Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Cover of the score edition by Boosey & Hawkes

Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a 1986 orchestral work by John Adams. Adams applies the description "fanfare for orchestra" to this work and to the earlier Tromba Lontana (1986).[1] The former is also known as Fanfare for Great Woods because it was commissioned for the Great Woods Festival of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.[2]

As a commentary on the title, Adams inquires, "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn't?"[3] The work is an example of Adams's postminimal style, which is utilized in other works like Phrygian Gates, Shaker Loops, and Nixon in China.[4] This style derives from minimalism as defined by the works of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, although it proceeds to "make use of minimalist techniques in more dramatic settings."[5]

A typical performance of Short Ride lasts about four and a half minutes.

  1. ^ Short Ride in a Fast Machine, earbox.com, John Adams's web site
  2. ^ Mauskapf, Michael (2009). "The American Orchestra as Patron and Presenter, 1945–Present: A Selective Discography". Notes. 66 (2): 381–393. doi:10.1353/not.0.0233. JSTOR 40539477. S2CID 191595812. ProQuest 1111258.
  3. ^ Michael Steinberg, "Short Ride in a Fast Machine", in The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer, ed. Thomas May, (Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Amadeus Press, 2006), 108.
  4. ^ Kleppinger, Stanley V. (2001). "Metrical Issues in John Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine". Indiana Theory Review. 22 (1): 65–81. JSTOR 24054248.
  5. ^ Heisinger, Brent (1989). "American Minimalism in the 1980s". American Music. 7 (4): 430–447. doi:10.2307/3051914. JSTOR 3051914.