# How ordered is J.L. Adams's Inuksuit?



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

This is a bit of an obscure question, but hopefully someone may have some information. J.L. Adams wrote a work for 9 to 99 percussionists called Inuksuit. I have read that the work is not formally scored, and in watching a couple of partial performances, that appears to be true. Still there seems to be a significant amount of order in that the performers clearly do not simply play what they want when they wish. 

I'm wondering how much order there is and how constrained the performers are. I have searched a number of sites, but no one seems to answer that question. If anyone knows or can point me to a site with such information, I'd appreciate it.


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Well, I'll bump it and wonder why 9 to 99 and not 8 to 88 or 10 to 100.


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

I found a pdf of an academic paper someone wrote on the piece. The Analysis section gives a pretty detailed explanation of how the work is performed.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjl_viUgeTyAhWIX80KHfDTDV4QFnoECCAQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdiginole.lib.fsu.edu%2Fislandora%2Fobject%2Ffsu%3A291288%2Fdatastream%2FPDF%2Fdownload%2Fcitation.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3JXGXQGRsDeAgPH5JEMptX


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

SuperTonic said:


> I found a pdf of an academic paper someone wrote on the piece. The Analysis section gives a pretty detailed explanation of how the work is performed.


Thanks so much. I knew the work was ordered, but I was stunned by the detailed nature of the piece. The coordination required between groups and between members of each group is vastly greater than what appeared in the videos I watched. Very impressive.

I didn't read the entire thesis, but my favorite line was a quote from Adams:



> Percussionists are ready for everything.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

dissident said:


> Well, I'll bump it and wonder why 9 to 99 and not 8 to 88 or 10 to 100.


I'm not sure if you are joking, but I'm not certain. One possibility is that the performers are placed into 3 groups. If the groups should have equal number of performers, then 9 and 99 would work, but 8,88,10, and 100 would bot.


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