral groups, but after the first two performances these were not used.

Performances

After being introduced in June 2013, the work was performed at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, on March 30, 2014. It was repeated in Seattle at a free concert on May 2, 2014; it then received its first New York City performance in Carnegie Hall on May 6, 2014, which was also the first time the composer had an opportunity to hear it.[5]

Critical reception

The initial review, in The Seattle Times, was lukewarm. The reviewer found it "pleasant" but "after the first 20 minutes or so, the musical ideas had pretty much run their course, and there were no further developments to justify sustaining the piece."[6] By contrast, Alex Ross, writing in The New Yorker and on his blog, gave a glowing review, saying he "went away reeling", and "[i]t may be the loveliest apocalypse in musical history." He compared it with The Rite of Spring, then just 100 years old, in its newness of voice and its ability to provide new shocks for a new century. Ross also provided a technical analysis.[7] Critical reaction to the New York premiere was almost universally positive.[8] In a feature about the creation of Become Ocean, the music writer Thomas May remarks that John Luther Adams "expresses discomfort with the tendency to read simplistic political messages or picturesque 'illustrations' of a primordial seascape into his music." [9] Reviewing the Los Angeles Philharmonic's first performance of Become Ocean under guest conductor Ludovic Morlot, May found that the conductor "elicited mesmerisingly complex and unpredictable emotions." [10]

Recording

Cantaloupe Music released the premiere recording on October 30, 2014, on CD and DVD.[11] The DVD includes still images and a surround sound mix that had been supervised by Adams.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "The Pulitzer Prizes | Awards". Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Ludovic Morlot to lead Seattle Symphony in world premiere of John Luther Adams' Become Ocean". Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "John Luther Adams wins Pulitzer Prize for Become Ocean, commissioned by Seattle Symphony". Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "Untitled written chart".
  5. ↑ Batka, Chad (5 May 2014). "A Composer Attuned to the Earth’s Swirling Motion". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  6. ↑ Bargreen, Melinda (21 June 2013). "At SSO, impassioned Shostakovich, Become Ocean". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  7. ↑ Ross, Alex. "Water Music". Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  8. ↑ A list of contemporaneous reviews can be found in May, Thomas (28 May 2014). "Seattle’s Night at Carnegie". Memeteria (blog). Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "Making Waves: The voyage to John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Become Ocean". Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "Music for a While: Beguiled by Beethoven and John Luther Adams in Los Angeles". Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  11. ↑ "Become Ocean - Cantaloupe Music". 30 October 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "Become Ocean - In the mixing studio with John Luther Adams!". 19 August 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.

External links

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