Download John Adams page and portrait

COMPOSER:
JOHN ADAMS (1947 - )
(JAHN A.dumz)
COMPOSITION: Short Ride in a Fast Machine – A Fanfare for Orchestra
FEATURES:
1. Minimalism – John Adams is often considered to be a part of this school of music which uses
“minimal” simple repeated patterns combined in complex ways.
2. Fanfare – Adams subtitled this piece “Fanfare for Orchestra.”
3. Woodblock ostinato – An ostinato is a repeated rhythmic pattern. Listen for the repeated
woodblock keeping the beat almost throughout. Does it always keep the beat?
4. All wind instruments – Brass and woodwinds with synthesizer. No strings are heard.
BACKGROUND:
The Composer: John Adams was born in Massachusetts in 1947. He learned to play clarinet
from his father. He played in marching bands and community orchestras in his youth (compare
to Charles Ives, page 69). He started composing at age ten, and had his first piece for orchestra
performed as a teenager. After graduating from Harvard, he came to California in 1971 and still
resides in the San Francisco Bay area. Adams was an early member of the group of composers
called “Minimalists,” a group that includes Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. Their music uses simple
rhythmic and melodic patterns superimposed in complex ways. Adams has written two operas
based on news worthy events: Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, .based on a famous
kidnapping and murder by terrorists. He is also well known for his tribute to the victims of 9/11
called On The Transmigration of Souls.
The Composition: Short Ride in a Fast Machine is one of Adams’ most often performed works.
Written in 1985, Adams has reportedly said of the work, “You know how it is when someone
asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn’t?” Listen for the woodblock
and the change from high to a lower woodblock. Adams’ tempo instructions in the music ask the
performers to play it “delirando,” or “deliriously.” It is a fast ride!
QUESTIONS: How are Adams and Aaron Copland’s (p. 10) use of woodblocks similar? different?
What kind of machine do you think Adams was thinking about?
What would YOU name the piece? (Give actual name only when all answers are in.)
Listen for the change in woodblock sound. What effect does it have? Why do you think
the composer changed it?
Why do you think this music is called “Minimalist?”
SOME POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES:
1. Draw a picture of you in the “Fast Machine.”
2. Pretend to drive your “Fast Machine” as you listen. Be silent, Let the music is the sound of
your machine!
3. Go to John Adams website (www.earbox.com) to find out more about him.
4. Raise your hand when you hear the sound of the woodblock change.
5. Raise your hand when you hear violins [There are NO violins – so NO hands should go up!]
6. Like Debussy and the Impressionist movement in painting, there was first a “minimalist
movement” in painting. Compare the work of painters Ellsworth Kelly or Victor Vasserely
with Adams music. Can you see a connection?
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