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John Adams

John Adams, born in 1947, is an American composer and conductor. He combines minimalism with pop and jazz influences. His best-known orchestral works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Shaker Loops and Harmonielehre. Adams also wrote operas which addressed political issues.

The musical ideas for Shaker Loops originate from a previous work for string quartet called Wavemaker. John Adams took phrases from Wavemaker and incorporated them into his new work Shaker Loops in 1978, now written for a string septet. He later arranged it for a string orchestra. The piece has lots of tremolo playing, which represents rippling water.

The elements of music to consider

Melody

The main melodic material is based on loops given to seven instruments. Each phrase is a different length and made up of varying beats, eg seven, eleven or thirteen. In movement 3, Loops and Verses, the focus is on the melodic material. It is still constructed using loops, and the cellos can be heard playing long lines simultaneously with muted violins.

Rhythm and metre

The music is in simple quadruple time but occasionally moves through different time signatures.

Some examples of this change in metre occur at bar 170, when the metre moves from 4/4 to 3/4 before returning to 4/4 at bar 179. The music then returns to 3/4 at bar 195 before returning once again to 4/4 at bar 203. After a bar of 3/4, the metre changes rapidly from 5/4 at bar 223 to 7/4 at bar 228, then has one bar of 4/4 at bar 231 before moving back to 3/4 again. Only a few bars later and the metre returns to 4/4.

Structure

There are two different versions of the score. One provides the performers with more autonomy as they are able to decide on the repetitive process, while the other version is fully notated. Adams specifies that the notated version is to be used for larger ensembles.

The piece has four movements:

1. Shaking and Trembling
2. Hymning Slews
3. Loops and Verses
4. A Final Shaking

In movement 1, the music becomes more rhythmically varied as it progresses. The note values become shorter, which produces a sense of shaking and trembling as the title suggests.

Instrumentation

The string septet is made up of seven players. It includes three violins, one viola, two cellos and one double bass. The piece was later arranged for a larger string orchestra.

There are different playing techniques across the four movements. In movement 1, the strings combine double stopping with repeated notes and quaver runs. Some of the strings play sul tasto. This technique involves playing over the finger board so that the timbre is softer and thinner. Rapid bow movements also characterise this movement before the players are instructed to use a different technique called spiccato. The technique involves bouncing the bow on the string while playing staccato.

In movement 2, the musicians play slow glissandi and are asked to play vibrato. By playing without vibrato, the string sound is pure and clear. It is an example of Adams returning the string sound back to its basic timbre.

The timbre of the violins is altered again in movement 3. They are instructed to play con sord, which means with a mute. It results in a sound which is dampened and softened.

In movement 4, the bowing movement is short and crisp with instructions for the music to be played at the point of the bow. Once again, mutes are added in certain places and the musicians are told not to accent the main beat of the bar referred to as the downbeat.

Texture, harmony and tonality

The texture changes continuously due to the repetition of the loops creating a polyphonic texture.

In movement 1, Shaking and Trembling, the texture builds up gradually. It begins with the first and second violins playing repeated semiquavers on notes G and C. The remaining instruments add layers to the texture by entering in turn. As more loops are played, new harmonies begin to sound and the music develops. The tonality moves from D minor to a complex chord of B♭, C, E♭ and F over an F in the bass part. These notes are repeated as semiquavers in the new key signature of five flats. The movement ends with a cluster chord on the notes E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭ and D♭.

The final movement, A Final Shaking, ends with four upper strings playing the natural overtones created by their strings over a soft pedalnote note played by the cellos and basses.