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Become a Desert.
Become a desert is a song composed by John Luther Adams that finalizes a series that he was not set to write. He had spent the summer walking through the rivers and mountains of the Brooks Range, where he did three works, namely; Become River, Become Ocean and Become Desert. During this time, he realized that space is an essential compositional part in which music is heard (Adams). Therefore choosing a quiet and dark place to do the listening activity will be a perfect place. While reading the article, I could feel the presence of humans around and hear also hear a different kind of voices such as wing beats from insects. I was able to note five words which include the following, desert, space, light, memory, and
According to (Adams), desert are places where they are few or no people. I wrote the word because I was alone in quite a place which gave me a clear representation of the desert. I felt loneliness as I closed my eyes and listened to the music. But as listened to the music deeply, I began to notice the change, and I could feel the presence of humans and animals. These days most of us try not to hear from others. But being alone it made me realize that we should open our ears and listen to music around us.
Space is an area that is enough to accommodate a person or thing. According to (Adams), space is a central part of the music. The reason why I wrote this word is that, in the space, we can listen to many voices such as the singer, voices of the wind, and voices from animals. It helps us to submit our thoughts to listening to music, and we can feel the music from the inside. Therefore, having space acts a therapy to relieve our worries and stress.
Light is a natural agent that stimulates sight and aids the visibility of things. According to (Adams), in the desert, people don’t look at the light but swim in the light. Listening to the light is what made him feel that the music need to include human voices. The reason why I wrote the word light is that it gives us directions on how to handle issues. It helps us during decision making and problem-solving.
Memory is the process that involves the ability to preserve and recover information that is learnt or experienced. It is difficult to forget the memory of things that happened in the past (Adams).Listening to desert music, brought back memories of the lonely days in the past. It helped me to lose myself in the fullness of the present moment and to forget things that that happened in the past for a while. I was able to focus on my future expectations.
The scale is a means of estimating extent. According to Adams, it isn’t easy to recognize the scale of different voices and where they came from. The reason for choosing this word was because I was unable to identify the specific source of a particular voice.
In conclusion, listening to desert music made me realize the importance of listening to other people. Sitting alone in a quiet place enabled me to remember different events in my life which made the work more enjoyable. Carrying out the listening activity made me understand about the desert music, which helped to tackle the assignment.
Work Cited.
Adams, John. “John Luther Adams On How He Found New Music In The Desert”. Slate
Magazine, 2020, https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/john-luther-adams-on-his-new-piece-
become-desert.html. Accessed 2018.