Final Dissertation Submission
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Negotiating Sound, Place, Ritual and Community: The Extended-Length Concert Percussion Music of John Luther Adams by James Michael Peter Drake A thesis suBmitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Faculty of Music University of Toronto © Copyright By James Michael Peter Drake 2019 Negotiating Sound, Place, Ritual and Community: The Extended- Length Concert Percussion Music of John Luther Adams James Michael Peter Drake Doctor of Musical Arts Faculty of Music University of Toronto 2019 ABstract American composer John Luther Adams has been recognized as one of the most important and innovative composers of contemporary classical music. Adams is well-known for his musical connections to the natural environment, and for espousing the idea of “music as place”. These overarching themes, combined with composition techniques that take inspiration from natural phenomena and organic processes, have led to works that often have a formal structure at their core, but a combination of rhythms, harmonies and textures that is unlike any other mainstream composer working today. Through his associations with many notable contemporary percussionists, Adams has written compositions that have made a particularly strong impact in contemporary percussion music, especially through his affinity for writing for “non-pitched” instruments. He has also shown an affinity for compositions that are expansive in duration. Three compositions that share these characteristics are the main focus of this study: Strange and Sacred Noise, The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies and Ilimaq. I suggest that along with environment and place, ritual is a key component in Adams’ compositions, and that highlighting aspects of ritual may help lead to a greater feeling of ii community and/or Victor and Edith Turner’s concept of communitas between performers and audience. I frame these ideas inside of Small’s concept of “musicking” (that is, music as an activity), and also acknowledge ideas of ritual and performance from Schechner, Baranowski, Small and others. I discuss the origins, logistics and evolution of performance practice of all three pieces. I interview leading performers of Adams’ percussion music to gain insight into their performance practices and reactions to the music. Finally, I suggest a conceptual framework for approaching the performance of these works, to strive for a goal of communitas, and offer both some general and specific performance practice suggestions based on performer feedback and my own experience. iii Acknowledgments The dissertation would not have been possible without the assistance of a number of people, and I am grateful for all the support I have received. Dr. Russell Hartenberger not only served as my first percussion teacher, but also as my supervisor when I first enrolled in the DMA Program at the University of Toronto. His teachings have shaped the way I play and think about music and sound, and I am constantly grateful for his patience and quiet wisdom, and for the continued opportunities to talk about and make music with him. I am also grateful to Jack Van Geem, my percussion teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, who was inspiring not only as a percussion teacher but also as an example of how to live a fulfilling (musical) life. He helped me to understand the importance of intention in performance and his influences – both musical and extra-musical – continue to shape me to this day. Dr. Aiyun Huang has been an invaluable support as my current supervisor for this dissertation. She is a passionate advocate for contemporary music who was extremely generous with her time, consistently encouraging and also constructively critical. Her honest feedback and thoughtful questions have made this dissertation far more insightful than it would have been otherwise, and her good humour and positive energy through this project always left me feeling excited aBout the work. Thanks also go to Dr. T. Nikki Cesare Schotzko and Dr. James Parker, who served on my committee, for their helpful feedback, astute questions and suggestions which opened up new paths in my thinking, and to Dr. Nicholas Papador and Dr. Robin Elliott who, through their insightful questions, encouraged enlightening discussion during my defense. I could not have had a more exceptional group of academics to help guide me through this undertaking. There would be no dissertation about this music if the composer hadn’t written it! John Luther Adams has been an inspiration musically, and showed himself to be a warm and generous interviewee. I am grateful for getting the chance to connect with him and to ask him questions about his music. His honest and thoughtful answers made these conversations an absolute pleasure, and only served to cement my deep and abiding interest in his compositions. Much of this dissertation would also not have been possible without the contributions of various performers. To Richard Burrows, Adam Campbell, Glenn Kotche, Allen Otte, Ben Reimer and iv Steven Schick, thank you for sharing your insights about these works and your thoughts on percussion performance. One of the best results of writing this dissertation was having the opportunity to discuss percussion music with each of you. Throughout the writing process, I have been lucky to have the support of a number of friends and colleagues. Their kindness and patience when I was at my busiest was quietly and appreciatively noted. Thanks in particular to my colleagues in TorQ (Richard Burrows, Adam Campbell and Daniel Morphy), Lily Ling, Reza Jacobs, Esther Lexchin, Jane Walsh and Zimfira Poloz (and all the staff of the Hamilton Children’s Choir) for their words of encouragement, and providing the occasional hot meal or needed break. Finally, this dissertation and degree would not have been possible without an enormous amount of support and love from my family. To my parents, Judith and Peter Drake, thank you for always supporting my path in music and in life. Special thanks to my brother, Dr. Andrew Drake, for his conversations of commiseration, inspiration and advice – I could not have gotten here without your help. Though you won the race, I am ever grateful that you were there to cheer me to the finish line. This dissertation is dedicated to Dagmar Rydlo, who, though an exploration of solo piano literature, first showed me how beautiful making music could be, and to the memory of Robin Engelman, who not only introduced me to John Luther Adams’ works but instilled in me the importance and beauty of sound. v TaBle of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IV TABLE OF CONTENTS VI LIST OF TABLES VIII LIST OF PLATES IX LIST OF FIGURES X LIST OF APPENDICES XI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND OUTLINE 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 PERSONAL BACKGROUND 3 1.2 METHODOLOGY 5 1.2.1 Outline 6 CHAPTER 2 JOHN LUTHER ADAMS’ MUSICAL AND EXTRA-MUSICAL INFLUENCES 8 2 INTRODUCTION 8 2.1 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 9 2.1.1 From Zappa to Varèse to Feldman 9 2.1.2 John Cage 10 2.1.3 Henry Cowell 11 2.1.4 James Tenney 12 2.2 ASSOCIATED MUSICAL MOVEMENTS: INFLUENCES AND PARALLELS 13 2.2.1 Minimalism/Post-minimalism 13 2.2.2 Totalism 15 2.2.3 Noise 16 2.2.4 Ambient Music 18 2.2.5 Eco-minimalism 19 2.3 EXTRA MUSICAL INFLUENCES 19 2.3.1 Environment 20 2.3.2 Place 28 2.3.3 Ritual 32 2.3.4 Parts of the whole 39 2.3.5 Communitas 42 vi CHAPTER 3 ORIGINS, FORMS AND THE EVOLUTION OF PERFORMANCE PRACTICE IN ADAMS’ PERCUSSION MUSIC 44 3 INTRODUCTION 44 3.1 STRANGE AND SACRED NOISE 46 3.2 THE MATHEMATICS OF RESONANT BODIES 55 3.3 ILIMAQ 67 CHAPTER 4 PERFORMER REFLECTIONS 77 4 INTRODUCTION 77 4.1 INTERVIEW SUBJECTS 77 4.2 INITIAL REACTIONS TO THE COMPOSITIONS 79 4.3 CHALLENGES IN PREPARATION 81 4.4 CIRCUMSTANCES OF PERFORMANCES 84 4.5 INITIAL PERFORMER IMPRESSIONS 98 4.6 INITIAL AUDIENCE REACTIONS 104 4.7 PERCEPTION OF RITUAL ELEMENTS 109 CHAPTER 5 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICE SUGGESTIONS 113 5 INTRODUCTION 113 5.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR PERFORMANCE 118 5.2 PERFORMANCE PRACTICE SUGGESTIONS 121 5.2.1 Sound 122 5.2.2 Gesture 129 5.2.3 Place 132 5.2.4 Environment 137 5.3 CONCLUSION 138 BIBLIOGRAPHY 139 APPENDIX A: TERMINOLOGY 148 APPENDIX B: JOHN LUTHER ADAMS PROSPECTIVE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 158 APPENDIX C: PERFORMER PERSPECTIVE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 159 APPENDIX D: MHRP INFORMATION LETTER AND CONSENT FORM 161 COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 166 vii List of Tables Table 4-1: Summary of audience reactions…………………………………………………….105 viii List of Plates Plate 2-1: Looking towards Kachemek Bay State Park, Homer, AK …………………………..22 Plate 2-2: Looking towards Knik Arm, Anchorage, AK ……………………………………….23 Plate 4-1: Dress rehearsal of “clusters…” from TorQ’s production of Strange and Sacred Noise …………………………………………..……………………………87 Plate 4-2: Dress rehearsal of “…dust into dust…” from TorQ’s production of Strange and Sacred Noise …………………………………………...……………………………88 Plate 4-3: Detail of Glenn Kotche’s Ilimaq set up at UT Austin, Texas..……………………….93 Plate 4-4: Aerial view of Glenn Kotche’s Ilimaq set up at the Pulitzer Foundation ……………95 Plate 4-5: Kotche’s Ilimaq setup at the Pulitzer Foundation, St. Louis, MO.…………………...96 Plate 4-6: Ben Reimer performing Ilimaq at the Apollo Cinema, Kitchener, Ontario …………98 Plate A-1: Composers’s note at John Luther Adams installation The Place Where You Go to Listen, Museum of the North, University of Alaska Fairbanks ..……………….…155 ix List of Figures Figure 3-1: A 2D representation of the 1D Cantor set……………………………..……………48 Figure 3-2: Measures 100-108 of “…dust into dust…” from Strange and Sacred Noise………50