"In Inuit tradition the spirit that animates all things is Sila, the breath of the world. Sila is the wind and the weather, the forces of nature. But it’s also something more. Sila is intelligence. It’s consciousness. It’s our awareness of the world around us, and the world’s awareness of us. In this time when we humans are so dramatically changing the earth, Sila: The Breath of the World is an invitation to stop and listen more deeply.
Sila is scored for five ensembles of 16 musicians —woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings, and voices— who may perform the music in any combination, successively or simultaneously, outdoors, or in a large indoor space. The musicians are dispersed widely, surrounding the listeners, who are free to move around and discover their own individual listening points.
Sila comes out of the earth and rises to the sky, floating upward through sixteen harmonic clouds, grounded on the first sixteen harmonics of a low B-flat. All the other tones in the music fall “between the cracks” of the piano keyboard—off the grid of twelve-tone equal temperament.
Like the harmonies, the flow of musical time in Sila is also off the grid. There is no conductor. Each musician is a soloist, who plays or sings a unique part at her or his own pace. The sequence of musical events is composed, but the length of each event is flexible. The music breathes.
A performance of Sila lasts about an hour. There is no clearly demarcated ending, as the music gradually dissolves back into the breath of the world." – John Luther Adams
This recording was made with generous support from The University of Michigan Office of Research. Special thanks to Bruce Barber and the congregation and staff at Christ Church Christiana Hundred.
Commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Washington Performing Arts, Ojai Festival, Cal Performances and the La Jolla Symphony.
Soprano Rebecca Myers at the world premiere of Sila: The Breath of the World, Lincoln Center, 2015. Credit: Benjamin Norman for The New York Times.
The Crossing
Katy Avery • Jessica Beebe • Karen Blanchard • Steven Bradshaw • Colin Dill • Joanna Gates • Lauren Kelly • Maren Montalbano • Rebecca Myers • Kira Neary • James Reese • Daniel Schwartz • Rebecca Siler • Elisa Sutherland • Clara Swartzentruber • Shari Wilson
Produced by Doug Perkins and Nathaniel Reichman
Recording engineers: Bill Maylone, Paul Vazquez
Mixing and immersive mastering: Nathaniel Reichman
Music editing: Doug Perkins, Paul Vazquez
Recorded on March 21, 22, 23, and 24, 2021 in Hill Auditorium,
Ann Arbor, MI and Christ Church Christiana Hundred, Wilmington, DE.
Performed by The Crossing, JACK Quartet, the musicians of the University of Michigan Department of Chamber Music and the University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble. Doug Perkins - music director