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John Luther Adams's Ilimaq (Spirit Journeys) for Solo Percussion and Spatial Resonance, Slated for Saturday, Sept. 18, 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall
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Ilimaq (Spirit Journeys) |
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His soul moves free…His spirit goes down.
He dives through the tundra.
It is hard to get through.
It is cold and dangerous.
He enters. He is gone…
- from Ancient Land: Sacred Whale
by Tom Lowenstein
John
Luther Adams, associate
professor of composition, describes his Ilimaq (Spirit
Journeys) for solo percussion and spatial resonance as
"a marathon tour de force for solo percussionist. It was
written specifically for the unique musical personality of
my good friend Scott Deal, and is the result of a close and
continuing collaboration with Scott and sound designer
Nathaniel Reichman."
Both guest artists, percussionist Deal of Fairbanks, Alaska, and sound designer Reichman of New York City will perform on Saturday, Sept. 18, 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.
"Ilimaq grew out of a one-person opera in progress
about the spirit journeys of an Iñupiat (Alaska
Inuit) shaman," Adams explains. "The piece was commissioned
by the Fairbanks Symphony Association for its 'American
Originals' concert series in 1998. John Cage defined
'experimental music' as 'music, the outcome of which is
unpredictable.' By that definition, Ilimaq is the
most experimental music I've ever composed."
He adds, "No synthesizers, samplers, sequencers or recordings are used in this piece. All the sounds originate from the percussion instrument, the sounds of which are amplified, delayed, recirculated and filtered by the natural resonances of the room. Since the piece uses the performance space itself as a sounding musical instrument, each performance in a new space will sound significantly different."
Percussionist Deal says, "As John
mentioned, this really is a marathon for a
percussionist. It's an hour-long endurance test of extremely
physical, very loud, hard and fast drumming, with some
breaks in intensity. What happens is that I perform the
piece and a digital delay system repeats what I play three
times. The sound engineer is the second performer in the
capacity of sound
designer. He controls the resonant frequencies in the
room."
THE PERFORMERS
Scott Deal is a professor of music at the University of Alaska and principal percussionist of the Fairbanks Symphony. He has premiered new works throughout the U.S. and Canada by composers including John Van der Slice, Emma Lou Diemer, Robin Cox, David Heuser and Dorothy Hindman. Deal is a graduate of Cameron University, Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and the University of Miami (Florida). Before relocating to Alaska, Deal was the timpanist for the Miami Symphony and taught percussion at New World School of the Arts and the University of Miami. His specialty is music for electronic and electro-acoustic percussion. He was a founding member of the New Music Consortium Uncommon Practice.
Nathaniel Reichman, based in New York City, is associate director of the Electronic Music Foundation, and technical director at Engine 27. As a composer, Reichman's music has been performed at SEAMUS, the Pacific Music Festival, and will be featured at Springtime in Havana 2000. He is a graduate of Bennington College and an alumnus of the Fabrica in Italy. He has studied with Joel Chadabe, Bill Dixon and Oliviero Toscani, and has been an assistant for composers Robert Ashley and John Luther Adams. Reichman was a sound designer at Murmur Music in New York City.
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