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Review of the Piece:

“John’s Book of Alleged Dances strikes me as a modern equivalent of John Playford’s English Dancing Master, in effect an early fake book of popular tunes for musicians. Playford printed just melodies from which “head” arrangements were probably made. Recently, it became the fashion among early music groups to provide complex realizations of these tunes, realizations probably far more sophisticated than anything heard during the Dancing Master ‘s vogue. Adams has done roughly the same. I love the tension between “high” and “low” in Adams’s work. “Dances,” of course, implies rhythm. Rhythm certainly stands out here. In his beautifully written liner notes for the album, Adams claims that he uses the term “alleged,” “because the steps for them have yet to be invented.” Nevertheless, we can hear snatches of dances: bluegrass fiddle, “slow dancing” from the Fifties, jazz riff, habanera or Latin rock, and so on. Adams scores the work for string quartet and tape loops, derived from samples of prepared piano, where essentially one places paper and assorted bits from the hardware store on the piano strings to get clicks, plinks, and buzzes. The loops function like a pop rhythm track, and here the piece gets interesting. Adams frees the quartet from the beat, so much so that the beat becomes ambiguous, yet at the same time retains rhythmic sharpness. Often the meter seems to fluctuate between triple and duple time, which transforms the rhythmic emphases of the loops. This, of course, is a feature of most American black vernacular music.”

John Adams the composer.

Musical style

The music of John Adams is usually categorized as minimalist or post-minimalist although in interview he has categorised himself in typically witty fashion as a ‘post-style’ composer. While Adams employs minimalist techniques, such as repeating patterns, he is not a strict follower of the movement. Adams was born a generation after Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and his writing is more developmental and directionalized, containing climaxes and other elements of Romanticism. Comparing Shaker Loops to minimalist composer Terry Riley’s piece In C, Adams says, Read the rest of this entry »