Harmonium (John Adams)

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This article is on the orchestral work. For information on other kinds of harmonia, see harmonium (disambiguation).

Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra that could be considered a choral symphony in all but name, 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. It is regarded as one of the key compositions of Adams' "minimalist" period.[1] The San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with conductor Edo de Waart, gave the premiere of the work on 15 April 1981, and subsequently recorded it.[2] The UK premiere was on 13 October 1987 at Birmingham Town Hall, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) conducted by Simon Rattle.[3] Rattle and the CBSO gave the London premiere on 28 July 1990 at The Proms.[4]

The three movements of Harmonium are titled:

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Timothy Johnson has discussed various aspects of the harmonic language of Harmonium in detail.[5] K. Robert Schwarz has noted the influence of the musical techniques of Steve Reich on Harmonium, and also has commented on the less schematic and more "intuitive" manner of Adams' composition in the work.[6]

Contents

[edit] Instrumentation

  • Chorus (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass [SATB]; minimum of 90 performers)
  • 4 flutes (3 doubling on piccolo)
  • 3 oboes
  • 3 clarinets (1 doubling bass clarinet)
  • 2 bassoons
  • 1 contrabassoon
  • 4 horns
  • 4 trumpets
  • 3 trombones
  • 1 tuba
  • 4 percussion players
  • harp
  • celesta
  • piano (doubling on synthesizer)
  • strings (violins, violas, cellos, double basses)

[edit] Recordings

[edit] References

  1. ^ Heisinger, Brent (1989). "American Minimalism in the 1980s". American Music 187: 430-447. 
  2. ^ John Rockwell. "Expanding on Minimalist Music", The New York Times, 10 February 1985. Retrieved on 2008-02-20. 
  3. ^ Clements, Andrew (December 1987). "Reports: Birmingham". The Musical Times 128 (1738): 706. 
  4. ^ Rye, Matthew (November 1990). "Opera, Concert and Festival Reports: London, Proms 1". The Musical Times 131 (1773): 610. 
  5. ^ Johnson, Timothy A. (Spring 1993). "Harmonic Vocabulary in the Music of John Adams: A Hierarchical Approach". Journal of Music Theory 37 (1): 117-156. 
  6. ^ Schwarz, K. Robert (Autumn 1990). "Process vs. Intuition in the Recent Works of Steve Reich and John Adams". American Music 8 (3): 245-273. 

[edit] Bibliography

  • Steinberg, Michael, Choral Masterworks (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). ISBN to come.

[edit] External links