John Luther Adams (1953-)
Waves and Particles

JACK Quartet

Waves and Particles is a shimmering, virtuosic string quartet, performed by the extraordinary JACK Quartet. It is the latest in Adams’s growing list of compelling string quartets that have appeared on the Cold Blue Music record label. Adams writes about the work: “Waves and Particles was inspired by quantum physics, fractal geometry, and noise—which function as elemental metaphors in my music. Quantum physics tells us that the universe is more like music than matter. And the musical material of this piece traverses a continuum from silence articulated by points of sound to rolling waves of pitch, timbre, intensity, and velocity. . . . Simple fractal forms shapes each of the six movements, which I hope imparts a quality less like personal expression than like inevitable force. The noise I had in mind was as an acoustician might define it: complex aperiodic sound.” [CD in 6-panel wallet]