Harrison & Adams: Works for Harp, Guitar & Percussion

Featuring

John Schneider
Alison Bjorkedal
T.J. Troy
Just Strings
HMC American Gamelan
John Luther Adams

Lou Harrison

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Compositional Technique

Lou Harrison became enamored with just intonation, a tuning system based on the natural harmonics of string instruments, and largely abandoned the tempered scales common in Western music.

Composer's Artistic Vision

John Luther Adams, after moving to Alaska, sought to create music with 'floating fields of musical color,' inspired by the vast, empty landscapes and color field painting.

Composer Biography

Lou Harrison studied with American new music pioneer Henry Cowell and Viennese master Arnold Schoenberg, and helped create a vibrant California arts scene with his friend John Cage.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Lou Harrison and John Luther Adams, though a generation apart, both found their artistic inspiration and belonging in the natural world of the American West and Pacific.

Compositional Technique

Lou Harrison's Lyric Phrases is a 'kit' of melodic fragments that can be repeated and recombined in any order, a flexible system inspired by his mentor Henry Cowell.

Composition History

John Luther Adams's Five Athabascan Dances and Five Yup'ik Dances are based on traditional songs of the Gwich'in and Dena'ina peoples of Alaska, transformed within the Western tradition.

Performer Biography

Just Strings is a unique ensemble specializing in just intonation music, formed in 1991 to perform works by Lou Harrison and Harry Partch, and has since commissioned many new works.