Radiolab: "John Luther Adams" (October 3, 2014)

Podcast: Radiolab
Hosts: Jad Abumrad, Robert Krulwich (with excerpts from Nadia Sirota’s "Meet the Composer")
Main Guest: John Luther Adams

Overview

This Radiolab episode spotlights the influential contemporary composer John Luther Adams, exploring how his life, environment, and philosophy shape his unusual and immersive musical works. Drawing extensively from Q2 Music’s “Meet the Composer” series, host Jad Abumrad introduces listeners to Adams’ unique approach, blending personal narratives, nature’s influence, and an expansive musical vision that bridges sound, environment, and emotion.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Challenge of Talking About Music

• [01:29] Jad Abumrad opens by acknowledging the difficulty of making discussions about music compelling and introduces "Meet the Composer" as a standout in this area.
  • “It's really hard to build a bridge. And so when people do it well, I just feel like you got to give them props.” — Jad Abumrad, [01:36]

2. Early Musical Influences

• [02:56] Nadia Sirota describes a young John Luther Adams and his rock band, playing covers of "the three Bs": The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Byrds.
• Adams recounts his boredom with covers, leading to an interest in songwriting and avant-garde artists like Frank Zappa:
  • “On the back of Frank's early LPs there would always be this intriguing little quote. The present day composer refuses to die. Edgar.” — John Luther Adams, [03:47]
  • Adams and friends discover the music of Edgard Varèse, immersing themselves in its wild, unfamiliar soundscapes.
  • “We hear this desert, this ocean, these forbidding mountains of sound, and I remember thinking, I'll never be able to know where I am in this.” — John Luther Adams, [04:35]

3. Learning to Listen Differently

• Adams describes a transformative process of learning to find "landmarks" in unfamiliar music and encourages young musicians to embrace what they do not like.
  • “Listen to everything you can get your ears on, especially the stuff you think you don't like.” — John Luther Adams, [05:18]

4. Embracing Birdsong and Nature

• [07:24] Adams describes turning to nature as a major teacher after school, particularly the study of birdsong.
  • He explains his series Songbird Songs (1974–79), where he tried “to take dictation” from birds, capturing their essence, not literal accuracy.
  • “I'm interested in what gets lost in translation because after all, this is music. This is perhaps a language that we will never understand.” — John Luther Adams, [08:46]

5. Alienation in Los Angeles and Quest for "Home"

• [10:47] Adams confesses a deep sense of alienation while living in LA, contrasting creative excitement with personal dislocation:
  • “I felt lost, and not in a good way… there was this deep, inarticulate hunger to find a place to which I might belong.” — John Luther Adams, [10:47]

6. Alaska: The Transformative Landscape

• [11:48] Adams finds his true sense of belonging upon arriving in Alaska, captivated by its vastness and indifference to human presence.
  • “There was, and still is in those places a sense of openness and space and possibility as well as danger. These are big places in which we feel very, very small and we realize that we're insignificant and the place doesn't care if we are there or not.” — John Luther Adams, [12:07]
  • Memorable anecdote: Mistaking a faraway owl for a rock, illustrating how “you lose yourself in that place and in that endless space.” — John Luther Adams, [14:25]

7. The Physicality of Sound and Music’s Primal Nature

• [20:34] Discussion on how Adams' music channels natural processes—like masses of sound, waves, crescendos—rather than strict musical systems.
  • “It was about like the movement of bodies, you know, masses of sound that sort of crescendo, decrescendoed, waves.” — Jad Abumrad, [21:13]
  • Adams reflects on music as elemental, speaking from “just outside of culture,” but also acknowledges:
    • “Everything we do, everything we think, everything we think we create, everything we are, derives from the world that we inhabit." — John Luther Adams, [22:51]

8. Composing as a Meditative, Nocturnal Process

• [23:09] Adams explains his method of internal composition: holding music in his mind as long as possible, sometimes composing in his sleep.
  • “I try to hold things in my mind’s ear as long as I can. It's maybe an inefficient way to work, but it has worked for me.” — John Luther Adams, [23:26]

9. “Become Ocean” and Environmental Message

• [25:01] Adams’ Pulitzer-winning piece “Become Ocean” is introduced, inspired by his time near the Pacific and nightly sounds of waves.
  • The piece uses three orchestras to create musical “tsunamis,” reflecting both the origins of life and climate concerns:
    • “Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. As the polar ice melts and sea levels rise, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again, we may quite literally become ocean.” — Jad Abumrad, [25:38]
  • Adams discusses balancing activism and pure music:
    • “This is a global warming piece...and yet I will also, out of the other side of my mouth, insist that it has absolutely nothing to do with current events or politics or activism and that music must stand on its own as music.” — John Luther Adams, [26:57]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On finding landmarks in difficult music:

  • “Gradually we begin to learn how to listen to the forbidding deserts of Varèse.” — John Luther Adams, [05:13]

• On the landscape’s effect:

  • “Landscape is the culture that contains all human cultures.” — John Luther Adams quoting Barry Lopez, [22:12]

• On musical composition:

  • “Night after night, when I lie down to go to sleep, I'm imagining this group of instruments in this particular space and what they might sound like and how they might move through the space...” — John Luther Adams, [24:28]

• On music and nature:

  • “I've always imagined that I might be able to work in a space that's just outside of culture… it's been a useful conceit for me to feel that I'm after something that…is somehow more element.” — John Luther Adams, [21:32]

Key Timestamps

• [01:35] The challenge of talking about music
• [02:56] Adams’ early years and discovery of Varèse
• [05:13] Learning to listen for landmarks in avant-garde music
• [07:24] Transition to birdsong and nature as teachers
• [10:47] State of alienation in LA, yearning for home
• [11:48] The Alaskan landscape’s transformative effect
• [20:34] Adams’ music as physical movement and natural forces
• [23:09] Nocturnal, meditative composition process
• [25:01] "Become Ocean," environmental themes, Adams on activism vs. pure music

Tone & Feel

Curious, contemplative, and deeply appreciative—Radiolab’s hosts and the featured interviewees guide listeners through Adams’ sensory, philosophical, and ecological approach with warmth, awe, and a touch of gentle humor.

Further Listening

• Full “Meet the Composer” episode on John Luther Adams at Q2 Music
• Adams’ Pulitzer-winning orchestral piece, “Become Ocean”
• String quartet “The Wind in High Places” (unreleased track previewed in the episode)

Radiolab masterfully presents John Luther Adams as a composer rooted in both the physical and sonic landscapes of the world, making a compelling case for music as both a reflection of and an antidote to our sense of place, culture, and the natural world.