aworks :: "new" american classical music

Shaker Loops (1978). John Adams #q2 #poll #topfive

Q2 is asking for your five favorite compositions written since 1913. Off the top of my head, here's mine:

• Shaker Loops. John Adams
• Music in Twelve Parts. Philip Glass
• Different Trains. Steve Reich
• Turtle Dreams. Meredith Monk
• Symphony No. 3. Roy Harris

 

Shaker Loops (1983). Jonny Adams /when worlds collide #2/

Ronen Givony, leader of Wordless Music, gave a brief introduction to the Magik*Magik/Benjamin Shwartz/Wordless Music/Radiohead-by-association concert at Herbst Theatre and talked how it was artificial to segregate musical genres. I'd say this program comprised the same genre -- contemporary art  music -- but the listeners came to it from multiple genres (Radiohead, contemporary classical, avant jazz, the Kronos camp, John Adams fan boys, William Winant fan boys, musicians-in-training etc). I represent all but the last of course.

First up was John Adams' canoncial Shaker Loops,played by string septet. Hearing it live was a good reminder it's the long, non-shaken notes that give the work it's poignancy, although I enjoy watching the cellos crank through the fast parts as well.

And speaking of vibrato, this contemporary listener would say he doesn't like it except that as an aesthetic issue, especially in regards to Elgar, performance practice doesn't really matter, maybe because I'm not British. Although, I work for a UK company so I need to careful on this. For the record, the only Elgar I listen to with any regularity are Nimrod (although arranged for saxophone quartet) and some occasional piano music.  Those thousand repeats of Pomp and Circumstances I played at numerous graduations are a pleasantly fading memory.

The Elgar comment is just a reminder that the Wordless Music concert was a collision between contemporary classical music and the world of Radiohead. No legacy classical music was included. Hmm...

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civic center: the performance was a complete treat
the opera tattler: I found the literalness of the piece, the title interpreted as sound, to be quite pleasing
joshua kosman: Adams' brilliant early exercise in similarly patterned writing for strings, opened the evening in a taut, sensitive rendition
richard scheinin: glowing, or gauzy with shadowy buzzings, pulsing and trancelike. A no-brainer for people into Radiohead or Björk (and he reports MTT was in the audience)
lala: original. kent nagano. marin alsop. warren green.
last.fm: original.
youtube: matthew cmiel. dutch narration of weird dance. adams in rehearsal. christian chapel madness.

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edwin outwater: BEHOLD THE YOUNG AUDIENCE FOR ART MUSIC!!!
kenneth woods: why don't we hear more elgar in the us
bookofjoe: nimrod on youtube
aworks when worlds collide: travelogue
openleft: the 2008 election represents a collision of three historical waves with the wall of rightwing hegemony

Shaker Loops (1978). John Adams /!/

Early news of a Wordless Music concert in SF at the Herbst Theatre August 21:

The Magik*Magik Orchestra
Benjamin Shwartz, Conductor
Joan Jeanrenaud, Cello
Gloria Justen, Violin
William Winant, Percussion

Arvo Pärt: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Fred Frith: Save As
John Adams: Shaker Loops
Mason Bates: Icarian Rhapsody
Jonny Greenwood: Popcorn Superhet Receiver

Let's see, Jeanrenaud and Winant have been long-time contemporary music favorites, Save As is a great title, and Mason Bates is getting the compositional buzz lately as well as the fact that Cantus and Shaker Loops are my favorite works by Pärt and Adams, respectively. Plus a piece by Radiohead's master guitarist.

!

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wnyc: prior wordless music concert with stream of popcorn superhet receiver
sonicliving: sf concert announcement

Shaker Loops (1978). John Adams /father knows best/

Here's a promising concert tomorrow night in San Francisco by Formerly Known as Classical - the San Francisco Bay Area Teenage New Music Ensemble:

My Father Knew Olivier Messiaen - our musical heritage

Clapping Music by Steve Reich
Theme & Variations by Olivier Messiaen
A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten
Bantu by Andrew York
Shaker Loops by John Adams

The program's title is of course a play on John Adams' My Father Knew Charles Ives and is also some good-natured generational pretending. I suppose if I were a composer, I'd write My Father Knew Cole Porter. But given my current musical interest centers around Terry Riley, Albert Ayler, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, I suspect my honorees might have struggled with my hypothetical piece. I also wonder what Charles Ives would make of John Adams' work.

I'll also claim Shaker Loops was the apex of true minimalism before that aesthetic fragmented into post-modernism like everything else. It's a stretch to make this claim since I haven't heard this piece live since I heard the late Iona Brown lead a performance last century (coupled with Barber's Adagio). Unfortunately, I can't attend tomorrow night, but I'll at least imagine it still has the same impact.

Their next concert A previous concert also has an interesting theme:

Since We've Been Born - a program of music written since 1988.

Hmm, in the past, I've thought of focusing my listening on exactly that, music written in my time. Fortunately or not, my time has more candidate music than their time.

Tim Rutherford-Johnson, although off by one year, has some blogging about this slice of contemporary music. And a quick check shows I need to revise my list of favorite works since then,  especially those of the Bill Clinton era. How tastes and preferences change.

Note I'm also grapping with the idea of these musicians not being around when Nixon in China debuted. Why, it seems only yesterday that PBS was showing this on television.

Thanks to Matthew Cmiel and musicians for some stimulating and clever thinking and good luck with the concerts. It's nice to see our next "Greatest Generation" off to a collective good start.

And here's hoping we Boomer prophets do a better job of stewardship.

mark swed: john adams is about to turn 60