# John Adams: Do you enjoy his music?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

And if you do, do you dare admit it?


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

Yes, I enjoy Adams' music very much. But no, I wouldn't dare admit it here.


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## lukecubed (Nov 27, 2011)

I don't like what little I've heard. Why would someone not admit to liking him though?


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

He's okay. I'm not crazy about minimalism in general though. But I don't dislike his work.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Personally, I get more from him than from the other minimalists.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

^ Me too. His minimalism is infused with small changes and the occasional bit of new material, instead of _pure_ repetition, which can get on one's nerves if one doesn't like minimalism.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I think the _Chairman Dances_ and _Short Ride in a Fast Machine_ are excellent pieces, and if you haven't heard them yet, do look them up.


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

Adams is one of my favorite living composers. I particularly like his _Harmonielehre_ and _Dharma at Big Sur_.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I think The Wound-Dresser is a fine work and I really should investigate more of his output.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I thought the Doctor Atomic symphony had an interesting touch with its orchestration, so it was okay, though not something I can get very warm about. But I couldn't stand the Chamber Symphony. It was intended as an accessible work inspired by his son's love of looney tunes, but even Adams himself admitted that it didn't quite work that way(it was during a more open minded and less sacred cow stage of mine, where I wanted to appreciate something in everything, but felt like I was lying to myself when I was really wondering when it was going to end and when it was going to start stimulating me, and especially when I looked over at an 8 year old looking boy sitting near me who looked completely perplexed and annoyed by this piece even though he had apparently really enjoyed the Grieg and Stravinsky that came before).


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I quite like _Harmonium, The Dharma at Big Sur_, and a number of other works. He's not my favorite living composer... even among the Minimalists, but I certainly like a good deal of what I've heard by him.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I think the _Chairman Dances_ and _Short Ride in a Fast Machine_ are excellent pieces, and if you haven't heard them yet, do look them up.


Those are two of his most popular works. Another is Shaker Loops, an early minimalist work. The Dharma at Big Sur has been mentioned a couple of times, a concerto for electric violin that is fabulous.

Christian Zeal and Activity is a striking piece, very early. Since it uses "found musical objects," the specific performance is important. Edo de Wart.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

I like Death of Klinghoffer, Nixon in China, Dr Atomic and his violin concerto.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

he's particularly good with Thomas Jefferson.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Lollapalooza! Worth hearing.

I assume everybody knows there's another John Adams, a composer who lives in Alaska. He's John Luther Adams, versus the John Coolidge Adams we're talking about. Confusing.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Everything that is not annoying is worthy of listening.

But I admit I like few of his works I've listened to.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

I like everything that I have heard so far, which is 2 discs worth plus Nixon in China. I plan to explore some of his other works . I enjoy minimalist works, though Adams has moved farther and farther away from that particular label IMO.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2012)

John Luther is more aptly described as a minimalist. John Coolidge, um, not so much.

There is a certain amount of repetition in his work, but there's a certain amount of repetition on Wolfgang Mozart's work. Doesn't make him a minimalist.

And repetition is only a part of one type of minimalism.

Oh, wait. This is TC. Right. Never mind!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^They call Adams a minimalist in books, some guy, written by professors. I mean thats the way academe calls him, and Glass and Reich.

So you may as well say this is TC, which is like any university or conservatorium teaching music. Labels are just labels and they do have their limitations. However there is consensus that these are minimalist composers, specifically American minimalists. But now that 'era' is over, we are into post-minimalism (I think that all three of those above have gone into areas different from where they began, and other composers have taken off from where they started).

But anyway, as regards John Adams I have no strong opinions on his music at this stage. I have heard it fleetingly - eg. on radio, in live concerts - but do not have him on cd. Funnily enough, the thing I noticed most about his music is the repetition, and that's before I read about Minimalism, of the USA kind or any other kind. I first heard his_ Chairman Dances _on radio broadcast of a concert as a kid. I thought it was fun, but I didn't know anything much about it or the composer.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2012)

Thanks for the ad hom, Sid. Coming from you, that is high praise indeed!

As for being right, you are right. From now on, I will only post when I'm pretty sure that I'm wrong. Yeah. That should work.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Forget it...this post entirely deleted...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Aside from all that, Adams certainly started out as a "minimalist," and a darned good one. Listen to his Shaker Loops! That sort of thing remains in his vocabulary, but as cmoorehead noted, he has moved on.

For some later minimalistm, listen to the first few numbers from Nixon in China (really great, but my interest wanes after that...)


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## Lohena (Jul 20, 2012)

I think of him as modern classical easy listening. Enjoyable, but leaves much to be desired for me.


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## bassClef (Oct 29, 2006)

I very much enjoy many of his orchestral works, but find his operas too much to take in one go - half an hour at a time maybe...


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## indianschoolofmusic (Oct 22, 2012)

I too like John adams music very much. His music is absolutely melodious.


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## PeterFromLA (Jul 22, 2011)

Much of John Adams' music oscillates between two orientations: a landscape mode and a manic mode. The landscape pieces define his earliest style, including "Common Tones in Simple Time" and "Available Light." The manic Adams is seen in Shaker Loops (though it has very languid passages, they always build up to manic heights), Chamber Symphony, and Fearful Symmetries. His two overtures -- "Tromba Lontana" and "Short Ride in a Fast Machine," written contemporaneously, also express this sharp split between two modes. Having said that, Adams at times combines the two modes, especially in works that have clearly defined movements, such as the Violin Concerto and the Piano Concerto. I tend to prefer the less manic Adams, with exceptions. Works like Phrygian Gates, Grand Pianola Music, and Harmonium, are for me the most beguiling and mellifluous Adams, but also they number among the earlier Adams. I agree with Ken about Dharma at Big Sur, it's a poetic work, one that I would surely classify as a landscape piece. It's important to remember that Adams lives in Berkeley (he's been based in the bay area since the early 1970s). He lives in a manic environment surrounded by breathtaking vistas featuring glimpses into distant horizons. In that sense, I feel his music encapsulates much about where and how he lives.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Peter, a great post. I'll probably hear Adams differently now!

For those who don't know, Adams has a great blog with a lot of interesting and humorous stuff. Here's "In Bed with Beethoven," where he complains about being served as a side dish with Beethoven's 9th.

http://earbox.com/posts/97


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## PeterFromLA (Jul 22, 2011)

Thanks, Ken. I recommend people see the film "I am Love," starring Tilda Swinton (a favorite actress of mine). It features a soundtrack that draws extensively from Adam's oeuvre to masterful effect (it's virtually an Adams music video). The way it uses Shaker Loops and Harmonielehre is especially good. Here's the trailer:


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## DennyL (Jun 2, 2011)

I like Adams' music very much. I recently saw him conduct a concert version of Nixon in China at The Proms in London and it was a concert 'high'; watching a composer conduct his own opera was a first for me, and a very exciting one.

I listen very often to Grand Pianola Music. I love the way the two pianists range around the orchestration. I think of them as sheep dogs keeping the orchestration on track; and I love the way it builds up and lapses tongue-in-cheek towards kitsch in its shamelessly rousing ending.

Those who dismiss him as 'minimalist' are hopelessly misguided and out of touch. He _started_ as a minimalist composer, and traces of that can be heard in his work, but now he has evolved into a full-blown composer.

For those who haven't seen the film I Am Love - SEE IT! The film was a long-term project for Luca Guadagnino, the film's director, and Tilda Swinton, a producer of the film, who had worked together together before. They always intended to use Adams' music, even before he gave his permission. I heard Swinton say that for that reason Adams' music is in the DNA of the film. When Adams was shown an early version of the film he found it a 'masterpiece' and gave his permission. Adams had never previously allowed his music to be used in a film.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Manxfeeder said:


> Personally, I get more from him than from the other minimalists.


Favorite work is the opera: _Doctor Atomic_.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

arpeggio said:


> Favorite work is the opera: _Doctor Atomic_.


This was interesting.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I enjoy about 50% of Mr. Adams' output... those pieces I consider 'successful.'* That is not a bad record for a composer who is, remarkably in America at present, making his living solely via commissions, and the fees from live and recorded performances, especially considering some of our Baroque Era heroes who wrote and wrote (because they had to) and out of which the entire body of their works only a handful of pieces seem 'inspired' and / or memorable.

Adams is a populist composer by his nature and also by conscious intent, such as were Puccini, Copland, and a number of others. I look forward to what he does, knowing it is not going to be anything 'earth-shakingly' breaking new avant-garde ground. All are 'well-crafted' enough while about half (to me) are fulfilling a commission at a time he had nothing very interesting to say, or no real gut inspiration. Some of these, on some level, are 'successful' but sound like a professional writing out an exercise rather than a heartfelt communication (Lollapalooza, Slonimsky's earbox.)

If there are some snobbish enough to try and establish some credible clique of avant-gardism, or retro-conservatism, or any 'ism' you care to name, they are welcome to their delusional self-congratulatory exclusivity. More often than not they are a passive audience, and are neither the performer or maker of the works they circle about.... sycophants hoping to wear the cloth of the 'chic clique' in order to confirm to themselves and appear terminally hip / terminally erudite / terminally 'right.' ... so ridiculously ingrown it is a wonder anyone actually pays attention to such desperate small souls.

Some of Adam's works have, from time to time, 'pleased me to listen' over the course of some years, after which their appeal or interest has (for me) faded, and then I feel no want or need to hear them again. Nothing wrong with that. No one, including Adams, is claiming any other 'historic spot' for the man or his music.

[Afterthought: I wonder, really, what or who sets up such polarization in people, to the point where they think post1950's classical music is a conspiracy against both tonality and the listening public, or that those who like or care for Brahms or Sibelius are -- doomed to be terminally 'unhip' .]

* 
John's Book of Alleged Dances - String Quartet and prepared tape... fun




Road Movies - Violin and piano
Christian Zeal and Activity - String quartet and recorded 'sound object.' [I find the full string section version (SF Symphony, Edo de Wart) 'distorted' by the inflation of number of strings.]
Here is the 'original' string quartet recording, with the same taped 'sound object....




China Gates - piano solo, early, four minutes
Hallelujah Junction - piano duet, 1996
American Berserk - piano solo, brief, 'manic'

Common Tones in Simple Time
Harmonium
Shaker Loops (both original version for seven strings (preferred perhaps because first heard it that way, also, 'edgier' and the later version for string orchestra)
Tromba Lontana
Fearful Symmetries
Eros Piano - written as an in memoriam tribute to Toru Takemitsu, and more in the vein of Taemitsu's vocabulary (and Morton Feldman 'tacked on' as in memoriam because he died while this work was in progress) this is an Adams many do not know, and a gorgeous piece - piano and chamber orchestra. 
Violin Concerto
Lollapalooza
Slonimsky's Earbox
Century Rolls (a rollicking piano concerto)
The Dharma at Big Sur (Concerto for six-string electric violin and orchestra)
City Noir (2009 - haven't heard the works since this one)


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> I enjoy about 50% of Mr. Adams' output... those pieces I consider 'successful.' That is not a bad record...


Indeed not. But hey, I like Lollapalooza! Not Slonimsky's Earbox so much.

I don't find much of Adams's music "heartfelt" at all. Most would probably consider that a major failing. But it's pretty good if simply listened to for what it is.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

He's coming to my school tomorrow


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

violadude said:


> He's coming to my school tomorrow


You might enjoy a blog he wrote on advising young composers.

http://www.earbox.com/posts/72


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## venusdelta (Nov 20, 2012)

I had a dream about playing Lollapalooza last night. John Adams apparently knows telekinesis.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Besides being mellifluous, this recording of *John Adams' Grand Pianola* is worth it for the bass drum strikes alone, a good test of any system; plus, you get *Reich's* _*Vermont Counterpoint.*_









Actually, the only reason I have the Adams was in getting the Reich.

*John Adams* occupies an odd territory between minimalist technique and Romantic expression. His _*Violin Concerto (1993)*_ puts a wandering violin over a series of rising triads...it doesn't sound very minimalistic. It's in a typical fast-slow-fast concerto form. I don't see what he's trying to say harmonically, if anything. The finale, like the opening of _*Grand Pianola,*_ sounds like he got obsessed with the first several measures of _*Petroushka,*_ and repeats them over and over.

...........................................>


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I like his early stuff, messing with modes.


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