Become Ocean is an orchestral composition by American composer John Luther Adams. The Seattle Symphony Orchestra commissioned the work and premiered it at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, on 20 and 22 June 2013. The work won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In 2019, writers of The Guardian ranked it the 10th greatest work of art music since 2000. Inspiration The work, in a single movement, was inspired by the oceans of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The composer took his title from a phrase of John Cage in honour of Lou Harrison, and further explained his title with this note placed in his score: "Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. As the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean." Instrumentation and structure Become Ocean is scored for a large orchestra divided into 3 spatially-separated groups: First group upstage right, as far as possible from the strings and brass 3 flutes 3 oboes, 3rd doubling English horn 3 clarinets, 3rd doubling bass clarinet 3 bassoons, 3rd doubling contrabassoon Percussion I, including marimba vibraphone crotales harp I (ideally 2 players) Second group upstage left, as far as possible from the strings and woodwind 4 horns 3 trumpets 3 trombones tuba Percussion II, including marimba vibraphone harp II (ideally 2 players) Third group in a wide as possible arc across the stage Percussion III, including 3 bass drums tam-tam suspended cymbal timpani celesta piano violins 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B violas 1 and 2 cellos 1 and 2 double basses 1 and 2, the E-strings tuned down a whole-tone to D Each group is given slowly moving sequences of sound, often in the form of arpeggios for the strings, and each block has its own rise and fall. Thus the groups overlap in an ever-changing pattern. Harmonies are fundamentally tonal; simple diatonic intervals form the basis of the wind instruments' staggered chords. The phrase lengths are constructed so that there are three moments when all the groups reach a climax together; the first is early on, and the second represents the greatest surge of sound. From that point, the music is played in reverse: the entire piece is a palindrome. Music critic Alex Ross has hand-drawn a diagram of the work and digitised it.