A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Bay Area Book of the Year A book un... read full description
A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Bay Area Book of the Year A book un... read full description
reviews
Feb 14, 2009
Brett
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It is common practice to compare a composer's prose with his music. Milton Babbitt essays are just as thorny as his music. Subordinate clauses intermingle together until the true meaning of his sentences are lost. Morton Feldman composed music of amazing quiet and solitude, yet he was notoriously loud and extroverted in person. And somehow his writings allows these two personalities to coexist, so that his absurd and clever humor somehow touches you deeply. John Cage's writings are almost more i
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Jan 07, 2009
Nick
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When I read someone's memoir, what I am most interested in learning is what kind of person the writer might be. A select few describe their failures along with their achievements, and John Adams is one of that small group. (Pitcher David Wells, of all people, is another!) If I had never listened to any of his compositions (only what I can find recorded, unfortunately), I might miss some of his work after reading his comments on his work. Adams also illuminates the work of composition, at least
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Oct 25, 2011
Emily
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John Adams is a rock star. The first time I heard his music was the last day of an opera class at UW-Mad. taught by an uninspired professor--the prof "generously" tossed in some modern and contemporary composers as an afterthought. When I heard a snippet of Nixon in China I was completely blown away. It was a seriously a religious experience. I had never heard anything like it and never knew opera could sounds this way--so moving, so fresh, so Different. I never forgot John Adams
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Feb 13, 2009
Matt
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The release of this memoir was well timed with my discovery of Adams' music - though I'd been aware of a few of his pieces previously, it was when a friend introduced me to "Grand Pianola Music" last spring that I totally fell in love with his work. Adams' work contains many of the formal innovations of the minimalists, electronic music pioneers, and other experimental composers - yet, unlike of his contemporaries, he doesn't shy away from direct emotional appeal within his music.
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Mar 15, 2011
Qi
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Stephen Jay Gould, the challenging thinker about evolutionary science, reminds us that our culture has two canonical modes for trending. One is "advances to something better as reasons for celebration", the other is "declines to abyss as sources of lamentation (and hankering after a mysthical golden age of 'good old days')." Classic music, defined in my mind as those classic cannons such as Mozart and Beethoven, perhaps Brahms and Siberlius as well, were never to be supercede
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Jan 26, 2009
Bruce
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Hallelujah Junction is John Adams’ autobiography, and as autobiographies go, it’s a fairly good one. Adams uses a pleasant, bemused tone to describe the signposts that mark his development as an artist and his principle influences as he rejects serialism (no small rejection in the late ‘60s/early 70’s), explores and rejects the John Cage-influenced aleatoric ‘music’ (e.g., random sounds or sounds randomly generated that are labeled as music when given a definitive start and end point), and ulti
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Feb 02, 2009
Wilsontherocker
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Hallelujah Junction is an engaging look into the life of a contemporary Classical composer. Adams is constantly insightful and open about the nature of his work. Throughout, he remains humble about his talent but never self-effacing. When necessary, he answers his critics and occasionally concedes to them.
The one thing I wish I'd gotten more insight into is the business side of being a composer. One never really gets a sense of how hard Adams was working to get recognized in his earl More...
The one thing I wish I'd gotten more insight into is the business side of being a composer. One never really gets a sense of how hard Adams was working to get recognized in his earl More...
Nov 28, 2008
Kenneth
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Much needed: as I have been bogged down a bit by teaching, and by reading too much philosophy, I found Adams' autobiography inspiring and grounding. He's also a fine writer, and many of the scenes from his days in Cambridge and, later, in Berkeley are delicious. A weakness might lie in the chapters detailing his operas (he not only renders them, often too much at length, into prose, but he goes to great pains to fend off his critics), but these chapters may prove invaluable to young composers. I
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Feb 17, 2009
George
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This is as good an autobiography as you'll get from a composer. It would be a great read even for someone uninterested in his music -- except of course for some chapters which are music specific.
Adams's writing is evocative, funny, self-deprecating, and illuminating. I felt like I was living his life -- or as if he were writing the story of MY life. To use Bob Dylan's words, "like it was written in my soul."
The great thing about Hallelujah Junction is that Adam More...
Adams's writing is evocative, funny, self-deprecating, and illuminating. I felt like I was living his life -- or as if he were writing the story of MY life. To use Bob Dylan's words, "like it was written in my soul."
The great thing about Hallelujah Junction is that Adam More...
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Nov 28, 2008
Jeff
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John Adams really became a composer after moving to San Francisco in the mid-70s, the same time I was living there. I've been following his work every since, and it's been gratifying to see him gain the success and visibility his work deserves. This autobiography provides a lot of fresh insight into Adams' compositional process and into the kind of human being he is. It's fun to realize that the inspiration for one of his works, which programs notes originally claimed came from a "dream,
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Nov 29, 2008
Chris
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I won a signed copy of this book from a contest on John Adams' website and didn't really expect much from it. While I appreciate much of his music, I wasn't sure how interesting it would be to read the memoirs of a living modern composer. It turns out that he's had quite an interesting life indeed, at least through the parts I've read so far (up to the mid 70s).
Nov 21, 2008
Jim
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I gained significant insight into John Adams' life and composing from this memoir. I have listened to much of his output, and heard him conduct on several occasions with the Cleveland Orchestra. Once I heard him speak on a panel at the Rock Hall in Cleveland. It is quite remarkable that an American composer, whom I can imagine in my living room in a friendly conversation, and who has been willing to put himself on the line politically, and is open to the popular music of his day, is nevertheless
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Mar 04, 2009
Kathleen
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This is a pretty solid, well-written memoir from John Adams. I would have given it 3.5 stars if I could, but 3 it is. The biggest detriment to the book is its lack of cohesion. Adams repeated a lot of information, stating something in a way that would imply this was the reader's first time encountering a particular tidbit, when really it had been introduced in a previous chapter. Within chapters, though, everything seemed to flow well. I enjoyed learning more about Adams's works with which I am
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Oct 17, 2009
Rob
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John Adams is a leading (in my opinion the best) American composer of modern classical music. I have had the pleasure of meeting him and hearing him speak on the curent state of modern music. This is his autobiography, which I found very well-written and fascinating.
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Apr 24, 2010
David
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America's most important active composer writes with erudition, grace, and self-deprecating humor. (I use an pencilled asterisk to mark the funny bits in the books I read: multiple marginal stars here.) He walks us through some of the major works, deepening our appreciation of familiar works, and enticing us to sample the unfamiliar. I hope that the book encourages more listeners to give a listen to Adams, be it the brief piano piece "China Gates" or the memorial choral work On the
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Jan 10, 2011
Caitlin
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Absolutely loved this book. While it's interesting as a composer-bio for fans, what's even more interesting is its value as a documentation of compositional process - not in a detailed sense, but the way he doesn't just say "I wrote this and it was performed" but analyses how the work came about, his experience of it in rehearsal and performance and his view of strengths and weakenesses with hindsight, is fantastic. Also useful is his descriptions of collaborations with other artists -
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Aug 07, 2011
Larry
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A dandy book, one that would repay a repeated reading -- which I may just do.
Nov 24, 2008
Patrick
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An interesting read, particularly for fans of Adams' work. While the "biographical" detail is fairly minimal, particularly with more recent years, Adams' discussions on his own compositions, the works of others, and trends in modern orchestral music are enlightening.
Oct 06, 2008
Ron
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As you would expect, there's plenty of backstory into the creation of Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and other major works, including Adams' most recent opera, Doctor Atomic. For me, though, some of the most important passages were the ones in which Adams spoke of the struggle to carve out a space for himself in which he could find his own voice as a composer, and where he discussed that struggle in relationship to what was going on in classical music during the latter half of the 20t
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Nov 06, 2008
Birdlashes
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Full disclosure: I only read the first half of this book before I returned it to the library, because I was interested in Adams's early electronic music, his thoughts about Cage, and how he ultimately came to his "minimalist" style. But, for any fan of Adams, or classical music, this is a surprisingly good read! Revealing, conversational, well-written, and thoughtful. Very entertaining...
May 05, 2011
Nell
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Picked this up again as a reward for getting halfway through Grant. The earlier chapters cheerfully recount his experiments with clunky homemade synthesizers and chance music, and they are much more entertaining than the later chapters. The later episodes end up sounding a little self-important. (Then again, can one write a memoir without sounding self-important?)
May 28, 2010
Mimi
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I completely enjoyed this autobiography describing the process of composing music by one of my favorite contemporary composers. Sometimes it is very dense writing and I found myself reading some sections over and over. He goes into detail about his own compositions as well as most other contemporary composers and their predecessors.
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May 30, 2011
I've heard several of his operas and like what I experienced. I didn't know he wrote an autobio.His writng is just as insightful as his operas and musical pieces. He explained the background to "Nixon in China" as well as "Doctor Atomic." His circle of influences, to me, were suprising! Good book!
Feb 11, 2009
Alex
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I liked this autobiography until he got to the point where he gained his confidence as a composer, and then it lost me. John Adams should have that confidence, he's one of the finest composers alive with the broadest range within a recognizable "sound" and he speaks to that in not uncertain terms.
Mar 17, 2009
Kurt
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This book has great insight into the process and challenges of a contemporary composer. As a big fan of his music, I thought the insights into his creative growth and process were great.
Jan 01, 2009
Maureen
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Fascinating account by minimalist composer John Adams (Nixon in China, Death of Klinghoffer) on how his operas are imagined and brought to life, as well as a tableau of modern music.
Jan 10, 2009
Kayleigh
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I did enjoy this book, even though it took me a month and a half to read it, sadly. It gave some really interesting insights into Adams' works and his perspective as a composer.
Nov 07, 2008
Carol
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Like classical music, this book is alternately interesting and slow. But a great peek into the mind of a successful genius.
