aworks :: "new" american classical music

The Dharma at Big Sur (2003). John Adams

Walt Disney Concert Hall has program notes for The Dharma at Big Sur, which includes a short Q&A with John Adams:

When the Philharmonic asked me for a new work to celebrate the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall, I knew I wanted to write something that reflected our collective experience of being Californians. I especially wanted to reflect the experience of those who, like me, were not born here and for whom the arrival on this side of the continent had both a spiritual and a physical impact.

Adams also says that the piece is not improvised, uses just intonation, and was inspired by Jack Kerouac's book Big Sur.  11/29/03

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Sun Rings (2002). Terry Riley

The Kronos Quartet presented Sun Rings by Terry Riley. This is a multi-media work for string quartet, chorus, and pre-recorded sounds. Those sounds include recordings by NASA spacecraft journeying through space e.g. ambient space sounds found in plasma around the planet Jupiter. The sounds have been a part of Don Gurnett's research at the University of Iowa. Willie Williams did the visual design. Williams was notably the visual designer on U2's Zoo tour among other rock shows.

Riley also sought inspiration after the events of 9/11, seeking meaning from the universe. He was present at the concert Friday night.

So, will this work become part of the standard quartet repetoire? Probably not. Would it make a good DVD that might stand up to repeated viewings? Probably.

The music itself varied in intensity and color. The movements with chorus may have been the most effective. The sounds were somewhat disconnected from the music, although the musicians from time to time would wave their arm over a device on the music stand that would temporarily accent the on-going space sounds. The percussion was pre-recorded.

The visuals were shown mostly on a large screen behind the quartet. Each movement usually had a particular visual theme; spinning gyroscopes, science fiction-like views of a satellite, the planet Earth (with little emotional impact), the planet Jupiter (with surprising intensity), etc. At one point, a kaleidoscope of red was projected onto the sides of the theatre, with some impact. The chorus was only visible through the screen, which led to guessing if in fact they were live or had also been pre-taped, which was somewhat disorienting. Williams quote in the program notes indicated he wanted to avoid the standard "planetarium" experience; as a result, the video was not as "cosmic" and spectacular as one might imagine.

The sounds themselves were interesting, and probably would merit interest, even without the music and video. All in all, an interesting evening where the Kronos explore music beyond normal boundaries.

Barbara Rose Shuler's review comments:

"Sun Rings" emerges as a suite of 10 hauntingly powerful "spacescapes" composed to join together Dr. Gurnett's sounds with the string quartet for a distinctive weaving of live performance and recorded space emanations.

NPR has Real Audio excerpts.

Nixon in China (1985-87). John Adams

Stephe of LiveJournal lists Nixon in China as one of her his five favorite operas; the others:

2) Leoš Janáček, The Makropulos Case; 3) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Magic Flute; 4) Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier; 5) Richard Wagner, Das Rheingold.

How John Adams snuck into that list would be an interesting story.  In my case, the list is maybe Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, Britten's Death in Venice, and, I don't know, Don Giovanni.  Not particularly liking the form, I will admit viewing opera through a filter of Peter Sellars.  Although, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, yet another Sellars/Adams collaboration, was a mess, to say the least.  When I saw it several years ago, mostly, I was looking at the stage wondering what is all this.  Although, it made more sense to me than Wagner has.

Electric Counterpoint for Guitar and Pre-Recorded Tape (1987). Steve Reich

I Love Music has a thread on sampling of classical works in pop music.  Several mentions of The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" sampling of Electric Counterpoint.  That work is not a major work in my opinion but it is pleasant and does sample well.  Coincidentally, last week, I was listening to The Orb's Adventures beyond the Underworld, and lo and behold, the guitar of Steve Reich, or more precisely, the jazz guitar of Pat Metheny playing Steve Reich, popped up.

In the same thread, NickB suggests...

John Wall, who basically builds ALL his music out of samples of Xenakis, Nono, Schnittke, Feldman etc.

Mark mentions Ekkehard Ehlers...

Ekkehard Ehlers' album Betrieb is based on samples of Ives, Shoenberg, some others.

I tried tracking this down before but haven't actually heard Ehlers.  Arguably, Ives was a sampler as well, using the well-spring of American vernacular music.

Piano Concerto (1927). Aaron Copland

Bernard Holland of the New York Times reviews some musical events in San Francisco, under the banner "How Classical Composers Defined an American Sound ." He mentions The Mother of Us All, the somewhat unsuccessful opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein as well as Copland's Piano Concerto and Ned Rorem's Sunday Morning. Thomson clearly writes music based on American identify; Copland synthesizes jazz as did Europens although he may have himself invented an "American sound," but regarding Rorem's American sound...

Perhaps we should say that he is one, and leave it at that

Chamber Symphony (1992). John Adams

Donald Rosenberg reviews a concert by  Franz Welser-MÖst and the Cleveland Orchestra.  Among the selections, John Adams' Chamber Symphony. Rosenberg says the minimalism is "monotonous" although the performance is "dazzling."