Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a 1986 orchestral work by John Adams. Adams applies the description "fanfare for orchestra" to this work and to the earlier Tromba Lontana (1986). The former is also known as Fanfare for Great Woods because it was commissioned for 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?" The work is an 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." A typical performance of Short Ride lasts about four and a half minutes. Popularity, performance and cancellations The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra premiered Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The fanfare was the 10th most-performed orchestral work composed in the last twenty-five years, in 2008. The work was performed at the BBC Proms in 2004, 2014 and 2019. Scheduled performances at the Last Night of the Proms were cancelled twice: in 1997 after the death of Princess Diana, and in 2001 after the September 11 attacks. Lawrence Odom transcribed the piece for concert band. The piano duo of Christina and Michelle Naughton open their album American Postcard with the piece, in a two piano arrangement by Preben Antonsen. Orchestra The piece is scored for the following large orchestra: Woodwinds 2 piccolos 2 flutes 2 oboes 1 English horn 2 (optional 4) clarinets in A and B 3 bassoons 1 contrabassoon Brass 4 horns in F 4 trumpets in C 3 trombones 1 tuba Percussion timpani Keyboards 2 synthesizers with "analog brass" preset (optional) Strings violins I, II violas cellos double basses Style and analysis Harmonic devices Short Ride in a Fast Machine, true to its minimalist heritage, utilizes a tonal language that, according to Catherine Pellegrino, "is not as neatly defined and predictable as that of common-practice tonality". Adams is known (especially in Phrygian Gates) for the concept of "gating", which is the process of suddenly changing certain pitches in a harmony, often based on different modes. As seen in Example 1, the initial pitch collection of D, E, and A, as scored in the clarinets and optional synthesizers, slowly transforms over time by adding pitches. This process is a concept of changing harmony, which Adams describes as "bring[ing] in a new key area almost on the sly, stretching the ambiguity out over such a length of time that the listener would hardly notice that a change had taken place". By measure 52, the aggregate of pitches suddenly shifts as the E major chord is replaced by a B-flat major chord. Meanwhile, the original pitch collection continues to exist as an unchanging force. This process is the main harmonic