Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986) is one of two works in John Adams's Two Fanfares for Orchestra alongside Tromba Lontana. It is also known as Fanfare for Great Woods because it was commissioned by the Great Woods Festival of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. 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?" This work is an iconic example of Adams's postminimal style, which is utilized in other works like Phrygian Gates, Shaker Loops, and Nixon in China. 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."
Read more about Short Ride In A Fast Machine: Reception and Performance
Famous quotes containing the words short, ride, fast and/or machine:
“In a virtuous and free state, no rewards can be so pleasing to sensible minds, as those which include the approbation of our fellow citizens. My great pain is, lest my poor endeavours should fall short of the kind expectations of my country.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Don’t worry about a sugar planter. Give him a horse and he’ll ride to his own funeral.”
—Curtis Siodmak (1902–1988)
“Unhappie Verse, the witnesse of my unhappie state,
Make thy selfe fluttring wings of thy fast flying
Thought,”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
“Much that is natural, to the will must yield.
Men manufacture both machine and soul,
And use what they imperfectly control
To dare a future from the taken routes.”
—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)