Erik DeLuca

On Composing Place: An analysis of Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid by John Luther Adams. There is a vast collection of philosophical texts that deal with place from both anthropological and geographical perspectives. The introduction to Steven Felds and Keith H. Bassos book Senses Of Place provides a wonderfully varied bibliography on the topic. Each of the ethnographies included in the collection describe and interpret some of the ways in which people encounter places, perceive them, and invest them with significance1. Along this path there is a lineage of composers who have written concert music inspired by place but there is a lack of published material that confronts the topic. One single work, Sounds of Place by Denise Von Glahn, discusses a number of place pieces composed by Americans. However, Glahns work, while rich with ideas, only briefly mentions the compositional devices employed to embody place. The following analysis seeks to unpack this particular compositional mapping problem in John Luther Adamss Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid from Strange and Sacred Noise (1991-97). For background information on JLA see Alex Rosss Letter From Alaska: Song Of The Earth.2 Strange and Sacred Noise For the past three decades JLA has composed musical landscapes, sonic geographies, work inspired by light, and installation environments that are all inspired by Alaska. As a young man I came north with the dream that I might discover a new kind of music here, music that might be found only here. I was drawn to the north by the land itself
Steven Feld and Keith H. Basso. Senses of Place (Santa Fe, N.M.: School of American Research Press, 1996). Alex Ross, "Letter From Alaska: Song of the Earth - The Sound World of John Luther Adams", The New Yorker, May, 12, 2008, 76.
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and by my own desire, in my art and my soul, for certain qualities this place represents.3 The composer, while acknowledging his romanticized views of Alaska, has concurrently embraced its noise. just as we can find transcendent peace in the beauty of nature, we can also discover a different kind of transcendence in the presence of elemental violenceInspired by my encounters with calving glaciers, raging rivers, wildfires, and extreme weather, Strange and Sacred Noise celebrates noise in the primal forces of nature.4 JLA claims that the musical materials used to compose Strange and Sacred Noise were extracted from geometric phenomena as a way to investigate and imitate the elemental violence of noise5 found in the natural6 expanses of Alaska and beyond. The following sentences were excerpted from JLAs essay on Strange and Sacred Noise:
My growing fascination with the violence of nature led me to a rudimentary study of chaos theory, fractal geometry and the science of complexityrecent attempts by Western science to describe the rich patterns of the world I wondered: How might these intriguing phenomena sound? My first exploration of this question is Strange and Sacred Noisean extended cycle of pieces for percussion quartet, combining my long-standing passion for sounds and images from the natural world with a newly-found fascination for the mathematics of dynamic systems. In this music, I attempted to translate a few of the reiterated, self-similar forms of simple, linear fractals into sound and time, in search of their audible equivalents. Chaos theory arrives at the most complex of ends from the simplest of means I began my investigation of fractals as music with the simplest of forms: the so called classical fractals, created by linear, iterative processes. Compared with the mindboggling complexities of forms generated by the Julia and the Mandelbrot Sets, these fractals are relatively simple. Still, they offer intriguing enigmas and rich metaphors.7

The 6-movment, approximately 70-minute cycle, blends the composers longstanding sonic geography with a new fascination for sonic geometry as a way to celebrate noise as a metaphor for the turbulent phenomena in the world around us. In addition,

Adams, The Place Where You Go to Listen, 102 Ibid. 5 Noise throughout this paper will be defined as complex, aperiodic sound. 6 In this analysis a natural place is an unbuilt geography on our planet. 7 John Luther Adams, Strange and Sacred Noise. Compact Disc, Liner notes (New York, NY: Mode, 2005).
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each movement was inspired by, and dedicated to composers who have explored strange new worlds of sound. I. dust into dust, for two snare drums and two field drums, explores the Cantor set and Cantor dust a fractal model of the behavior of electrical noise. II. solitary and time-breaking waves (after James Tenney), for four tam-tams, is structured on various, and gradually drifting waves of intensity that creates a massive tsunami of sound. III. velocities crossing in phase space (after Conlon Nancarrow and Peter Garland), for six tom-toms and four bass drums, is a canon in continuous waves of acceleration and ritardando, modeled after Nancarrows Canon X and Garlands Meditation on Thunder. IV. triadic iteration lattices (to Edgard Varse and Alvin Lucier), for four sirens, is modeled on the Serpienski Gasket: an Eiffel Tower of reiterated, telescoping pyramids, and traverses an expanding field of rising and falling glissandi. V. clusters on a quadrilateral grid (to Morton Feldman), for four marimbas, four vibraphones and four sets of orchestra bells, is a sounding of the Menger Sponge: an enigmatic quadrilateral with an infinite surface area and a volume of zero. The final movement in the cycle, VI. and dust rising, for two snare drums and two field drums, is also molded from the Cantor set and Cantor dust. Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: general information Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid, the 5th and longest movement of the cycle, is the only section that uses pitched instruments. The performer note and score imagery is included below.
clusters on a quadrilateral grid is a sonic sculpture modeled on the Menger Sponge: an enigmatic quadrilateral with an infinite surface area and a volume of zero. Four percussionists play four marimbas, four vibraphones (with motors off), and four sets of crotales or orchestra bells. The marimbas should be played with soft mallets and an absolute minimum of attack. The vibraphones

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and orchestra bells should be played with the hardest possible mallets and attacks. All the tones of a given sonority should be balanced equally, with the entire ensemble sounding as a single instrument. This piece is dedicated to the memory of Morton Feldman. Performance duration is about 27:008

Figure 1: Imagery on the score cover9

The dedication to Feldman invokes his explorations of the chromatic field, and the quiet, uninflected character of his surfaces.10 The work is also congruent with the visual symmetry of Feldmans scores and the title ostensibly points to Patterns in a Chromatic Field (1981) for cello and piano. Furthermore, JLA references Feldmans crippled symmetry as an influence in the text accompaniment for Noise.11 With an initial sweep of the score, we begin to understand that this music has a clear pattern of noise and silence, the sonic equivalent of object and space - the fundamentals of geometry. I will start by examining this basic element of the music as an introduction to the compositional form and the musics relationship to geometry.

8 9

Adams, Strange and Sacred Noise, musical score. Ibid. 10 Personal correspondence. August 2011. 11 John Luther Adams, Winter Music: Composing the North (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004) 132.

Noise and silence / object and space In figure 2, each horizontal line from top to bottom corresponds to the four sections of Clusters. Each line, or section, was divided with larger ticks to represent systems and smaller ticks to represent measures. Black represents noise and white represents silence. When the first section was dismantled and arranged by placing three systems (totaling one page) horizontally from top to bottom (Figure 3), it becomes clear, visually, that this pattern is an approximation of one-fourth of a Cantor set (Figure 4). This correlation is appropriate because the Sierpinski carpet is a 2D version of the Cantor set and a Menger sponge is a 3D analogue of the Sierpinski carpet. The essence of this music, noise and silence, and the Menger sponges most basic element, the Canotor set, align. This initial evidence shows us that the composer is working within a framework directly related to the fractal geometry he mentions.

Figure 2: noise and silence visualization

Figure 3: noise and silence visualization

Figure 4: cantor set

Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: Sierpinski carpet A Sierpinski carpet, a 2D version of the Menger Sponge, is constructed by dividing a square (figure 5, iteration 0) into 9 smaller squares with the center square removed (figure 5, iteration 1). This process can be repeated infinitely (figure 5, iteration 2,3), reducing the surface area of the initial square (figure 5, iteration 0). Figure 5 illustrates two visual representations of the iterations, where iteration 0 starts with either a full surface (top row) or an inverse surface (bottom row). For more information on self-similar geometry refer to A Brief Historical Introduction to Fractals and Fractal Geometry12 by Lokenath Debnath and for more information on the Sierpinski carpet and the Menger sponge refer to The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoit B Mandelbrot.13 Beyond the information presented in the performer notes, JLA gives us a peak into his compositional process of Clusters. I treated twelve-tone equal temperament quite literally as a grid, superimposing a quadrilateral fractal onto the chromatic field to derive the clouds and clusters of the music.14 This information, while serving as a nice starting point, leaves out many variables involved in the mapping process between the Sierpinski carpet iterations and the musical materials. The following sections will address JLAs mapping process in Clusters.
Lokenath Debnath, A Brief Historical Introduction to Fractals and Fractal Geometry. (International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. 37, no. 1, 2006) 29-50. 13 Benoit B. Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1982). 14 Adams, Winter Music, 87.
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Figure 5: Sierpinski carpet iterations 0-3

Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: mapping process Each page of the 32-page score has 27 measures organized in 3, 9 measure systems (see figure 6). These proportions are congruent with a Sierpinski carpet iteration 3, which has a 27x27 square surface area (see Figure 7). Therefore, it is clear that each page of the score represents an iteration of a Sierpinski carpet. The first and last section of Clusters, for Marimba, uses a chromatic collection of 27 pitches, A2 B4. Section 2, for vibraphone, uses the same pitch collection but an octave higher, A3 B5 and Section 3, for orchestra bells, uses the same pitch collection but an octave higher, written A3 B5. This evidence tells us that the Sierpinski carpet is used as a 27x27 quadrilateral grid where the X axes represents time with 27 linear measures and the Y axes holds the 27 pitches (low to high). When looking at the empty quadrilateral grid (figure 8) we see that 1 of the 27 square units

holds 1 pitch in 1 measure. From this empty quadrilateral grid the composer molds the carpet iterations by placing clusters on its surface. JLA explains, As I get older I am less interested in hearing the music inside my head and more fascinated with the music of the world around meit turns composing inside out rather than being an additive process of one note following another... Its kind of a subtractive process, a process of sculpting, of carving away, of shaping the field of sound15

Figure 6: Page 3 of the score.

Figure 7: Sierpinski carpet, iteration 3

Figure 8: Empty Sierpinski carpet grid

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Strange and Sacred Noise. DVD. Directed by Leonard Kamerling. 2011.

Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: Section 1, pages 1-4 The 27 chromatic pitches that are found in the first section are drawn from at least a 4.3 octave marimba utilizing two low octaves, starting at A2, plus a minor second (Asharp4/B-flat4 and B4). The pitch collection is arranged into 19 different gamuts, cluster collection A (figure 9) that is analogous to the carpet iterations. The section begins with whole-measure tremolos between pitches included in each gamut and a 3/4 time signature where the quarter note equals 72 beats per-minute. The composer gives the performers a tempo indication of Timeless and instructs the players to use soft mallets at pianissimo throughout. JLA applies all 27 pitches on the grid in the first 27 bars, creating carpet iteration 0 (figure 10). Due to instrument limitations the composer divided the 27 pitches into two groups. Systems 1 and 3 contain gamut 1A; and system 2 contains gamut 2A. Page two generates carpet iteration 1 (figure 11), where systems 1 and 3 contain gamut 1A; and system 2 contains gamut 3A and 4A. Page three creates carpet iteration 2 (figure 12), where system 1 and 3 contain gumuts 1A, 5A, and 6A; and system 2 contains gamut 3A and 7A. The music on Page 4 generates carpet iteration 3 (figure 13), where systems 1 and 3 contain gamuts 1A, 5A, 8A, 9A, 10A; and system 2 contains gamuts 3A, 7A, 11A, 12A. At the 2nd and 8th measures of systems 1 and 3 on page 4 (figure 13) JLA breaks the recurring fixed tremolos by reducing the rhythmic pattern to quarter-note tremolos, transitioning from gamut 8A to 9A. The linear harmonic fractals, the rhythmic diminuation, and the contraction and expansion of registral space are analogous to the evolution of carpet

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iterations. These devices exemplify the inward motion and the gradual reduction of surface area found in a Menger sponge. A harmonic movement visualization of section 1 is included in appendix A. Appendix C contains a link to an animation of page 2. When comparing the visualizations of pages 1-4 to its corresponding carpet iteration model (figure 14) we see that the physical limitations of the ensemble impede JLA from sculpting exact replicas. JLA says, Although I feel free to break symmetry at any time, I try to do so primarily in response to the physical characteristics of the instruments or the practical realities of performance and notation, rather than from my own ideas of what should happen next...Occasionally I feel compelled to break the form in order to transcend it.16 Furthermore, it seems as though this piece could have been realized more precisely using computer processes, but JLA wanted to get a hands-on feel for the behavior of these forms and processes by using a fabricated system using conventional music notation and acoustic instruments. He wanted to savor the learning, weighing the full resonance of the fundamental principles inherent in these simplest of fractals.17

16 17

Adams, Winter Music, 132-134. Ibid,132.

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Figure 9: cluster collection A

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Figure 10: Page 1

Figure 11: Page 2

Figure 12: Page 3

Figure 13: Page 4

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Figure 14: Iteration comparison for pages 1-4.

Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: Section one, pages 5-8 The last four pages of section 1 differ from the previous 4 pages in that they include extended rests. Page 5 (figure 15) is an exact replica of page 1, generating carpet iteration 0. Page 6 (figure 16) contains inverse carpet iteration 1 where systems 1 and 3 contain rests and system 2 contains gamut 13A. Page 7 (figure 17) generates inverse carpet iteration 2 where systems 1 and 3 contain rests and gamut 14A; and system 2 contains gamut 13A and 15A. Page 8 (figure 18) creates inverse carpet iteration 3 where systems 1 and 3 contain rests, gamuts 14A, 16A, and 17A; and system 2 contains gamuts 13A, 15A, 18A, and 19A. When comparing the visualizations of pages 5-8 (Figure 20) to their corresponding carpet model we see a resemblance to an inverse iteration set. In section one, and in all the sections to follow, the composer presents two sets of carpet iterations 03, one an inverse of the other. The inverse iteration sets render rests in the music. This new

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development, along with the drastic contraction of registral space with gamut 13A, adds to the musical devices. These inverse iteration sets also point to the inward motion and the gradual reduction of surface volume of the Menger Sponge. A harmonic movement visualization of section 1 is included in appendix A.

Figure 15: Page 5

Figure 16: Page 6

Figure 17: Page 7

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Figure 18: Page 8

Figure 20: Inverse iteration comparison for pages 5-8.

Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: Section two, pages 9-12 Section 2 for vibraphone follows the same structural design as section 1 but molds the carpet iterations using slightly different gamuts, Cluster Collection B (figure 21), again reflecting the physical limitations of the ensemble. JLA uses the same chromatic pitch collection positioned one octave higher. Two low octaves on a standard vibraphone, starting on A3, plus a minor second (A-sharp4/B-flat4 and B4) are used. This section is played twice as fast in relation to the first where quarter note equals 144 beats per-minute with a dotted half note base pulse. The dynamics are fortissimo using hard mallets with the sustain peddle held throughout. The higher frequency space, the sharper attacks, the louder

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dynamics, and the faster tempo pull the music further inward toward the gradually diminishing surface area of the Menger sponge. Page 9 (figure 22) generates carpet iteration 0 where systems 1 and 3 contain gamut 1B; and system 2 contains gamut 2B. Page 10 (figure 23) creates carpet iteration 1 where systems 1 and 3 contain gamuts 1B and 2B; and system 2 contains gamuts 3B and 4B. Page 11 (figure 24) generates carpet iteration 2 where systems 1 and 3 contain gamuts 1B, 2B, 5B, and 6B; and system 2 contains gamuts 3B, 4B, and 7B. Page 12 (figure 25) creates carpet iteration 3 where systems 1 and 3 contain gamuts 1B, 5B, 6B, 8B, 9B, and 10B; and system 2 contains gamuts 3B, 7B, 11B, and 12B. In the 3rd voice of systems 1 and 3 on page 12 we see that the composer implements a rhythmic contrast of 3 against 4 beats with an aggregated gamut ascending. This rhythmic motif will occur in multiple instances in this section, as well as the 3rd section, and stutters the collective sounding unit, adding to the composers fractal devices. To gain a better understanding of the harmonic movement of section 2 refer to the visualization at appendix B.

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Figure 21: cluster collection B

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Figure 22: Page 9

Figure 23: Page 10

Figure 24: Page 11

Figure 25: Page 12

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Figure 26: Iteration comparison for pages 9-12.

Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: Section two, pages 13-16 The last four pages of section two also include rests and follows inverse carpet iteration 1-3. Page 13 (figure 27) is an exact replica of page 9, generating carpet iteration 0. Page 14 (figure 28) contains inverse carpet iteration 1 where systems 1 and 3 contain rests; and system 2 contains gamuts 13B. Page 15 (figure 29) generates inverse carpet iteration 2 where systems 1 and 3 contain rests and gamuts 14B; and system 2 contains gamuts 13B and 15B. Page 16 (figure 30) creates inverse carpet iteration 3 where systems 1 and 3 contain rests, gamuts 14B, 16B, and 17B; and system 2 contains gamuts 13B, 15B, 18B, and 19B. Again, to gain a better understanding of the harmonic movement of section 2 refer to the visualization at appendix B. Appendix D contains a link to an animation of page 15 and appendix E contains a link to an animation of page 16.

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Figure 27: Page 13

Figure 28: Page 14

Figure 29: Page 15

Figure 30: Page 16

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Figure 31: Inverse iteration comparison for pages 13-16.

Clusters on a Quadrilateral Grid: Sections three and four Section 3, for orchestra bells, sounds an octave higher, is played twice as fast, and is a retrograde of section 2. This frequency and speed shift, again, points to the gradual deterioration of the Menger sponge overtime. Section 4 for marimba bookends sections 2 and 3 with an exact replica of section 1 but in retrograde. This last section points back to the outer shell of the fractal. Figure 32 visualizes the inward motion of the music.

Conclusion This mapping process rendered an atmospheric, ambient musical fabric that allows listeners to find their place in the music. JLA explains further, At times during the seven

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years in which I worked on this cycle, I wondered whether this was music at all. Its dynamics range from the threshold of audibility to the threshold of painIts dense, nearly static fields of sound seem to invite boredom. But my touchtone throughout was a deepening faith in the power of noise as a vehicle of transformation and revelationUltimately Ive come to regardStrange and Sacred Noise not so much as musical compositions or pieces, but as places places for listening, places in which to experience the elemental mysteries of noise.18 It is important to remember that there is not a direct link between the musical materials in Strange and Sacred Noise and the noise that occurs in the natural places on our planet. Rather, at the cusp of imagination and experience, JLA uses these fractal translations as a vehicle to abstractly link listeners to his experience of noise in Alaska. In a movie documenting the outdoor performance of Strange and Sacred Noise in the Alaskan tundra JLA presents a poetic thought that brings the experience of working with these materials full-circle. The Kaluli people in Papua New Guinea have a tradition of song making where a song maker will go out and camp by a waterfall for days. The song maker will listen to the noise, the roar, and the voices of the waterfall. They will steep themselves within that noise because they believe that in the noise of the waterfall contains all the songs of the world. So, I have come to regard noise not as unwanted sound but as the breath of the world."19

18 19

Adams, Winter Music, 132-134. Ibid.

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Appendix A A version of this visualization with zoom-in possibilities can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/190953316/Appendix-A
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Appendix B A version of this visualization with zoom-in possibilities can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/190953377/Appendix-B

Appendix C Page 2 animation link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMzCQuSxzfc] Appendix D Page 15 animation link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKxQkH8x8Vk] Appendix E Page 16 animation link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUSKAr3quug]

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Bibliography Adams, John Luther. Strange and Sacred Noise (Fairbanks, AK: Taiga Press, 2003). Adams, John Luther. Strange and Sacred Noise. Compact Disc, Liner notes (New York, NY: Mode, 2005). Adams, John Luther. The Place Where You Go to Listen: In Search of an Ecology of Music (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2009). Adams, John Luther. Winter Music: Composing the North (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004). Allen, Aaron S. Ecomusicology: Ecocriticism and Musicology (Journal of the American Musicological Society, 64, no. 2, 2011). Burtner, Matthew. Ecoacoustic and shamanic technologies for multimedia performance and composition (Organized Sound 10(1), 2005). Casey, Edward S. Remembering: A Phenomenological Study (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987). Casey, Edward S. Getting Back into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993). Debnath, Lokenath. A Brief Historical Introduction to Fractals and Fractal Geometry (International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. 37, no. 1, 2006). Feld, Steven, and Keith H. Basso. Senses of Place (Santa Fe, N.M.: School of American Research Press, 1996). Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism (New York, NY: Routledge, 2004). Glahn, Denise. The Sounds Of Place (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003). Griffiths, Paul. Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985). Kimura, G. W. Alaska at 50: The Past, Present, and Next Fifty Years of Statehood (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2009).

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Mandelbrot, Benoit B. The Fractal Geometry of Nature (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1982). Ross, Alex. "Letter From Alaska: Song of the Earth - The Sound World of John Luther Adams", The New Yorker, May, 12, 2008. Strange and Sacred Noise. DVD. Directed by Leonard Kamerling. 2011. Publishing still in progress.