Alarm Will Sound | "Scratchband" by John Adams performed by Alarm Will Sound @alarmwillsound | Uploaded August 2019 | Updated October 2024, 20 hours ago.
Follow AWS on Instagram @alarmwillsound
alarmwillsound.bandcamp.com/album/splitting-adams
The instrumentation of Scratchband is that of a hybrid of a rock band with the use of electric guitar, electric bass, drum set and amplified winds and synthesizers.
I noticed that the traditional "rock" instruments were capable of extraordinary power and virtuosity, but that these abilities were rarely if ever realized in commercial music. Technical "chops" displayed by even the greatest of rock musicians (a Jimi Hendrix or an Eric Clapton, for example) tended to rest comfortably within the accepted language of the tradition. Understanding and transcending this limitation may have been Frank Zappa’s most lasting contribution to the future development of the art. Zappa understood that the language of rock could be vastly expanded by an informed cross-fertilization from the world of classical music. He chose musicians for his bands who could move beyond the simple structures of popular music and respond to his experiments in rhythm and counterpoint with skill and audacity.
For listeners familiar with my recent music Scratchband will probably appear as a strange shotgun wedding, one that marries the busy, terrier-like activity of the Chamber Symphony to the pop timbres of the Ceiling/Sky score. As I write this note, the piece is barely more than half completed, so my comments are not unlike an attempt to fill in a full personality sketch on the basis of a single ultrasound scan. What strikes me about the piece, however, is the way in which minimalist gestures are beginning to reappear in my music after a significant absence.
After a frantic explosion of scales charging up and down the gamut in a garish panoply of constantly shifting modes, the music stabilizes in the key of B major, boogying back and forth across modal borders that suddenly and dramatically alter the color and mood of the action. Eventually this hyperactive energy levels off into a series of panels that introduce motivic material in a more formal "minimalist" guise. But the emotional underpinning here is far more volatile than in pieces from the 70’s or 80’s. Nevertheless this same volatility provides the stimulus for real virtuoso writing.
John Adams
Composed by John Adams
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Shot by Four/Ten Media
Alarm Will Sound:
Erin Lesser, flute
Christa Robinson, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet and saxophone
Elisabeth Stimpert, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Tim Leopold, trumpet
Matt Marks, French horn
Michael Clayville, trombone
Chris Thompson, percussion
Matt Smallcomb, percussion
John Orfe, piano
Courtney Orlando, violin and keyboard
Caleb Burhans, violin
Yuki Numata-Resnick, viola
Stefan Freund, cello
Miles Brown, bass
Alan Pierson, conductor and Artistic Director
Daniel Neumann, Audio Engineer
Gavin Chuck, Executive Director
Annie Toth, Managing Director
Nigel Maister, Theatrical Director
Jason Varvaro, Production Manager
Peter Ferry, Assistant Director of Artistic Planning
Chihiro Shibayama, Librarian
Tracy Mendez, Development Manager
Special thanks to Andrew Nogal (oboe) and Ryan Ferreira (guitar) for their contribution to the video.
Follow AWS on Instagram @alarmwillsound
alarmwillsound.bandcamp.com/album/splitting-adams
The instrumentation of Scratchband is that of a hybrid of a rock band with the use of electric guitar, electric bass, drum set and amplified winds and synthesizers.
I noticed that the traditional "rock" instruments were capable of extraordinary power and virtuosity, but that these abilities were rarely if ever realized in commercial music. Technical "chops" displayed by even the greatest of rock musicians (a Jimi Hendrix or an Eric Clapton, for example) tended to rest comfortably within the accepted language of the tradition. Understanding and transcending this limitation may have been Frank Zappa’s most lasting contribution to the future development of the art. Zappa understood that the language of rock could be vastly expanded by an informed cross-fertilization from the world of classical music. He chose musicians for his bands who could move beyond the simple structures of popular music and respond to his experiments in rhythm and counterpoint with skill and audacity.
For listeners familiar with my recent music Scratchband will probably appear as a strange shotgun wedding, one that marries the busy, terrier-like activity of the Chamber Symphony to the pop timbres of the Ceiling/Sky score. As I write this note, the piece is barely more than half completed, so my comments are not unlike an attempt to fill in a full personality sketch on the basis of a single ultrasound scan. What strikes me about the piece, however, is the way in which minimalist gestures are beginning to reappear in my music after a significant absence.
After a frantic explosion of scales charging up and down the gamut in a garish panoply of constantly shifting modes, the music stabilizes in the key of B major, boogying back and forth across modal borders that suddenly and dramatically alter the color and mood of the action. Eventually this hyperactive energy levels off into a series of panels that introduce motivic material in a more formal "minimalist" guise. But the emotional underpinning here is far more volatile than in pieces from the 70’s or 80’s. Nevertheless this same volatility provides the stimulus for real virtuoso writing.
John Adams
Composed by John Adams
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Shot by Four/Ten Media
Alarm Will Sound:
Erin Lesser, flute
Christa Robinson, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet and saxophone
Elisabeth Stimpert, clarinet
Michael Harley, bassoon
Tim Leopold, trumpet
Matt Marks, French horn
Michael Clayville, trombone
Chris Thompson, percussion
Matt Smallcomb, percussion
John Orfe, piano
Courtney Orlando, violin and keyboard
Caleb Burhans, violin
Yuki Numata-Resnick, viola
Stefan Freund, cello
Miles Brown, bass
Alan Pierson, conductor and Artistic Director
Daniel Neumann, Audio Engineer
Gavin Chuck, Executive Director
Annie Toth, Managing Director
Nigel Maister, Theatrical Director
Jason Varvaro, Production Manager
Peter Ferry, Assistant Director of Artistic Planning
Chihiro Shibayama, Librarian
Tracy Mendez, Development Manager
Special thanks to Andrew Nogal (oboe) and Ryan Ferreira (guitar) for their contribution to the video.
