John C. Adams: "Short Ride in a Fast Machine", a fanfare

To give a name to a musical work, the title is unusual, no doubt: "Short ride on a fast machine". What exactly does it mean? The question has been asked before. When its author, the American composer John Adams, was asked about the reason for such an unusual title for this exultant fanfare full of rhythm, he did not dwell on it and simply answered with another question: do you know what happens when someone invites you to race in a magnificent sports car and then you regret it?
There is no better answer.

John Coolidge Adams (1947 -)

John Coolidge Adams, born in Massachusetts in 1947, is the author of the famous and controversial opera Nixon in China, from 1987, which brought contemporary history to the opera, thus opening a new genre. In the same line, in the postmodern musical drama, the author has ventured into content such as the life and work of the inventor of the atomic bomb or the terrorist attacks of the last twenty years.

Initially a minimalist composer, the composer has also tackled chamber, orchestral and concertante music. Today, still active, Adams is still in demand by the most important orchestral ensembles as a provider of symphonic material.

Short Ride in a Fast Machine is one of two fanfares for orchestra commissioned from the composer by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1986.
It is an exuberant work, brilliantly written for a large orchestra, with boundless polyrhythmic energy. Along with the traditional sections of strings, winds and woodwinds, the work includes the participation of synthesizers. And the inescapable timpani are joined by triangles, Chinese box, xylophone, cymbals, bells, snare drum, bass drum, tantan, and tambourine. In short, a festival of percussion. 
If nowadays, one wants to provocatively "open" a program of contemporary music, there is nothing better than to start the show with these four minutes of "fast riding".

The performance is by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the American conductor and violinist Marin Alsop.