ADAMS, JOHN, American Composer

(John Coolidge Adams), 1947–, American composer, b. Worcester, Mass. A clarinetist, he studied composition at Harvard (B.A. 1969, M.A. 1971). Often regarded as the most outstanding, technically adept, and influential composer of his generation, Adams has written in numerous genres, bringing to his compositions a keen sense of the theatrical and the vernacular. His distinctive sound is a mixture of post-minimalism with an intensely emotional expansiveness and a range of expressive tonal elements reminiscent of late romanticism and early modernism. Strong and vivid, his music can exhibit both a wittily life-affirming sense of fun and a decidedly contemporary aura of grief and horror. Adams is best known for operas on topical themes, including Nixon in China (1987), The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), and I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (1995). Among his many other works are Shaker Loops (1978, rev. 1983) for strings, Harmonielehre (1985), Fearful Symmetries (1988), El Dorado (1993), a violin concerto (1993), Lollapalooza (1995), Gnarly Buttons (1996) for clarinet and orchestra, the symphonic Naive and Sentimental Music (1999), the monumental nativity oratorio El Niño (2000), and On the Transmigration of Souls (2002; Pulitzer Prize), a meditative soundscape in memory of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, for orchestra, chorus, and various sound effects.

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