Rumination Haj
Caught in an expressive cul-de-sac,
all imagery goes down the tube
iconoclastically, with lack
of space that curves when artists cube,
on a rumination haj,
searching an interior Mecca
thoughts collected as collage,
minimally like a Necker.
David Hadjou reviews John Adams’s Hallelujah Junction (“Music Lessons: A memoir by the composer John Adams is a collage of memory criticism, theory and ruminations on creativity, ” NYT Book Review, October 26,2008) :
Commonly mistaken for a minimalist, Adams has employed the minimalist aesthetic primarily as a point of departure. He recognized fairly early that “minimalism as a governing aesthetic could and would rapidly exhaust itself, ” as he writes here. “Like Cubism in painting, it was a radically new idea, but its reductive worldview would soon leave its practitioners caught in an expressive cul-de-sac.” Adams’s importance as a composer is rooted not so much in his having done anything new, but, rather, in his having done very well the things he has done: operas (“Nixon in China” and “The Death of Klinghoffer, ” both staged by Peter Sellars) , symphonic choral works (“On the Transmigration of Souls, ” an elegy to the victims of the Sept.11 attacks, which won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2003) , piano pieces and a dozen or so other major compositions of various kinds. His music is minimal in the sense that Adams employs as few materials as necessary, rather than as few as possible, though he strives for and tends to achieve a maximalism of effect. With “Hallelujah Junction, ” Adams has put in prose an argument against the ideology of aesthetic continuum, a case that his music has always articulated eloquently by example. “That particular continuum I found ridiculously exclusive, being founded on a kind of Darwinian view of stylistic evolution, ” he argues. If a composition “didn’t in some way advance the evolution of the language, yielding progress either by a technological innovation or in the increasing complexity of the discourse, it was not even worth discussing.” Who cares? John Adams. And, so, now do we.
10/26/08
poem by Gershon Hepner
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Related quotes
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Abigail Adams in letter to John Adams, 1774
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Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
Abigail Adams in Letter to John Quincy Adams, May 8, 1780
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Finally Found Someone
Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams:
I finally found someone
That knocks me off my feet
I finally found the one
That makes me feel complete.
Barbra Streisand:
It started over coffee
We started out as friends
It's funny how from simple things
The best things begin.
Bryan Adams:
This time it's different
And it's all because of you
It's better than it's ever been
'Cause we can talk it through
Barbra Streisand:
My favorite line was
"Can I call you sometimes"
It's all you had to say
To take my breath away.
CHORUS Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams:
This is it
song performed by by Bryan Adams from 18 Til I Die
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Finally Found Someone
Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams:
I finally found someone
That knocks me off my feet
I finally found the one
That makes me feel complete.
Barbra Streisand:
It started over coffee
We started out as friends
It's funny how from simple things
The best things begin.
Bryan Adams:
This time it's different
And it's all because of you
It's better than it's ever been
'Cause we can talk it through
Barbra Streisand:
My favorite line was
andquot;Can I call you sometimesandquot;
It's all you had to say
To take my breath away.
CHORUS Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams:
This is it
song performed by by Barbra Streisand from Essential Barbra Streisand
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Its Only Love
(b. adams, j. vallance)
Duet with bryan adams
Producers: bryan adams and bob clearmountain
Album: the collected recordings (94)
When the feeling is ended
There aint no use pretending
Dont you worry, its only love
When your world has been shattered
Aint nothing else matters
It aint over, its only love
And thats all
When your heart has been broken
Hard words have been spoken
It aint easy, but its only love
And if your life aint worth living
And youre ready to give in
Just remember that its only love
Yeah, thats all
You can live without the aggravation
You gotta wanna win, you gotta wanna win
You keep looking back in desperation
Over and over and over again
song performed by by Tina Turner
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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How
How can I work when you play the piano,
Feminine person above?
How can I think, with your ceaseless soprano
Singing: 'Ah, Love-'?
How can I dream of a subject aesthetic,
Far from the purlieus of prose?
How, with the call of the peripatetic
'High! High cash clo'es!'?
How can I write when the children are crying?
How can I poetize-how?
How can I help imper_fect_ versifying?
(There is some now.)
How can I bathe in the thought-waves of
beauty?
How, with my nerves on the slant,
Can I perform my poetical duty?
Frankly, I can't.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance.
quote by Ansel Adams
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I only write music for myself, I don't try and appeal to anyone else.
quote by Bryan Adams
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Emmie, Emmie Adams
Emmie, Emmie Adams,
With her insolent air,
Tied a little bit of rag
In her yellow hair.
When Lena, wondering,
Asked why it was there,
Emmie said she didn't know
And she didn't care.
I think Emmie Adams,
Though you are so fair,
That must be the devil's horn
In your yellow hair.
poem by Lesbia Harford
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The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.
quote by John Adams
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Patience and perserverence have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
quote by John Quincy Adams
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Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
quote by John Quincy Adams
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The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset Darwin.
quote by Henry B. Adams
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Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
quote by John Adams
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You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.
quote by John Adams
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A government of laws, and not of men.
quote by John Adams
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In politics the middle way is none at all.
quote by John Adams
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A Quatrain
A quatrain fills a little space,
Although it's pretty small,
And oftentimes, as in this case,
It has no point at all.
poem by Franklin P. Adams
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I always knew I'd be in music in some sort of capacity. I didn't know if I'd be successful at it, but I knew I'd be doing something in it. Maybe get a job in a record store. Maybe even play in a band. I never got into this to be a star.
quote by Bryan Adams
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Fear is the foundation of most governments.
quote by John Adams
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