Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life

· Faber & Faber
5.0
1 review
Ebook
200
Pages
Eligible
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

' Sometimes I liken the creative act to that of being a good gardener. The musical material itself, the harmonies, rhythms, the timbres and tempi, are seeds you have planted. Composing, bringing forth the final formal arrangement of these elements, is often a business of watching them grow, knowing when to nourish and water them and when to prune and weed.'

A book unlike anything ever written by a composer, part memoir and part description of the creative process, Hallelujah Junction is an absorbing journey through the musical landscape of John Adams, one of today's most admired and frequently performed composers. A musician of enormous range and technical command, Adams has built a huge audience worldwide through the immediacy and sincerity of his music, such as his Pulitzer prize-winning memorial for the September 11 attack On The Transmigration of Souls.

Hallelujah Junction isn't so much an autobiography as a fascinating journey through the musical landscape of his life and times, centred around the three highly controversial operas based on social and political issues he has written in the past twenty-five years - Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and, most recently, Dr Atomic.

Ratings and reviews

5.0
1 review

About the author

John Adams was born in Massachusetts in 1947. He is the composer of numerous acclaimed works, including Harmonielehre, Nixon in China, Naive and Sentimental Music, El Niño, The Death of Klinghoffer, The Gospel According to the Other Mary and a memorial for the victims of September 11, On The Transmigration of Souls, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.