Adams' father played alto saxophone in swing bands in the 1930s, and he credits this life-long exposure to the music of the jazz greats with the creation of his Saxophone Concerto, composed in 2013.
Composed in 2007. Co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Stanford Lively Arts, and the San Francisco Ballet. Son of Chamber Symphony received its New York premiere performance on February 28, 2008 at Carne...
Boosey & Hawkes is pleased to present a three-volume collection of John Adams's choruses from his world-renowned operas, edited by conductor Grant Gershon, featuring choral selections from six iconic...
The libretto of this opera was adapted by John Adams and Peter Sellars from a South Indian folktale and poems translated by A.K.Ramanujan.
China Gates, a work minimalistic in nature, was written in 1977.
John's Book of Alleged Dances is a set of ten short dances for string quartet and rhythm loops stored on audio CD. Six of the dances have rhythm loops. Dances may be performed in any order, and may be...
Singstimme (Bariton) und Orchester - Dirigierpartitur
Gnarly Buttons is a 26-minute concerto for clarinet and small orchestra about the enduring influence made on Adams by his father, a clarinetist. It traces the instrument from the innocent and 'cool' t...
Written in 2003 for the opening of Disney Hall in Los Angeles, The Dharma at Big Sur draws influence from Kerouac's novel Big Sur and the electric violin playing of Tracy Silverman, the violinist of t...
This concerto won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1995, the most prestigious music prize in the world. In three movements, it is prime example of Adams as the most compelling contemporar...
John Adams emerged in the last decades of the twentieth century as one of the most influential and widely performed American composers since Copland. 'The Chairman Dances' is a 'foxtrot for orchestra'...
Adams' inspiration was Schiller's 1795 essay 'On Naive and Sentimental Poetry,' a discussion of artistic states of expression. In three movements.
A musical autobiography, this work is an homage to the influence of Ives' music on the composer.
Modeled on Stravinsky's 'Le Chant du Rossignol,' this 14-minute work for orchestra is an homage to the work and wit of Nicholas Slonimsky, the Russian eccentric literary genius who wrote The Thesaurus...
This propulsive concerto for string quartet and orchestra is built on fragments of Beethoven's late string quartets and other pieces.
Singstimme und Klavier - englisch.
This is one of the most frequently requested and performed encores in American concert-halls.
Composed in 1986, this fast-paced and dynamic work took the symphonic world by storm. Available here in a playable setting for school ensembles; Richard Saucedo has transposed the key down a third fro...
Klavier und Kammerorchester - Dirigierpartitur
Note by Christina & Michelle Naughton, to whom the piece is dedicated and who recorded it for Warner Classics:'In addition to being a brilliant adaption of the orchestral piece, the four-hand version...
Influenced by American jazz, this brief piano piece uses disjunct rhythms at break-neck speed. American Berserk was composed in 2001 for the virtuoso Garrick Ohlsson.
John Luther Adams' Red Arc/Blue Veil for Mallet Percussion, Piano and Processed Sounds. Composed in 2001. Duration: 12 minutes.
John Luther Adams' Strange Birds Passing for Dorli McWayne and The Fairbanks Flutists. Composed in 1983. Duration: 6 minutes 30 seconds. Instrumentation: Piccolo (2) Flute (3) Alto Flute (2) Bass Flu...
John Adams, the composer of this easily played collection, was a pupil of C. S. Lang of Tuba Tune fame. His preludes, mostly just two pages, bear all the hallmarks of an organist who writes with affec...
Published for the first time is the complete piano/vocal score for John Adams's widely acclaimed nativity oratorio El Niño. This significant contemporary large-scale work features a libretto based on...
Phrygian Gates shows a strong influence of Minimalist procedures, and it is Adams' first work to be based on the idea of repetitive cell structure. Phrygian Gates requires a pianist capable of conside...
Delightful small songs, echoing rare moments and places where the voices of birds have been clear. Scored for piccolo(s) and percussion, with optional additional parts included.
Although in its own way an example of 'continuous' music, Shaker Loops differs from most other works of its kind because it sees so much change within a relatively short amount of time. Also it avoids...
John Luther Adams' Qilyaun for four Bass Drums. Composed in 1998. Score and parts. 'Qilyaun' is the Iñupiaq word for the shaman's drum. Translated literally, it means 'device of power'. The drum is t...
John Luther Adams' Dreams Of The Canyon Wren for String Quartet. Player score.
John Luther Adams' Untouched for String Quartet. Player score. Over the years my large ensemble works have sometimes included String Quartet. However, I didn't write my first piece for String Quartet...