Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site psuvax1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!akgua!psuvax1!parker From: parker@psuvax1.UUCP (Bruce Parker) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: John Adams? Message-ID: <1607@psuvax1.UUCP> Date: Fri, 18-Jan-85 10:42:06 EST Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1607 Posted: Fri Jan 18 10:42:06 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 22-Jan-85 05:10:57 EST References: <214@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ. Lines: 35 > Who is this guy? And how can he face himself in the morning? Gee, I always thought Adams sounded more like Reich than Glass. His other works like "Common Tones in Simple Time", "Shaker Loops", and "Phrygian Gates" are a bit more impressionistic than Reich but definitely bear the indelible stamp of Reich. He also conducted Reich's "Octet" at SF's first New and Unusual Music series when it was at the Galleria (a truly strange place to play music). The Angel record (DS-37345) has Adams's "Grand Pianola" and Reich's "Eight Lines" with Ransom Wilson leading the Solisti New York. "Grand Pianola" appeared as part of the the NYPO's Horizons 83 program and was roundly booed, though I heard a modest amount of applause also (it was broadcast as part of last year's NYPO radio series). My first impression was that it was a pompous piece made all the more ludicrous by the use of minimalism. I saw the record in a local record store and Adams writes in the liner notes that the piece was supposed to be a parody. Now he tells us. If it makes you feel any better, after he getting all the bad press and being booed on both sides of the Atlantic, he considered withdrawing the work. (He changed his mind though.) BTW, a composer friend of mine in Indiana tells me that lesser composers have been ripping off Anderson-Glass-Reich-Riley for years. Not that this is any surprise, though. For all the talk about the sanctity and originality of art, composers need to eat and if something works, (i.e. is popular) principles have a disturbing habit of getting dumped. -- Bruce Parker Computer Science Department (814) 863-1545 334 Whitmore Lab {allegra|ihnp4}!psuvax1!parker The Pennsylvania State University parker@penn-state (csnet) University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 parker@psuvax1 (bitnet)