What is Short Ride in a Fast Machine meant to represent?
What is Short Ride in a Fast Machine meant to represent?
Short Ride in a Fast Machine, orchestral fanfare by American composer John Adams that evokes the excitement-cum-terror of a late-night thrill ride in a sports car. The piece was composed in 1986 as an opener for a summer festival given by the Pittsburgh Symphony.
What is John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine an example of?
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?” This work is an iconic example of Adams’s postminimal style, which is utilized in other works like Phrygian Gates, Shaker Loops, and Nixon in China.
Is Short Ride in a Fast Machine minimalist?
Short Ride in a Fast Machine features the usual minimalist earmarks: repetition, steady beat, and, perhaps most crucially, a harmonic language with an emphasis on consonance unlike anything in Western art music in the last 500 years.
What time signature is Short Ride in a Fast Machine?
Short Ride in a Fast Machine is avery sadsong byJohn Adamswith a tempo of152 BPM.It can also be used half-time at76 BPM or double-time at304 BPM. The track runs4 minutes and 14 secondslong with aEkey and aminormode. It hasaverage energyand isnot very danceablewith a time signature of3 beats per bar.
Is Short Ride in a Fast Machine atonal?
There is such a lack of resonance in atonal music with all the upper partials clashing against each other. Michael Steinberg in the John Adams Reader wrote that [Short Ride in a Fast Machine used] “a harmonic language with an emphasis on consonance unlike anything in Western art music in the last five hundred years.”
How did John Adams became involved in music?
Born and raised in New England, Adams learned the clarinet from his father and played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. He began composing at age ten and heard his first orchestral pieces performed while still a teenager.
For what event did Michael Torke get commissioned to compose javelin?
Atlanta Committee for the Olympics
Javelin was commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympics, which was about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It was premiered in the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Yoel Levi, on September 8, 1994.
Why did composers shift to tonality to the 12 tone system quizlet?
Why did composers begin to shift from tonality to the twelve-tone system? They discovered it was a compositional technique rather than a special musical style.
Is John Adams still alive?
Deceased (1735–1826)
John Adams/Living or Deceased
Why did composers shift from tonality to 12 tone system?
Do use of two or more contrasting and independent rhythms at the same time is known as?
Polyrhythm Use of two or more contrasting and independent rhythms at the same time, often found in twentieth-century music.
Who is the composer of short ride in a fast machine?
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). The former is also known as Fanfare for Great Woods because it was commissioned for the Great Woods Festival of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
How long is short ride in a fast machine?
A typical performance of Short Ride lasts about four and a half minutes. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra premiered Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The fanfare was the 10th most-performed orchestral work composed in the last twenty-five years, in 2008.
How does short ride in a fast machine adhere to minimalism?
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.
What kind of wood blocks are in short ride in Fast Machine?
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. ^ a bMauskapf, Michael (2009).