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:
“For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“And no one knows what’s yet to come.
For Patrick Pearse had said
That in every generation
Must Ireland’s blood be shed.
From mountain to mountain ride the fierce horsemen.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide
In this small course which birth draws out to death,”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
“There is no question but that if Jesus Christ, or a great prophet from another religion, were to come back today, he would find it virtually impossible to convince anyone of his credentials ... despite the fact that the vast evangelical machine on American television is predicated on His imminent return among us sinners.”
—Peter Ustinov (b. 1921)