Word: harmonium
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...writing minimalist essays in broken chords and chugging rhythms, has evolved a more flexible, conventional tonal language, fleshed out with references to past masters (Debussy, Beethoven, Richard Strauss) and even Glenn Miller, as the dramatic situation demands. There has always been a theatricality about Adams' music -- the 1981 Harmonium was a vivid choral setting of poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson -- and in Nixon its dramatic qualities have flowered. The figures are sharply characterized: Nixon (James Maddalena), for example, is a gruff baritone whose music is often stiff and halting, while Chairman Mao (John Duykers) is cast...
...play will surely get some questions rolling in your mind-- Is equality possible? Have we progressed from the days of Ali Baba?--but it does not fulfill all its other duties as a piece of art. The live music played onstage is melodically enchanting: a synthesizer, harmonium, tambours, tors, but fails in its overall desired effect, costumes are also intriguing parts of a production that sets up a good plot, has lively and talented actors, but fails in its overall desired effect...
...Royal Palace in Amsterdam last May, Glass's newest music-theater piece, The Photographer, was premiered at a command performance for Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. And in Chicago this summer, 10,000 listeners at Grant Park lustily cheered a performance of Adams' powerful 1981 choral piece, Harmonium. "When I was a student," says Adams, "I thought that if I wrote something that was attractive there must be something wrong with it. Now I feel there are a lot of people out there actually waiting for my next piece...
...19th century works, making them ideal entry points for the new collector, but not for jittery investors. Consider these risks: Robert Frost brings 25% less than he did a decade ago, Hemingway is barely holding, and Faulkner is sluggish. On the other hand, Wallace Stevens' rare first volume, Harmonium, $2 when published in 1923, can bring $800. The far more recent works of John Updike, John Cheever and Saul Bellow have done nearly as well. Some sharp collectors bought John Gardner's first novel, The Resurrection (1972), for cut-rate prices on bookshop remainder tables after the author...