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John Adams

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

John Adams is an American composer and conductor, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1947. He grew up in a musical family and came into contact with classical music, jazz, musicals and rock. As a child he played the clarinet and at ten he began to compose. He studied at Harvard, with Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions and David Del Tredici among others, and took his bachelor's degree there in 1969 and his master's in 1971.

Music and breakthrough

His earliest work was modernist, but he came to rebel against that. His style grows out of the minimal music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, but he turns more readily to the big orchestral sounds and climaxes of late Romanticism, such as Wagner and Mahler. His works include Shaker Loops, Harmonielehre, Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Grand Pianola Music. His first opera, Nixon in China, tells of Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. It was the first of many works with director Peter Sellars. The reception was mixed at first, but the work enjoys ever greater respect and is performed worldwide. The Death of Klinghoffer followed, among others.

Influence

Adams is one of the most frequently performed living composers of contemporary classical music. Many of his operas deal with historical events. His importance for popular culture lies in the way he linked the repeating patterns of minimal music, which also fascinated pop musicians, with the full sound of a Romantic orchestra.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Short Ride in a Fast Machine and notice the continuous, ticking rhythm in the woodwinds and the gradually rising brass.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists