Harmonielehre

For the book by Arnold Schoenberg, see Arnold Schoenberg § Writings. For the book by Heinrich Schenker, see Harmony (Schenker).

Harmonielehre is a 40-minute orchestral composition by the American composer John Adams, composed in 1985. In his memoir, Adams wrote that the piece "was a statement of belief in the power of tonality at a time when I was uncertain about its future"[1] and that it was "a one-of-kind [sic] once-only essay in the wedding of fin-de-siècle chromatic harmony with the rhythmic and formal procedures of Minimalism".[2]

The composition's title, German for "study of harmony", is a reference to Arnold Schoenberg's 1911 music theory textbook of the same name, a study of tonal harmony.[3] Other theory texts titled Harmonielehre include those by Heinrich Schenker (1906) and Hugo Riemann (1893).

Adams has said that the piece was inspired by a dream he had in which he was driving across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and saw an oil tanker on the surface of the water abruptly turn upright and take off like a Saturn V rocket.[4] This dream and the composition of Harmonielehre shortly thereafter ended a writer's block Adams had been experiencing for 18 months.[5]

  1. ^ Adams, John (2008). Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life. London: Faber and Faber. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-571-23116-4. OCLC 961365919.
  2. ^ Adams p. 130.
  3. ^ "John Adams on Harmonielehre". Earbox. John Adams. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
  4. ^ Harmonielehre Archived 2010-05-17 at the Wayback Machine John Adams. Retrieved 2010-07-15
  5. ^ Adams, John. Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008, pp. 128-129.