Haven't I Heard That Before Preview | John Adams Hallelujah Junction
- Leah Froyd
- 12 hours ago
- 3 min read
Hello and welcome to the second preview of our upcoming concert, Haven't I Heard That Before with Daniel Anastasio! To introduce you to Daniel and his work, we will spotlight his videos and respond to them below! Follow along for some fun insights from Daniel and our team and join us June 6th and 7th to hear his performance live at the Clocktower Salon.
Hallelujah Junction | John Adams
"Hallelujah Junction is a tiny truck stop on Route 49 on the Nevada-California border, not far from where I have a small mountain cabin. One can only speculate on its beginnings in the era of prospectors and Gold Rush speculators (although a recent visit revealed that cappucino is now available there). Here we have a case of a great title looking for a piece. So now the piece finally exists: the 'junction' being the interlocking style of two-piano writing which features short, highly rhythmicized motives bouncing back and forth between the two pianos in tightly phased sequences. This is a technique I first used in the 1982 Grand Pianola Music and later expanded in orchestral pieces."
-- John Adams
Many of you will remember our various explorations into the world of minimalism: see our posts on Max Richter and Caleb Burhans. The main affect of the minimalist composers is the way they create a wash of sound with distinct textures.
What does this mean?
While there are specific details in the music-- in this case the energetic interval leap in the motif-- your ear is meant to zoom out and pick up on the general vibe of the music, in other words, another way of hearing the sum of the music's parts.
"As a composer I believe at a certain point, technique is aesthetic. By changing certain values of compositional technique (the need for long, flowing melodies, or constantly stimulating harmony) the minimalist composers discovered an unexplored aesthetic surface that cannot be captured by traditional composition. To me it feels like a chain of long-exposure photographs, stable and still but full of energy and motion."
-- José Daniel Vargas
Adams is able to compound this idea of musical texture by phasing another piano. The way the second piano is phased also creates a stereo effect.
As Daniel mentions above, it's then up to the listener to observe the subtle ways the pattern changes. One way you can do this is by fixing your attention to the lowest notes in the sequence to find a compound pattern between the two players. Likewise, it's up to the performers to bring out and emphasize (or to not emphasize) the changes.
"Classical music requires the performer to "follow the line" or create a shape that brings the notes off of the page. The "stillness in motion" that is a feature of minimalist music requires that the musician take great care in making sure no notes are given too much or too little emphasis. This would distract from the greater tapestry created by all of the performers together.."
-- José Daniel Vargas
As the piece continues, there are more obvious changes. For example, in the section above, Piano 1 changes the pattern and diverges into playing more eighth notes while Piano 2 remains on the original pattern. This creates a lighter texture as there aren't as many 16th notes for the ear to track.
It is my interpretation that the subtle changes in the pattern reflect Adams' vision of the history of Hallelujah Junction like a time lapse. By allowing the music to move around us, we can also imagine the many generations of Americans moving though the same space: from the Indigenous populations, to the gold rush miners; all the way to the gas station that is there today (rated 2.4 stars on TripAdvisor).
Want to hear more?
Have burning questions about the music?
Have something else to share with other members of our community?
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LOW TICKET ALERT!
SATURDAY, JUNE 6 - SOLD OUT !!
NEW DATE ADDED - SUNDAY, JUNE 7 - 2:30PM
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