The Orchestral Works of John Adams

I have delved into detail with several Adams compositions thus this semester. Each one displays Adams as a major creative artist in a different musical setting. Yet while he has established himself as a composer of repute, the most significant aspect of his compositional career is his success in the orchestral realm.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, it is the concert band, not the orchestra, that has seen a significant body of repertoire written specifically for it. A huge chunk of this reason is fairly obvious: for several centuries, composers have written music for the orchestra, so that now an immense body of repertoire exists.

The concert band is a different case. It has a much shorter time of existence than the Symphony orchestra, and does not have the ensemble heritage that the orchestra possesses. This results in a greater amount of creativity in composition, since there are not nearly as many constraints in writing for concert band as for orchestra.

The number of composers writing for band today attest to this fact. Composers such as Gillingham, Maslanka, Sparke, Nelson, Grantham, and Daugherty are but just a few names of the composers today who find the concert band to be a highly conducive medium for compositional endeavors.

Another reason for the concert band being such a promising ensemble to write for is its importance in academic circles. Countless high schools and colleges throughout the United States maintain band programs that require music for concerts and competitions. Since the concert band doesn't have nearly the quantity of literature as the orchestra does, composers are called upon to create new and creative works all the time for band concerts and festivals throughout the United States.

With all of this said, Adams achievement in the orchestral realm is merely emphasized and made all the more impressive. In order for a composer to establish himself in any field, a degree of originality is needed, but in order to succeed in a field such as orchestral music, one needs and immense amount of creativity and "innovation."

Already, Adams Pulitzer prize composition commemorating the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (On the Transmigration of Souls) has been examined. Now, with the remaining weeks in the semester, I will look a little more closely at several of Adams Orchestral works, and will take a much closer look as to why they should be considered innovative.

Remember, innovation is not always something that is confined to that which is new. It can always include things which are quite aged and well established. What would make using such things innovative is by giving them fresh treatments. Instead of using things in the same way that composers used them for centuries before them, one can use much of what has gone on before, but with some modifications so that while the work does clearly fall within a traditional heritage, and is also highly original. Adams does this to great effect, in his operas (a heritage that is over four centuries old) and his orchestral works.

With that, I now turn to some of the significant orchestral works of John Adams.