John Adams: Refining The Sound Of Minimalism

This time in February we have a Lincoln birthday behind us and a Presidents Day and Washington birthday just a few days ahead. The circumstance could easily lead you to think a John Adams post would be about our second President but you would be wrong. Our subject is the prolific post-minimalist composer, John Adams, who was born on this day in 1947 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was raised in a musical family, learned to play the clarinet, performed in school bands and with local orchestras, and completed his first composition at the ago of ten.

He received two degrees from Harvard including an M.A. in composition and was immersed in music activites on campus but enjoyed listening to rock and popular music in his off hours. His interest in new music prompted him to relocate to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he taught for a decade. He then moved on to become the New Music Advisor for the San Francisco Symphony continuing to develop his personal interpretation of minimalism that brought him fame with Harmonielehre, a forty minute piece for orchestra.

In the past 35 years Adams has composed operas, orchestral and concertante pieces, a number of notable piano works, choral works, chamber music, electronic music, film scores, and orchestratios and arrangements. His sibjects have included President Richard Nixon, Robert Oppenheimer, Dharma Bums, Leon Klinghoffer, Gold Rush 49ers and their women, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001. To say his world of new music is large is an understatement. At the same time he developed international fame as a conductor and mentor for young new music conductors. And in 2009 he published Hallalujah Junction: Composing An American Life, a memoir and commentary on his personal journey. Cage resides near San Francisco where he continues a close association with both the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Here are four examples of the the post-minimalist genius of John Adams:


Hallelujah Junction, 1st Movement (1996). Used as opening and incidental music along with other Adams fragments in the 2017 film, Call Me By Your Name. In this problematic film Italian director, Luca Guadagnino, weaves love, memory, desire, and seduction into a stunningly beautiful and sensuous masterpiece.

Grand Pianola Music, "On the Great Divide" (1982). Used along with other Adams pieces in the Modern Era soundtract for the computer game Civilization IV.

Harmonielehre, Part 3 (1985). Selected by The Guardian as one of the "50 Greatest Symphonies." Also found on the soundtrack of the computer game Civilization IV, in the television series True Detective, and the film I Am Love.

Nixon In China, "The People Are the Heroes Now" and "News Has a Kind of Mystery." (1987). Nixon in China is performed around the world and recognized as a significant work in American opera.

If you enjoy new sound derived from jazz, pop, rock, and minimalism wrapped in the great traditions of classical music you may have found it here in John Adams. First, we wish him a happy birthday today and, second, we thank him for not entering the world of presidential politics beyond writing music about the subject. Most of all we wish him many more years in what should be an exciting journey in sound.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
earbox.com

Text:
John Adams, Wikipedia.com
John Adams Official Website, earbox.com
"Music Taken Personally," harvardmagazine.com, May-June 2009