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Ten Pieces - John Adams

Meet composer John Adams and explore how modern orchestral music can build excitement using repeating patterns, changing dynamics, and strong rhythms. Listen closely and describe what you notice.

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Fascinating Fact:

Adams described it as a “fanfare for orchestra”, which means it is a bold, attention-grabbing orchestral piece.

In KS2 Music, learning about John Adams helps you hear how a composer can use an orchestra to create energy and tension. You can listen for repeating ideas, changing volume, and how different instruments take turns leading the music.

Key Terms

Composer: A person who writes music.
Motif: A short musical idea that returns, like a musical “tag”.
Pulse: The steady beat you feel underneath the music, even when rhythms change.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

Who is John Adams in music?

John Adams is an American composer who writes modern classical music, often for orchestra. His music can use repeated patterns and strong rhythms to create excitement.

What is minimalist music in KS2?

Minimalist music is built from small musical ideas that repeat and slowly change. You might hear steady beats, patterns, and layers that grow as new instruments join in.

How do I describe an orchestral piece when listening?

Describe the instruments you hear, the tempo, the dynamics, and the mood. You can also mention textures, like one melody on its own or many parts playing together.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

Which of these other topics is NOT (so far as we know) the basis for a significant composition by John Adams?

The liberation of the Nazi extermination camps at the end of World War 2

The '9/11' New York terrorist attacks and their victims

The killing of a handicapped hi-jack hostage by terrorists

The building of the first atom bomb/s

Any good biography of Adams, online or elsewhere, should fill you in on these remarkable, mood-of-the-moment-catching works. In our modern age where news travels so fast and stories are so global, it is wonderful to know that so significant a musician is creating thoughtful responses that help audiences to ponder the issues.

2 .

How did Adams celebrate his 60th birthday?

Taking 'a short ride in a fast machine'

Conducting his own work with the American Composers Orchestra

Hiking and fishing in the Adirondacks

On tour with his chamber ensemble in the Far East

By all accounts he acquitted himself well in this role, and his fellow-composers were full of joy and respect to be working with him.

3 .

Adams' middle name is the same as the surname of a former US President: which one?

Nixon

Carter

Reagan

Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge was the Republican president during the 1920s (in the run-up to the Wall Street Crash). Our other three potential answers each refer to presidents already alive by the time Adams was born; he wrote an opera about Nixon (more on this later). There had of course also been a President called John Quincy Adams ... about 100 years prior to that again, in the 1820s ... covering (as it happens) the death-years of both Beethoven and Schubert.

4 .

In 2003 Adams was awarded a particularly prestigious prize: which was it?

A Pulitzer Prize

A Nobel Prize

The President's Congressional Medal

The 'Oscar' for Best Film Score

This was in recognition of his '9/11' work, On the Transmigration of Souls. The Pulitzer is usually awarded for the written word (journalism, novels etc.) so this was noticeably unusual, not least since many writers would also have had their say about the same original events.

5 .

Before he turned 30 he had built a new instrument of his own and was exploring its musical possibilities: what instrument was this?

An electronic organ

An analogue synthesiser

A computerised guitar

A remote-controlled grand piano

The world of 'artificial' music (i.e. using sounds that no existing acoustic instrument could make) was very exciting in those days of the 1970s and 80s ... before we quite had computers in such power and profusion as we do now.

6 .

What was Adams' original instrument, as a performer in his own right?

Saxophone

Clarinet

Viola

Trombone

This instrument potentially allowed him entry into both classical and jazz circles.

7 .

Although Adams was probably destined for musical greatness, it's rather nice to confirm whereabouts in the US he grew up, with its appropriate name. In what town did he attend high-school?

Concord, New Hampshire

Harmony, Missouri

Symphony, Maine

Tunesville, Ohio

'Concord' in its technical sense means 'the sounding of two pitches which combine pleasingly' (as opposed to discord, of course).

8 .

Adams is clearly comfortable writing for large forces (e.g. an orchestra) but also for much smaller ones such as just two pianists. Often he will base a complete piece on a single simple musical idea that he explores through very gentle, gradual repeated steps ~ like (dare we say) a much less insistent version of Beethoven with his Fifth Symphony opening movement around 200 years ago. What is the musicological label for this mode of composition?

Simplicity

Minimalism

Frugality

Economusic

Many other minimalist composers have been exploring how much music can be made from the simplest of starting materials: you might like to widen your research to sample works by Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

9 .

Adams has never flinched from writing music (opera and other works) referring to raw and recent historical events. What was the title of his opera about the later-disgraced US president Richard Nixon?

Tricky Dickie

Dickie goes to Hollywood

Nixon in China

The Watergate Tapes

This refers to Nixon's diplomatic trip in 1972 (very shortly before the Watergate scandal broke).

10 .

Adams has given many of his compositions unusual titles that whet people's curiosity. Only ONE of the following is NOT a genuine Adams work: which one?

Hallelujah Junction

Freeway Butterfly

I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky

Gnarly Buttons

There are many others worth exploring instead of this fake one!

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC - KS2: John Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Author: Ian Miles (Linguist, ESL and RE Quiz Writer & Tutor)

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