Skip to main content

John Luther Adams - Become Ocean

The orchestral composition “Become Ocean” (2014) by John Luther Adams is an extraordinary experience to listen to. I am utterly mesmerized by the hypnotic waves of sound that clash together to create a thunderstorm of emotions while becoming ocean. 

The orchestra is divided into three groups that play simultaneously but separately. These three groups represent to me three fairly enormous waves, which float in the vast ocean. The clash or climax of these three groups happens three times throughout the composition. While they reach a climax, I imagine how these three sound waves are purely water waves finding each other, clashing and becoming one, then drifting apart and turning into completely new waves reminiscent of their old self. However, the piano and the harp are not included as part of the water, in my opinion, they are the light reflected on the surface of the ocean, dancing in the never-ending washing waves, never tired, always staying afloat and alive. 

Water always changes as well as this composition does, never the same chord, but similar. Generally, water can be used as a metaphor for change, that change is inevitable and happens naturally. This composition, too, sounds like a natural phenomenon since the string instruments caress your body like small currents. 

I am getting carried away while the chords of the piano and harp help me stay afloat, I feel how the sunshine tickles my face in the afternoon light. I lay in the vast ocean, not knowing where I will end up but being sure it will be the right place, wherever it might be. The ocean might be a scary thought or even a fear to some, but letting the waves decide your way is taking a weight off my shoulder, turning my lighter. I have no sorrows while listening to the waves carrying me away, even if they crescent, it only becomes more exciting. 

The inner peace I sense while listening to Becoming Ocean, transcends me to a high meditational level, where I am compatible with myself, with the world. It even transcends me to a state where I believe to become the ocean, the waves, the sunlight’s dancing. How can these 42 minutes perfectly encapsulate the process of becoming something natural? How can instruments, or the harmony of many instruments convey such totality of one element alone? 

All of my being wants to write poems about becoming ocean now – that is what this constellation of harmonic instruments has done to me. I never want to write about something else now. The waves have become a small obsession that I dread to let loose. Right now, all I can see, smell, hear and experience are waves. Waves that carry me, waves that determine my way in life, waves that hug and smother me until the end. Does the ocean really end?

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure

 Sarah Kumar Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath The Future of (American) Music 06 Mar. 2023 Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure According to John Oswald, “[a] plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something familiar which has already been recorded” (Lecture Slides 18). However, only if the source stays recognizable can it be called plunderphonics. In his album Plexure , several songs are played back and mixed together, thus creating a new sound. This is interesting because while the excerpts of songs that are used are recognizable or at least sound familiar to some degree, played backwards and mashed up as they are in Plexure , they create a new sound. Like on the cover of the album, on which a collage making up a man can be seen, the mixing of different songs played backwards gives a new feeling to something known. The way the songs are mixed makes them unintelligible. The meaning of the words of the original recordings are not able to be compr...
Post a Comment
Read more

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops III

  The Disintegration Loops is a quartet of albums published in 2002 and 2003 by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. The pieces are made up of tape loop recordings that were played over time, with noise and crackles rising as the tape deteriorated. Basinski noticed this effect when attempting to convert his older recordings to digital format. The completion of the recordings coincided with the September 11, 2001 events, which Basinski witnessed and adds a deeper meaning to the composition. The composition is fascinating in many ways and makes the listener lose track of time. The tape loop recording had a very calming effect on me and put me in a trance-like state when I listened to it in its entirety. The tape loop is really soothing, so much so that I didn't even notice the loss of quality when I first listened to it. It makes you forget about time and allows you to really get into the piece capturing the calmness it exudes. You forget or don't really notice how i...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Cage – Inlets

  This does not sound like music to me. Depending on the interpretation of different players or performers, this piece will always sound different. In this case, it sounds to me like someone is walking through a cave with water at the bottom, dragging their feet through it. Sometimes it sounds like water in a toilet bowl, especially when we hear the water in a bigger shell being swished around. These sounds are relaxing in the background, it is like a gentle stream of water. I just wonder what went through the head of the composer while writing this piece. But I guess he had some experimental ideas that are interesting to try out. Those shells are quite pretty, I have never seen such big ones that are not broken. I was surprised when something else happened towards the end of the piece. That tone which came out of the one shell was so clear, it sounded like a trumpet. I didn’t know that shells can sound like that. It was quite beautiful. It was a nice way to end the piece. I di...
Post a Comment
Read more