Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Last updated
Cover of the score edition by Boosey & Hawkes John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine Tromba Lontana score cover.png
Cover of the score edition by Boosey & Hawkes

Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a 1986 orchestral work by John Adams. Adams applies the description "fanfare for orchestra" to this work and to the earlier Tromba Lontana (1986). [1] The former is also known as Fanfare for Great Woods because it was commissioned for the Great Woods Festival of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. [2]

Contents

As a commentary on the title, Adams inquires, "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn't?" [3] The work is an example of Adams's postminimal style, which is utilized in other works like Phrygian Gates , Shaker Loops , and Nixon in China . [4] This style derives from minimalism as defined by the works of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, although it proceeds to "make use of minimalist techniques in more dramatic settings." [5]

A typical performance of Short Ride lasts about four and a half minutes.

Popularity, performance and cancellations

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra premiered Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. [6]

The fanfare was the 10th most-performed orchestral work composed in the last twenty-five years, in 2008. [2]

The work was performed at the BBC Proms in 2004, 2014 and 2019. [7] [8] Scheduled performances at the Last Night of the Proms were cancelled twice: in 1997 after the death of Princess Diana, and in 2001 after the September 11 attacks. [9]

Lawrence Odom transcribed the piece for concert band. [10]

The piano duo of Christina and Michelle Naughton open their album American Postcard [11] with the piece, in a two piano arrangement by Preben Antonsen.

Orchestra

The piece is scored for the following large orchestra: [12]

Style and analysis

Harmonic devices

Short Ride in a Fast Machine, true to its minimalist heritage, utilizes a tonal language that, according to Catherine Pellegrino, "is not as neatly defined and predictable as that of common-practice tonality". [13] Adams is known (especially in Phrygian Gates ) for the concept of "gating", which is the process of suddenly changing certain pitches in a harmony, often based on different modes. [14]

Example 1. Harmonic transformations in the first section Short Ride 1.jpg
Example 1. Harmonic transformations in the first section

As seen in Example 1, the initial pitch collection of D, E, and A, as scored in the clarinets and optional synthesizers, slowly transforms over time by adding pitches. This process is a concept of changing harmony, which Adams describes as "bring[ing] in a new key area almost on the sly, stretching the ambiguity out over such a length of time that the listener would hardly notice that a change had taken place". [5] By measure 52, the aggregate of pitches suddenly shifts as the E major chord is replaced by a B-flat major chord. Meanwhile, the original pitch collection continues to exist as an unchanging force. [15] This process is the main harmonic device that Adams employs, as the next section shifts pitch collections more rapidly for contrast, while other sections return to the pace of the first section. [16]

Rhythmic devices

In its rhythm, this work adheres to the main precepts of minimalism, one of which is the use of repeated material, generally in the form of ostinati. Minimalism also favours a strong sense of pulse, which Adams emphasizes strongly in Short Ride in a Fast Machine in his scoring of the wood block. Adams claims that "I need to experience that fundamental tick" in his work. [17] Throughout the course of the work, Adams experiments with the idea of rhythmic dissonance as material begins to appear, initially in the trumpets, and generates a new sense of pulse. [4] As shown below, the manifestation of rhythmic dissonance is akin to Adams's method of creating harmonic dissonance as he adds conflicting rhythms to disrupt the metronomic stability of the wood block. Adams himself admits that he seeks to "enrich the experience of perceiving the way that time is divided" within his works. [17] Later in the work, (see Example 5) Adams introduces a simple polyrhythm as a means of initiating a new section that contrasts the rhythmic dissonance of the first section.

Example 2. Initial rhythmic dissonance Short Ride 2.jpg
Example 2. Initial rhythmic dissonance
Example 3. Development of rhythmic dissonance Short Ride 3.png
Example 3. Development of rhythmic dissonance
Example 4. Result of rhythmic dissonance Short Ride 4.png
Example 4. Result of rhythmic dissonance
Example 5. Polyrhythmic dissonance at a later section Short Ride 5.png
Example 5. Polyrhythmic dissonance at a later section

Formal devices

The idea of formal closure and rhetorical devices in a sense of common practice is skewed in the works of John Adams, especially in Short Ride in a Fast Machine. While works of common practice organize material by phrases which are separated by cadential material, this work is in a state of perpetual motion as the additive element of harmonic and rhythmic material drives the work forward. The "gating" concept gives the overall work a sense of sectional design, but the indication of termination through cadence is something that is absent from the work until the very end, which emulates a ii–V–I cadence. [18]

Final cadence Short Ride 6.png
Final cadence

In terms of defining the sections of the work, the wood block is scored in a way that creates a four-part form. The first and third parts of the work have a high wood block present in the scoring, which is contrasted by a low wood block in the second part, while the final part features the absence of wood block. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Adams (composer)</span> American composer (born 1947)

John Coolidge Adams is an American composer and conductor whose music is rooted in minimalism. Among the most regularly performed composers of contemporary classical music, he is particularly noted for his operas, which are often centered around recent historical events. Apart from opera, his oeuvre includes orchestral, concertante, vocal, choral, chamber, electroacoustic and piano music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Reich</span> American composer (born 1936)

Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer who is known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay, "Music as a Gradual Process", by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Bridge</span> English composer and violist (1879–1941)

Frank Bridge was an English composer, violist and conductor.

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his Symphony No. 5 in D major between 1938 and 1943. In style it represents a shift away from the violent dissonance of his Fourth Symphony, and a return to the gentler style of the earlier Pastoral Symphony.

Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra by the American composer John Adams, written in 1980-1981 for the first season of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. The work is based on poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson and is regarded as one of the key compositions of Adams' "minimalist" period.

Music of <i>Star Wars</i>

The music of the Star Wars franchise is composed and produced in conjunction with the development of the feature films, television series, and other merchandise within the epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas. The music for the primary feature films was written by John Williams. Williams' work on the series included the scores of nine feature films, a suite and several cues of thematic material for Solo and the theme music for the Galaxy's Edge Theme Park. These count among the most widely known and popular contributions to modern film music, and utilize a symphony orchestra and features an assortment of about fifty recurring musical themes to represent characters and other plot elements: one of the largest caches of themes in the history of film music.

<i>Ein Heldenleben</i> Symphonic poem by Richard Strauss

Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898. It was his eighth work in the genre, and exceeded any of its predecessors in its orchestral demands. Generally agreed to be autobiographical in nature despite contradictory statements on the matter by the composer, the work contains more than thirty quotations from Strauss's earlier works, including Also sprach Zarathustra, Till Eulenspiegel, Don Quixote, Don Juan, and Death and Transfiguration.

Harmonielehre is a 40-minute orchestral composition by the American composer John Adams, composed in 1985. In his memoir, Adams wrote that the piece "was a statement of belief in the power of tonality at a time when I was uncertain about its future" and that it was "a one-of-kind [sic] once-only essay in the wedding of fin-de-siècle chromatic harmony with the rhythmic and formal procedures of Minimalism".

<i>Five Pieces for Orchestra</i>

The Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, were composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, and first performed in London in 1912. The titles of the pieces, reluctantly added by the composer after the work's completion upon the request of his publisher, are as follows:

Robert Simpson composed his Seventh Symphony in 1977, the same year he completed his Sixth Symphony. Composition was begun 26 September and concluded 23 October in Chearsley. The work is dedicated to Hans Keller and his wife, Milein Keller, and was first performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Brian Wright at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool on 30 October 1984. It is a one-movement work of approximately 28 minutes duration, and since its first performance it has become one of Simpson's most frequently heard symphonies.

Sea Songs is an arrangement of three British sea-songs by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is based on the songs "Princess Royal", "Admiral Benbow" and "Portsmouth". The work is a march of roughly four minutes duration. It follows a ternary structure, with opening material based on "Princess Royal" and "Admiral Benbow", with "Portsmouth" forming the central section before a return to the opening material featuring the first two songs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symphony No. 2 (Lutosławski)</span> Symphony by Witold Lutosławski

The Symphony No. 2 by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski is an orchestral composition in two movements written between 1965 and 1967. The work exhibits Lutosławski's technique of "limited aleatoricism", where the individual instrumental parts are notated exactly, but their precise co-ordination is organised using controlled elements of chance.

Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 1 was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra for soloist Paul Zukofsky and premiered in New York City on 5 April 1987. The work was composed with Glass's late father in mind. The piece quickly became one of Glass's most popular works. It is usually around 25–30 minutes in duration when performed.

<i>Jubiläum</i> Orchestral composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Jubiläum (Jubilee) is an orchestral composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, work-number 45 in the composer's catalogue of works.

<i>The Rio Grande</i> (Lambert) Secular cantata by Constant Lambert

The Rio Grande is a secular cantata by English composer Constant Lambert. Written in 1927, it achieved instant and long-lasting popularity on its appearance on the concert stage in 1929. It is an example of symphonic jazz, not unlike the style of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, although it is very much Lambert's individual conception. It combines jazzy syncopation with lithe Latin American dance rhythms that create an air of haunting nostalgia. The Rio Grande takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes to perform. It was dedicated to Angus Morrison, who played at its first (broadcast) performance.

The Symphony in G minor was the only completed symphony written by Ernest John Moeran. He wrote it in 1934–37. It is in four movements.

Ten Pieces is a music education scheme created by journalist Katy Jones for BBC Music which began with a namesake film hosted by Barney Harwood created for CBBC that originally aired on 3 October 2014. The film serves as an introduction to classical music for children and is, in that respect, similar to the Fantasia films. But unlike Fantasia, the music is set to a live BBC National Orchestra of Wales rather than animation.

The Symphony No. 4 is the fourth symphony by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. The work was composed in celebration of the conductor Donald Runnicles's 60th birthday. It was premiered at The Proms on August 3, 2015, by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Donald Runnicles.

Two Episodes is a composition for orchestra by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The work was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, for which Lindberg is composer-in-residence, and co-commissioned by The Proms, the Helsinki Festival, and the Casa da Música. It was first performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski in the Royal Albert Hall, London, on July 24, 2016.

The Short Symphony, or Symphony No. 2, is a symphony written by the American composer Aaron Copland from 1931 to 1933. The name derives from the symphony's short length of only 15 minutes. The work is dedicated to Copland's friend, the Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chávez. The symphony's first movement is in sonata-allegro form, and its slow second movement follows an adapted ternary form. The third movement resembles the sonata-allegro but has indications of cyclic form. The composition contains complex rhythms and polyharmonies, and it incorporates the composer's emerging interest in serialism as well as influences from Mexican music and German cinema. The symphony includes scoring for a heckelphone and a piano while omitting trombones and a percussion section. Copland later arranged the symphony as a sextet.

References

  1. Short Ride in a Fast Machine, earbox.com, John Adams's web site
  2. 1 2 Mauskapf, Michael (2009). "The American Orchestra as Patron and Presenter, 1945–Present: A Selective Discography". Notes . 66 (2): 381–393. doi:10.1353/not.0.0233. JSTOR   40539477. S2CID   191595812. ProQuest   1111258.
  3. Michael Steinberg, "Short Ride in a Fast Machine", in The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer, ed. Thomas May, (Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Amadeus Press, 2006), 108.
  4. 1 2 Kleppinger, Stanley V. (2001). "Metrical Issues in John Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine". Indiana Theory Review . 22 (1): 65–81. JSTOR   24054248.
  5. 1 2 Heisinger, Brent (1989). "American Minimalism in the 1980s". American Music . 7 (4): 430–447. doi:10.2307/3051914. JSTOR   3051914.
  6. Donald Rosenberg (10 February 1992). "Audience gets role in 'Concert of Future'". The Pittsburgh Press . E. W. Scripps Company . Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/archive/search/work/short-ride-in-a-fast-machine/16811 Archived 2013-04-18 at the Wayback Machine [ full citation needed ]
  8. "Prom 4: The Planets". BBC Music Events. Retrieved Aug 20, 2020.
  9. Clements, Andrew (2001-09-14). "A Night to Forget". The Guardian . Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  10. "Short Ride in a Fast Machine (tr Odom)".
  11. "American Postcard". 22 March 2019.
  12. John Adams, Two Fanfares for Orchestra, Study Score, Hendon Music Inc. 1986. Designations as given in the score.[ page needed ]
  13. Pellegrino 2002.
  14. Adams, Jemian & de Zeeuw 1996.
  15. Adams 2010, p. 777.
  16. Adams 2010, p. 778.
  17. 1 2 Adams, Jemian & de Zeeuw 1996 , p. 94
  18. Pellegrino 2002, p. 169.
  19. Adams 2010, pp. 777–778.

Sources