John Luther Adams: Wind Garden - Stuart Collection at UC San Diego

For the Stuart Collection at the UC San Diego, Adams created a musical composition with and within the signature landscape of the campus: the eucalyptus grove. There are no pre-recorded elements, everything that occurs in "The Wind Garden" is driven by the wind and the light conditions on the site, in real time. This work never repeats itself. Hidden in the trees are 32 small loudspeakers and 32 accelerometers that measure the movements of the trees in the wind. As the velocity of the wind changes so does the amplitude of the sound. The musical foundation of The Wind Garden is two “choirs” of virtual voices – a “day choir” tuned to the natural harmonic series, and a “night choir” tuned to the sub-harmonic series. The rising and falling of these choirs traces the contours of the sun’s movement above, below and around the horizon over the course of the year. Series: "Stuart Collection at UC San Diego" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 37824]