issue12

EMUSIC-L Digest                                      Volume 58, Issue 12

This issue's topics:
	
	john adams keyboard article (4 messages)

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Date:         Tue, 16 Nov 1993 08:11:05 EST
From:         Steven Cantor 
Subject:      john adams keyboard article

so, after reading a reference to a john adams article in the 'latest' issue
of keyboard magazine, i ran-not-walked to my newsstand, and found the december
issue, with nary a reference to mr. adams to be found, as far as i could see.
could we have more info on this please?  if it is from the november issue,
is there any way it could be reproduced on this list?
thanks in advance,
s.

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Steven Cantor                     SLC@HARVARDA.HARVARD.EDU

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Date:         Tue, 16 Nov 1993 15:10:36 -0500
From:         Mark G Simon 
Subject:      Re: john adams keyboard article

> so, after reading a reference to a john adams article in the 'latest' issue
> of keyboard magazine, i ran-not-walked to my newsstand, and found the december
> issue, with nary a reference to mr. adams to be found, as far as i could see.
> could we have more info on this please?  if it is from the november issue,
> is there any way it could be reproduced on this list?
> thanks in advance,
> s.
Now I was just reading that Adams article a couple of days ago and I
could swear up and down it was in the December issue. You might look back
as far as the October issue though. Whatever issue it was in, it came
towards the back. Did you look carefully through the whole magazine?

I just bought the new John Adams record (Hoodoo zephyr). So far I've only
had a chance to listen to the first 2 tracks, but I'm pretty much
favorably impressed on first hearing. Adams has more ideas per minute
than a lot of electronic music composers. As to be expected, there's a
lot of short repeating rhythmic patterns, but they always change before
they have a chance to get old. The experience is kind of like sitting in
a car watching the scenery go by, especially the kind of flat desert
scenery, such as that depicted in the record's insert. Foreground objects
go whizzing by while the background seems stationary. "Disappointment
Lake" sounds more like new-age atmospherics than what I'm used to hearing
from him. There's a meandering 'guitar' solo over some ambient
whooshings. Then there's a rather ugly middle section which brings in
more rhythmic patterns. A honky-tonk piano can be heard in the distance
(interesting touch).
Those are my random, and not necessarily profound thoughts while giving a
first hearing to John Adams.

--Mark Simon
mgs2@cornell.edu

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Date:         Wed, 17 Nov 1993 12:42:24 MET
From:         Schuster Richard 
Subject:      Re: john adams keyboard article

who is jon adams?

 i have never before heard that name.

 so please tell me about him!

**********************************************************
*Richard Schuster                                        *
*University of Innsbruck, Austria                        *
*                                                        *
*network adress:                                         *
*schuste2@sowi-nov.uibk.ac.at                            *
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Date:         Wed, 17 Nov 1993 08:46:23 -0500
From:         Mark G Simon 
Subject:      Re: john adams keyboard article

> who is john adams?

John Adams (b. 1947) is a minimalist composer from California. Currently
he is most famous for his 2 operas "Nixon in China", about Richard
Nixon's 1971 visit to China, and "The Death of Klinghoffer" about the
Achille Lauro incident. He has also written many orchestral works such as
"Harmonielehre" (title taken from Schoenberg's theory textbook, but
otherwise unrelated to Schoenberg or music theory), "The Chairman Dances"
(taken from Nixon in China) and "The Wound Dresser" (setting of a Walt
Whitman poem about working in a hospital during the American Civil War).
The latter was widely acclaimed, though I find it one of his least
interesting pieces. "A short ride in a fast machine" has been widely
played by American orchestras, mainly because it's short and flashy.

"Hoodoo Zephyr" is Adams' first major electronic work, although there was
also an amusing piece called "Christian Zeal and... [I forget the rest of
the title]" Which featured an instrumental ensemble playing Arthur
Sullivan's hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" at a very *very* sloooooow
tempo while a tape recording plays a fractured sermon by an evangelist
preacher (the phrase "withered hand" keeps coming back).

His works are all recorded on Elektra/Nonesuch records, and are widely
available in the US.

--Mark Simon
  mgs2@cornell.edu

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