Wednesday 15 February 2012

Happy Birthday John Adams

Despite just going on about falling out of love with music, I still have a soundtrack to my life, though I'm starting to think that that's the wrong way round. Most especially, it's the minimalist and post-minimalists, though I never got into the electronica artists who derived so much of their styles from the classical scene. Some of my friends - for some reason women in particular - find the repetition with only tiny variations unbearable to listen to: one or two have even left the room in tearful frustration. For me, significance and drama emerge from the tiniest alterations.

Amongst them is John Adams, who's on the romantic post-minimalist edge these days. As well as repetitive instrumental music, he's single-handedly revived the opera as an art form, despite the vicious attacks directed at him for the Klinghoffer controversy (finally to be revived in London this month, not that I've any chance to see it). Here are some clips:



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