“Sound is Audible Time” (the original name of this weblog) is a quote from this book by John Luther Adams, a composer living in Alaska. The book, subtitled “Composing the North”, deals with the influence the environmental landscape may have on a composer. As is stated in the foreword: “A lot of composers live in the Hudson Valley; will some future historian find among us synchronicities that unite us stylistically?”
Although I am not yet quite sure about what I think of John Luther Adam’s music, I found this book a pleasure to read.
“They say that she heard things.
At Naalagiagvik, The Place Where You Go To Listen, she would sit alone in stillness. The wind across the tundra and the little waves lapping on the shore told her secrets. Birds passing overhead spoke to her in strange tongues.
She listened. And she heard. But she rarely spoke of these things. She did not question them. This is the way for one who listens.”
To illustrate the music he writes about (his own), there’s an accompanying cd with three long tracks.
“Winter Music” was published in 2004 by Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-6742-6.
“Always Listen” (Pauline Oliveros)