Adams Variations

The first version of what would become the first movement of my Sextet, this piece was written in 1994, on the occasion of a program on France-Musique devoted to the American composer John Adams. At that time, France was discovering Adams's music and several composers (Thierry Escaich, Jean-Louis Florentz, Pascal Zavaro, Nicolas Bacri, etc.) wanted to pay tribute to him by each writing a piece on the letters of his name. ADAMS in music gives La-ré-la-fa-mi - by virtue of the English correspondence between letters and notes - and it is on these five notes that all the pieces were built.

My score is therefore a short series of 6 variations on this motif accompanied by nods to minimalist music. We find rhythmic canons à la Steve Reich, the typical arpeggios of Philip Glass and harmonic formulas reminiscent of Michael Nyman. It is therefore a tribute not only to John Adams but also to all the American minimalist music that many composers were discovering at the beginning of the 90s.