John Adams - Shaker Loops/The Wound Dresser/Short Ride In A Fast Machine
Shaker Loops/The Wound Dresser/Short Ride In A Fast Machine
(2004)
A first for the blog, a few modern classical pieces that may well interest you.
John Adams is a modern American composer and conductor born in 1947.
Shaker Loops, written in 1978, began as a piece called Wavemaker in which Adams tried to emulate the ripple effect of bodies of water in his music. The piece was a commercial failure, but Adams kept the idea of repeating loops of oscillations on string instruments. He retitled the piece Shaker Loops, both because of the "shaking" of the strings as they oscillate between notes and the idea Adams had of Shakers dancing to repetitive, energetic music.
The Wound Dresser is an elegiac setting of excerpts from American poet Walt Whitman's poem "The Wound-Dresser" (1865) about his experience as a hospital volunteer during the American Civil War.
Short Ride is an example of Adams's postminimal style. The style derives from minimalism as defined by the works of Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Philip Glass, although it has be said to "make use of minimalist techniques in more dramatic settings." As a commentary on the title, Adams once stated, "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn't?"
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