Tonight on Soundstage: Part 2 of Cosmic Significance by Dewey Davis-Thompson.
Tonight on Soundstage: Earth and the Great Weather by John Luther Adams, commissioned by New American Radio.
A work about the sonic geography of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska, and about the voices of the elements. From the texture of wind, rain and melting ice, flowing water, animal cries and birdsong, emerges the sound of drums playing the pulsing 5/8 and 7/8 beats of Inupiaq Eskimo drumming. At other times, the deep whooshing of bullroarers and the ethereal voices of aeolian harps grow out of the sounds and recede again. And within this sonic space, the voices of a woman and two men talking and reciting in English, Latin, and Inupiaq—leading us toward the Eskimo shaman’s song from which the piece derives its title.