Earbox.com has long been the go-to source for information on the works of composer John Adams and has now received a makeover, including the addition of a blog from the composer. The first few posts have already caught the attention of The New Yorker's Alex Ross, who writes, "Few artists are as engagingly forthright in their interviews and writings. Adams has now started up a blog on his home site, with the promising name Hell Mouth."
Earbox.com has long been the go-to source for information on the works of composer John Adams. The site, the title of which aptly matches that of the 1999 10-CD Nonesuch retrospective of Adams's work, has now received a makeover. Details on and sound clips of all of his compositions are there, in an even more streamlined format, as are interviews he's given and major articles written about him and his work over the years. Perhaps the most intriguing new addition to the site: a blog from the composer titled, in inimitable Adams fashion, Hell Mouth.
That the composer is also a writer of the highest order is no surprise to those who have read his memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, which was released late last year and was selected a New York Times Most Notable Book of the Year. Now, with Hell Mouth, readers can enjoy Adams's insights on a whole range of topics, from his "composer’s survival kit for the first rehearsal of an orchestra piece" to his most recent entry on the effects of the unavoidable glare of Fox News on a recent transcontinental flight.
The first few posts have already elicited comments from the likes of conductor David Robertson and composer Derek Bermel, among others, and have caught the attention of Alex Ross, The New Yorker's music critic, who has made note of the blog in his own Unquiet Thougts blog for newyorker.com. "John Adams, the composer of Nixon in China and Doctor Atomic, may be a living classic, but he doesn’t talk like one," writes Ross. "Few artists are as engagingly forthright in their interviews and writings. Adams has now started up a blog on his home site, with the promising name Hell Mouth."
Decide for yourself by visiting earbox.com.
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