Hallelujah Junction

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For the existing junction in California, see Hallelujah Junction, California.

Hallelujah Junction is a piece written for two pianos by the American composer John Adams. The name comes from a small truck stop on US 395 which meets Alternate US 40, (now State Route 70) near the California-Nevada border. Adams said of the piece, "[I]t was a case of a good title needing a piece, so I obliged by composing this work for two pianos".

The work centers around delayed repetition between the two pianos, creating an effect of echoing sonorities. There is a constant shift of pulse and meter, but the main rhythms are based on the rhythms of the word "Hal-le-LU-jah".

The work is in three unnamed movements, and generally takes about 15 minutes to perform. It was first performed by Grant Gershon and Gloria Cheng at the Getty Center in Brentwood, California in 1998. It is dedicated to Ernest Fleischmann.