The music of John Adams is usually categorized as minimalist or post-minimalist

although in interview he has categorised himself as a 'post-style' composer. While

Adams employs minimalist techniques, such as repeating patterns, he is not a strict
follower of the movement. Adams was born ten years after Steve Reich and Philip
Glass, and his writing is more developmental and directionalized, containing climaxes
and other elements of Romanticism. Comparing Shaker Loops to minimalist
composer Terry Riley's piece In C, Adams says,
rather than set up small engines of motivic materials and let them run free in a kind of
random play of counterpoint, I used the fabric of continually repeating cells to forge
large architectonic shapes, creating a web of activity that, even within the course of a
single movement, was more detailed, more varied, and knew both light and dark,
serenity and turbulence.[7]
Many of Adams's ideas in composition are a reaction to the philosophy of serialism
and its depictions of "the composer as scientist."[8] The Darmstadt school of twelve
tone composition was dominant during the time that Adams was receiving his college
education, and he compared class to a "mausoleum where we would sit and count
tone-rows in Webern."[9][page needed] By the time he graduated, he was disillusioned with
what he saw as the restrained feeling and inaccessibility of serialism.
Adams experienced a musical epiphany after reading John Cage's book Silence
(1973), which he claimed "dropped into [his] psyche like a time bomb."[10] Cage posed
fundamental questions about what music was, and regarded all types of sounds as
viable sources of music. This perspective offered to Adams a liberating alternative to
the rule-based techniques of serialism. At this point Adams began to experiment with
electronic music, and his experiences are reflected in the writing of Phrygian Gates
(197778), in which the constant shifting between modules in Lydian mode and
Phrygian mode refers to activating electronic gates rather than architectural ones.
Adams explained that working with synthesizers caused a "diatonic conversion," a
reversion to the belief that tonality was a force of nature.[11]
Minimalism offered the final solution to Adams's creative dilemma. Adams was
attracted to its pulsating and diatonic sound, which provided an underlying rhetoric on
top of which he could express what he wanted in his compositions. Although some of
his pieces sound similar to those written by minimalist composers, Adams actually
rejects the idea of mechanistic procedure-based or process music; what Adams took
away from minimalism was tonality and/or modality, and the rhythmic energy from
repetition.

Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a joyfully exuberant piece, brilliantly scored for a
large orchestra. The steady marking of a beat is typical of Adamss music. Short Ride
begins with a marking of quarter-notes (woodblock, soon joined by the four trumpets)
and eighths (clarinets and synthesizers); the woodblock is fortissimo and the other
instruments play forte. Adams sees the rest of the orchestra as running the gauntlet
through that rhythmic tunnel. About the title: You know how it is when someone
asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadnt?

Short Ride in a Fast Machine features the usual minimalist earmarks: repetition,
steady beat, and, perhaps most crucially, a harmonic language with an emphasis on
consonance unlike anything in Western art music in the last five hundred years.
Adams is not a simpleor simple-mindedartist. His concern has been to invent
music at once familiar and subtle. For all of their minimalist features, works such as
Harmonium, Harmonielhere, and El Dorado are full of surprises, always enchanting
in the glow and gleam of their sonority, and bursting with the energy generated by
their harmonic
John Adams applies the description "fanfare for orchestra" to Short Ride in a Fast
Machine (1986) and the earlier Tromba lontana (1985).[1] The former is also known as
Fanfare for Great Woods because it was commissioned for the Great Woods Festival
of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.[2] As a commentary on the title Adams
inquires, "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car,
and then you wish you hadn't?"[3] This work is an iconic example of Adams's
postminimal style, which is utilized in other works like Phrygian Gates, Shaker
Loops, and Nixon in China.[4] This style derives from minimalism as defined by the
works of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, although it proceeds to "make
use of minimalist techniques in more dramatic settings."[5]
Short Ride in a Fast Machine premiered in 1986, when it was performed by the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.[6] Short Ride in a Fast Machine has been generally
well received in terms of performance, according to a report in 2008 that places the
fanfare as "the tenth most-performed orchestral work composed in the last twenty-five
years."[2] It was scheduled to be performed on two occasions at the Last Night of the
Proms, but both times it was cancelled because of its title: the first time was in 1997
after the death of Princess Diana and the second was in 2001 in the wake of the
September 11 terrorist attacks.[7] However, Short ride in a fast machine was performed
at the BBC Proms on Saturday July 24, 2004, and on Thursday September 4, 2014.[8]
The piece has been transcribed for concert band by Lawrence Odom. [9]

Harmonic devices
Short Ride in a Fast Machine, true to its minimalist heritage, utilizes a tonal language
that, according to Catherine Pellegrino, "is not as neatly defined and predictable as
that of common-practice tonality."[11] Adams is known (especially in Phrygian Gates)
for the concept of "gating," which is the process of suddenly changing certain pitches
in a harmony, often based on different modes.[12]

Example 1. Harmonic transformations in the first section

As seen in Example 1, the initial pitch collection of D, E, and A, as scored in the
clarinets and optional synthesizers, slowly transforms over time by adding pitches.
This process is a concept of changing harmony, which Adams describes as "bring[ing]

in a new key area almost on the sly, stretching the ambiguity out over such a length of
time that the listener would hardly notice that a change had taken place."[13] By
measure 52, the aggregate of pitches suddenly shifts as the E major chord is replaced
by a B-flat major chord. Meanwhile, the original pitch collection continues to exist as
an unchanging force.[14] This process is the main harmonic device that Adams
employs, as the next section shifts pitch collections more rapidly for contrast, while
other sections return to the pace of the first section.[15]

Rhythmic devices
In terms of rhythm, this work follows in the main precepts of minimalism, which
focus on repeated material, generally in the form of ostinati. There is also a strong
sense of pulse, which Adams heavily enforces in Short Ride in a Fast Machine in his
scoring of the wood block. Adams claims that "I need to experience that fundamental
tick" in his work.[16] Throughout the course of the work, Adams experiments with the
idea of rhythmic dissonance as material begins to appear, initially in the trumpets, and
gravitates the listener to a new sense of pulse.[17] As shown below, the manifestation of
rhythmic dissonance is akin to Adams's method of creating harmonic dissonance as he
adds conflicting rhythms to disrupt the metronomic stability of the wood block.
Adams himself admits that he seeks to "enrich the experience of perceiving the way
that time is divided" within his works.[16] Later in the work, (see Example 5) Adams
introduces a simple polyrhythm as a means of initiating a new section that contrasts
the rhythmic dissonance of the first section.

Example 2. Initial rhythmic dissonance

Example 3. Development of rhythmic dissonance

Example 4. Result of rhythmic dissonance

Example 5. Polyrhythmic dissonance at a later section

Formal devices
The idea of formal closure and rhetorical devices in a sense of common practice is
skewed in the works of John Adams, especially in Short Ride in a Fast Machine.
While works of common practice organize material by phrases which are separated by
cadential material, this work is in a state of perpetual motion as the additive element
of harmonic and rhythmic material drives the work forward. The "gating" concept
gives the overall work a sense of sectional design, but the indication of termination
through cadence is something that is absent from the work until the very end, which
emulates a ii-V-I cadence.[18]

Final cadence
In terms of defining the sections of the work, the wood block is scored in a way that
creates a four-part form. The first and third parts of the work have a high wood block
present in the scoring, which is contrasted by a low wood block in the second part,
while the final part features the absence of wood block.[19] These sections are also
supported by shifts in orchestration, which is one of the more conventional formal
devices.
This piece was composed in a minimalist style, employing minute motifs as a basis
for the melody; manipulation of harmonic structures to create an atmosphere; and
shifting allegro rhythmic patterns to create a sense of propulsion.
The absence of a clear, lengthy or elaborate melody combined with a continually
changing simple harmonic structure allows the listeners to draw their own conclusions
as to what this ride is like. Adams employs a primarily major tonality, which would
elicit the belief that the ride is enjoyable I imagine that, say, had Adams used a
dissonant harmony, we may interpret this as a chaotic ride as opposed to an enjoyable
one.

Specifically, the use of fast, changing rhythms gave me the sense of the machine
moving quickly, perhaps dodging traffic down a busy road. The use of upper brass
particularly the staccato rhythm played by the trumpets in their upper register gave
me the sense that this ride left its passengers on the edge of their seats.
Adams also employs lower woodwind sounds which I interpreted as the rumbling of
the machine to create the overall picture of speed accompanied by the necessary
force to create it (the version of this piece that I heard in the music library was an
arrangement for a wind band, so maybe this was not the original orchestration of the
composer). Also, near the end, Adams swaps the homophonic texture for a slower
polyphony perhaps demonstrating that the ride wasnt entirely fast.
Hence, Adams employs the elements of music on a smaller scale to create an
atmosphere from which we interpret what it was like to have A short ride in a fast
machine.

John Adams, Phrygian Gates, mm 2140 (1977)

Some of Adams's compositions are an amalgamation of different styles. One example
is Grand Pianola Music (198182), a humorous piece that purposely draws its content
from musical cliches. In The Dharma at Big Sur, Adam's draws from literary texts
such as Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder and Henry Miller to illustrate the California
landscape. Adams professes his love of other genres other than classical music; his
parents were jazz musicians, and he has also listened to rock music, albeit only
passively. Adams once claimed that originality wasn't an urgent concern for him the
way it was necessary for the minimalists, and compared his position to that of Gustav
Mahler, J. S. Bach, and Johannes Brahms, who "were standing at the end of an era
and were embracing all of the evolutions that occurred over the previous thirty to fifty
years."[12][page needed]

John Adams, Fearful Symmetries, mm 197202 (1988)

Adams, like other minimalists of his time (e.g. Philip Glass), used a steady pulse that
defines and controls the music. The pulse was best known from Terry Riley's early
composition In C, and slowly more and more composers used it as a common
practice. Jonathan Bernard highlighted this adoption by comparing Phrygian Gates,
written in 1977, and Fearful Symmetries written eleven years later in 1988.[13]
Violin Concerto, Mvt. III "Toccare"
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Adams started to add a new character to his music,
something he called "the Trickster." The Trickster allowed Adams to use the repetitive
style and rhythmic drive of minimalism, yet poke fun at it at the same time.[citation needed]
When Adams commented on his own characterization of particular minimalist music,
he stated that he went joyriding on "those Great Prairies of non-event."[14]

John Adams, Violin Concerto, III "Toccare" (1993)

Oddly enough, his music of the 1990s slowly starts to incorporate it more and more to
the point where one critic believes this slowly increasing incorporation of minimalism
"represents a coming to terms with minimalism according to a decidedly tonal slant:
pulse and repetition have been transmuted, by a kind of reverse-chronological
alchemy, into devices of familiar from earlier eras, such as moto perpetuo and

ostinato."[this quote needs a citation] The third movement of the Violin Concerto, titled
"Toccare", portrays this transition.
Adams begins the movement with a repeated, scale-like eight-note melody in the
violin and going into the second measure, it appears as if he will continue this, but
instead of starting at the bottom again, the violin continues upward. From here, there
are fewer instances of repletion and more moving up and down in a pulse like fashion.
The orchestra on the other hand is more repetitive and pulse like: the left hand[clarification
needed]
continually plays the high A and it is not until the fifth measure where another
note is added, but the A continues to be played throughout always on the off beat. It is
this pulsing A, played as an eighth note as opposed to a sixteenth note, that pokes fun
at the minimalist, yet Adams still uses the pulse (i.e. alternating eighth notes between
the right and left hand,[clarification needed] creating a sixteenth note feeling) as an engine for
the movement.
John Adams and Minimalism
John Adams' music should not be labeled as minimalist. He was born a generation
after famous minimalists such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, and despite
minimalism's audible influences in harmony, such as in the aforementioned Phrygian
Gates, Adams described his music as "post-minimalist", as he does not strictly follow
minimalist techniques. His compositions tend to be more directional and climactic,
possessing qualities of Romanticism, rather than the smooth soundscapes
characterizing those of Philip Glass.
Adams, John (John Coolidge Adams), 1947, American composer, b. Worcester,
Mass. A clarinetist, he studied composition at Harvard (B.A. 1969, M.A. 1971). Often
regarded as the most outstanding, technically adept, and influential composer of his
generation, Adams has written in numerous genres, bringing to his compositions a
keen sense of the theatrical and the vernacular. His distinctive sound is a mixture of
post-minimalism with an intensely emotional expansiveness and a range of expressive
tonal elements reminiscent of late romanticism and early modernism. Strong and
vivid, his music can exhibit both a wittily life-affirming sense of fun and a decidedly
contemporary aura of grief and horror.
Read more: Adams, John, American composer | Infoplease.com
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/adams-john-americancomposer.html#ixzz3ML7dCpLc

Although his early compositions were in an academic style, Adams soon began
drawing on much broader sources, including pop, jazz, electronic music, and
minimalism. His use of minimalist techniquescharacterized by repetition and
simplicitycame to be tempered by expressive, even neo-Romantic, elements. His
works encompass a wide range of genres and include Shaker Loops (1978), chamber
music for string septet; Harmonium (1980), a cantata for chorus and orchestra using
the poetry of John Donne and Emily Dickinson; Grand Pianola Music (198182), a
reworking of early 20th-century American popular music for instrumental ensemble,
three sopranos, and two pianos; Harmonielehre (198485), for orchestra, an homage

to Arnold Schoenberg, whose music was the antithesis of minimalism; and WoundDresser (1988), for baritone and orchestra, a work based on Walt Whitmans poems
about his experience as a nurse in the American Civil War. One of Adamss especially
popular orchestral works was the fanfare Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986). The
recording of another popular orchestral work, El Dorado (1991), won a 1997 Grammy
Award. Later large-scale works include the Violin Concerto (1993) and My Father
Knew Charles Ives (2003), for orchestra, which alludes to Ivess works and
compositional methods.
Adamss most ambitious works, however, were his operas. The first two were created
in collaboration with the director Peter Sellars, the poet Alice Goodman, and the
choreographer Mark Morris. Nixon in China (1987) took as its subject the visit of
U.S. Pres. Richard M. Nixon to China in 1972. The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) was
based on the hijacking by Palestinian terrorists of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in
1985 and the killing of a disabled Jewish passenger. The composers third opera,
Doctor Atomic (2005), was the story of the scientists in Los Alamos, N.M., U.S., who
during World War II devised the first atomic bomb. Sellars compiled the libretto from
a variety of sources, including the favourite poetry of the Los Alamos physicist J.
Robert Oppenheimer as well as declassified government documents of the period.
In a departure from his 2005 statement that if opera is actually going to be a part of
our livesit has to deal with contemporary topics, Adams based his fourth opera, A
Flowering Tree (2006), on South Indian folktales; again Sellars was his collaborator.
The work was created in homage to Mozart, taking as its inspiration The Magic Flute
(1791).
Adamss operas have been regularly performed, and they have been recorded; Nixon
in China won a 1988 Grammy Award. A number of critics have found them to be
among the most significant of contemporary operas. Adams created orchestral and
choral works from his opera scores, including The Nixon Tapes (1987), for voices and
orchestra, and Doctor Atomic Symphony (2005). The Chairman Dances, subtitled
Foxtrot for Orchestra, which was written for Nixon in China but dropped from the
final score, became one of Adamss most-often-played orchestral works.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City commissioned a work from
Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls, for orchestra, chorus, childrens choir, and
prerecorded sound track, first performed Sept. 19, 2002. The text of the work derived
from three sources: fragments from notices posted at the World Trade Center site by
friends and relatives of the missing, interviews published in the New York Times, and
randomly chosen names of victims. For this composition Adams was awarded the
2003 Pulitzer Prize in music; the recording won three 2004 Grammy Awards.
Adams received numerous other honours and awards as well. He was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1997. Also in 1997 he was named
Composer of the Year by the venerable magazine Musical America. A festival in his
honour at Lincoln Center in April and May of 2003 was the most extensive singlecomposer festival that had ever been held there.