aworks :: "new" american classical music

Common Tones in Simple Time (1979). John Adams

The Laurel Letters describes a recent Boston Modern Orchestra Project "Minimalism" concert including Adams' Common Tones in Simple Time:

The orchestra produced an appropriately homogeneous wash, shot through by Ina Zdorovetchi's firm, resonant harp and coming to its drawn-out conclusion with an unusual tenderness as pianists Don Berman and Sarah Bob both sat back, letting their pedals blur the repeated notes until it was unclear whether they were actually playing or simply resting their hands on the keys...

Elena Ruehr made the lovely point, in her talk, that while these composers are young, the instruments they have written for are by and large old, and are learned in a convention of practice and teaching that is much more ancient.

The Laurel Letters is a blog written for an "erstwhile" concert companion named Laurel.

Doctor Atomic (2005). John Adams /end of WWII/

AP: Mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and baritone Gerald Finley will star in the world premiere of John Adams' "Doctor Atomic" at the San Francisco Opera on Oct. 1.

Peter Sellars directs, Donald Runnacles conducts, Pamela Rosenberg has already done what she does, and Robert Gable buys an SFOpera ticket for the first time in awhile.

Opera Today: In recognition of the importance of Doctor Atomic’s world premiere and to acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, San Francisco Opera will host and co-produce a number of special events highlighting the history and ethical issues surrounding the Manhattan Project. Partnering with the Opera on these projects and programs thus far are, the Exploratorium, UC Berkeley, Humanities West, the American Physical Society and the World Year of Physics, with more to be announced.

Hallelujah Junction (1996). John Adams

Via del.icio.us/djmartian, a Pitchfork review of John Adam's Road Movies CD by Liam Singer:

1996's "Hallelujah Junction" is a vertiginous composition for two pianos, exhibiting the unbroken stream of consciousness apparent in Adams' best work...The composition recalls both Steve Reich's experiments in combining several instruments of the same timbre, as well as the shifting rhythmic fluidity driving Louis Andriessen's more frenetic works.

And from Amazon, "Customers who bought this title also bought:"

• Higdon: City Scape / Concerto for Orchestra ~ Jennifer Higdon, et al
• John Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music ~ John Adams (Composer), et al
• Der Gerettete Alberich / Violin Concerto / Rapture ~ Christopher Rouse (Composer), et al
• Credo ~ John Corigliano (Composer), et al
• John Adams: Century Rolls ~ John Adams (Composer), et al
• America: A Prophecy ~ Thomas Ades (Composer), City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus (Orchestra)
• Adams:Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops ~ John Adams (Composer), et al
• Rorem: Three Symphonies ~ Ned Rorem (Composer), Jose Serebrier (Conductor)

The Ned Rorem and Christopher Rouse are unexpected, but logical.

The Wound-Dresser, for baritone voice and orchestra (1988). John Adams

In the Guardian, James Fenton writes on poetry in music, specifically the poetry of Walt Whitman. Fenton says that John Adams has emphasized understanding in his The Wound-Dresser and that the text Adams used is superior to that chosen by Ralph Vaughan Williams in his Sea Symphony.

Harmonielehre for Orchestra (1984-5). John Adams

Hipstomp reports on free summer concerts in New York. On four consecutive nights of American classical music starting July 13th, David Robertson will lead the New York Philharmonic with concerts in Brooklyn, Central Park, Queens and the Bronx. The program consists of Ives' Variations on America (arranged by William Schuman), Barber's Violin Concerto, and Adams' Harmonielehre.

• New York Philharmonic program notes on Variations and some other Ives's works (PDF).
• San Francisco Symphony's stream of Harmonielehre (Real Audio) via American Mavericks.

Easter Eve 1945 (2003-04). John Adams

In the NY Times, Anne Midgette comments on the song Easter Eve 1945 (from the future Adams opera Dr. Atomic), in a concert by the NY Philharmonic:

To say that the orchestra sometimes supported the words, gently rocking beneath the imagery, and sometimes illustrated them — the line "Lit by their energies, secretly, all things shine" unleashed a row of shining strokes of the strings followed by a shining rising figure in the brass — is a reductive description of a partnership between word and note, laid out on a truly grand scale and furthered by the luminosity of the vocalist Audra McDonald. If this was meant to be a teaser, it worked.

In his program notes (PDF), Adams describes the women of the scientists suffering while their husbands labored to build the atomic bomb and how the text he used from the poet Muriel Rukeyser goes from despair to hope.

Here is a brief previous comment by Adams re: Dr. Atomic.

Update: A concert review by Breadly Bambarger in the New Jersey Star-Ledger:

With a war-weary text by poet Muriel Rukeyser, the piece serves as a pensive, 12-minute soliloquy for Kitty Oppenheimer, long-suffering wife of the Manhattan Project leader. Composed for McDonald, but in a high-flying modern style far from her terra firma, the vocal role was a challenge she met handsomely.

Harmonielehre for Orchestra (1984-5). John Adams

The American Mavericks website has a good set of (Real Audio) streaming American music in their Listening Room. I've started working through the San Francisco Symphony performances conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. First up is Harmonielehre by John Adams, which to me sounds rather long and benign, especially in comparison to what follows: George Antheil's Ballet Mécanique.

Next up, the three B's (Babbitt, Billings, and Brant) and then the four C's (Cage, Carter, Copland, and Cowell). I expect I will prefer the C's to the B's although what I have heard of New Englander William Billings' 18th century songs and hymns I've surprisingly liked.

Music Mavericks also streams two "radio stations:"

• Smooth Channel - "Smooth and no lumps. Minimalism, drone, nature influenced, ambient."
• Crunchy Channel - "All the chunky richness non-conformists love. Foreground, attention demanding, modernism, electroacoustic, found sound, chance operations, machinery, music to wake up your world."

Smooth and crunchy are relative labels here. "Maverick smooth" may be a bit harsh for a typical orchestra patron and "Maverick crunchy" is too crunchy even for my rock/electronica/Cagean-experienced ears. In particular, I can do without the twelve second scream of Yoko Ono's Voice Piece for Soprano. To counter that, I did learn about Charlemagne Palestine's Schlingen-Blangen via Smooth.

This year, Minnesota Public Radio won a Peabody Award for the American Mavericks series and website. And the ever-present Kyle Gann blogs that the series is based on a script he wrote.

Doctor Atomic (200?). John Adams

John Adams comments on his new opera Doctor Atomic based on J. Robert Oppenheimer (director of the Manhattan Project during World War II).

"I haven't had this much fun writing for a character since I wrote Nixon."

From Leah Garchik's column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Death of Klinghoffer (1991). John Adams

Clarke Bustard reviews the film of The Death of Klinghoffer and says:

Slanted and morally ambivalent as it is, "Klinghoffer" nonetheless is a deeply resonant work...

Harmonielehre (1985). John Adams

Listed as the "top tune" by Kalvos from a total of 100 desert island selections. And his compatriot Damian chooses Terry Riley's "In C" as #1 (and Frank Zappa's "Hot Rats" as #23). Both lists have well-known modern works as well as the obscure. Damian also lists Ollivier Messiaen's colossal "Turangalîla Symphony" as #3.