Harmonielehre

Harmonielehre is a forty-minute orchestral composition by the American composer John Adams, composed in 1985. In his memoir, Adams stated that the piece "was a statement of belief in the power of tonality at a time when I was uncertain about its future"[1] and that it was "a one-of-kind [sic] once-only essay in the wedding of fin-de-siècle chromatic harmony with the rhythmic and formal procedures of Minimalism".[2]

For the book by Arnold Schoenberg, see Arnold Schoenberg § Writings. For the book by Heinrich Schenker, see Harmony (Schenker).

The composition's title, German for "study of harmony", is a reference to Arnold Schoenberg's 1911 music theory textbook of the same name, a study of tonal harmony.[3] Other theory texts titled "Harmonielehre" include those by Heinrich Schenker (1906) and Hugo Riemann (1893).

Adams has stated that the piece was inspired by a dream he had in which he was driving across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and saw an oil tanker on the surface of the water abruptly turn upright and take off like a Saturn V rocket.[4] This dream and the composition of Harmonielehre shortly thereafter ended a writer's block Adams had been experiencing for eighteen months.[5]

Movements

The composition is in three movements:

  1. First Movement
The first movement begins with the powerful repetition of chords in E minor in minimalist fashion. These chords form a recurring theme throughout the movement, interspersed with motoric episodes that use Schoenberg's harmonic progressions as chordal "gates" (a name coined by Adams to describe juxtapositions of harmonic areas in his music).[6] At the center of the arch-like 17-minute movement arises what Tom Service has called an "achingly expressive lyrical theme."[7]
  1. The Anfortas Wound
The brooding second movement, based on the legend of the Fisher King, shuns minimalist processes, favoring bleak Sibelius-like soundscapes, building inexorably slowly to twin climaxes of brutal dissonance, the second of which is drawn from the climactic sonority of the first movement of Gustav Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony.
  1. Meister Eckhardt and Quackie
The third movement, according to Adams, is inspired by a dream that he had about his infant daughter Emily, whom he and his wife had briefly nicknamed "Quackie".[3]

Instrumentation

The piece is scored for the following orchestra:[8]

Recordings

Uses

Harmonielehre appears in the True Detective TV series Church in Ruins (S02e06).[9] It also appears in the Modern Era soundtrack of the computer game Civilization IV,[10] along with several other pieces by Adams. It also appears on the I Am Love soundtrack.[11] The work was selected for inclusion in The Guardian's list of "50 Greatest Symphonies".[7] Dubstep musician duo Nero sample the beginning of the first movement in the second track of their 2011 album Welcome Reality, "Doomsday".

References
  1. Adams, John (2008). Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life. London: Faber and Faber. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-571-23116-4. OCLC 961365919.
  2. Adams p. 130.
  3. "John Adams on Harmonielehre". Earbox. John Adams. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
  4. Harmonielehre Archived 2010-05-17 at the Wayback Machine John Adams. Retrieved 2010-07-15
  5. Adams, John. Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008, pp. 128-129.
  6. Phrygian Gates Archived 2011-06-07 at the Wayback Machine John Adams. Retrieved 2011-04-15
  7. " "Symphony guide: John Adams's Harmonielehre," The Guardian, 11 March 2014, accessed January 19, 2018.
  8. Adams, John (1998-09-23). "Harmonielehre". Earbox - John Adams. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
  9. True Detective Soundtrack, retrieved 2019-01-22
  10. Grahckheuhl (2017-12-13), Civilization 4 Soundtrack: Harmonielehre: Part I, archived from the original on 2021-12-21
  11. IMDB (2010-10-18), I Am Love trailer, retrieved 2016-10-18
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