A composer's time in this state inspired his piece Spirit Journeys, a solo percussion work that incorporates field recordings from its natural sites. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this state, which inspired a composer to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece calling for three spatially separated groups to play slow arpeggios emulating waves.
ANSWER: Alaska
[10e] That piece, Become Ocean, is by a composer with this surname whose music often evokes the landscapes of Alaska. Another composer with this surname wrote the three-act opera Nixon in China.
ANSWER: Adams [or John Coolidge Adams; or John Luther Adams]
[10m] Adams evokes the Alaskan landscape in The Wind in High Places, a piece in this genre. The Mishima-inspired third of these pieces by Philip Glass was performed by an ensemble named for Kronos.
ANSWER: string quartet
<Noah Sheidlower, Auditory Fine Arts>