Commissioned in 1983 by the Los Angeles Music of Contemporary Art as part of a collaborative work with choreographer Lucinda Childs and set designer Frank Gehry, Light Over Water represents much of what lends minimalism so easily to utilization by other artists. The three-part work for brass and synthesizers begins expansively, with low, long-held tones in the brass reminiscent of Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra. These tones don't build into Strauss's thunderous proclamations, but rather give way to a pulsating web of electronic sounds. The ear (and presumably the movements of the dancer) can ride smoothly on the surface of the sound, or dive into its rhythmic intricacies and pull them to the surface. The second movement begins with simple repeated chords in the synthesizers, which are gradually overlaid by other rhythmic figures. These figures gradually fill in all the available "holes" in the rhythmic composite, again creating a shimmering web whose individual components become almost indistinguishable. Textures move smoothly from foreground to background with hypnotic effect, each of the widely-spaced harmonic shifts altering the overall stasis with nearly undetectable nuance. The third movement begins with what sounds like a far-off chorus of crystal glasses. Brass and sustained electronic tones slip in and out of earshot. The electronic sounds, gradually over the space of several minutes, become more percussive, the rhythmic figures more discernable. The instrumental colors come into sharper focus, the contrapuntal web being constructed of increasingly smaller and distinct points and lines. The piece ends then as it started, with determined held tones holding out over insistent rhythmic patterns, the sustained tones finally prevailing.

Perhaps partly due to its collaborative conception, Light Over Water does not seem particularly representative of Adams's output, even in the early 80s. Absent are the intermittent points of impact that happily disrupt the smooth musical surface of so many of Adams's other works, and its meditative nature goes largely undisturbed. The shifts of harmony and meter almost always occur in piecemeal fashion, and the rather primitive electronic sounds available to the composer in the early 1980s date the piece quite pointedly, almost to the point of caricature. In fact, Light Over Water represents a stylistic extreme from which Adams, would quickly depart.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.