Short Ride in a Fast Machine

“Incessant pulsation” is, for John Adams, the main feature which differentiates American music from all others. His 1986 “fanfare for orchestra”, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, is a prime example of that restlessly pulsing style, evoking the teeming urban landscapes of an America locked into an unrelenting fast-forward trajectory. Adams describes the five-minute piece as an attempt to capture how it feels “when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn’t.” The initial rhythmic template is established by a chattering woodblock, with clarinets and trumpets quickly adding layers of their own. Other instrumental groups, including a large battery of percussion, catch the music’s tail as it barrels irresistibly forward in a whirl of contending, cross-energising textures and patterns. Thunderous drumbeats signal a looming instability, before a gleaming trumpet intervention imperiously steers Short Ride in a Fast Machine to an exhilarating and ultimately safe conclusion.