A Study Of Harmony In John Adams' Orchestra Work

Due to the development of new compositional concepts and new compositional techniques,the understanding of "harmony" in the music industry has become broader and broader.The expansion of the concept of harmony led composers to seek more distinctive and individual sounds to establish their own style.The structure of the harmonic style is particularly important because it is almost equivalent to the establishment of an individual musical style.John Coolidge Adams(1947-),an American post-minimalism composer,is one of them.This paper is based on three representative works of John Adams in different periods of creation: Shaker Loops(1978,1983),Harmonielehre(1985)and On the Transmigration of Souls(2002),through the analysis of the composition of harmonic materials,the way of harmonic progress and the modern consciousness of harmonic aesthetics in the three works,In order to have a more in-depth exploration of the characteristics of John Adams personal harmony style.The article is divided into four parts: the first part mainly describes the purpose of the topic,the current situation of Chinese and foreign research,John Adams’ learning experience,creative experience,creative period division and the introduction of his works;The second part focuses on the analysis of the core materials in the three works of John Adams,mainly from four aspects: the central tone in the works,the centrality of the interval,the central consonance and the characteristics of the tone scale;The third part describes the way of harmony in John Adams’ works,mainly from the use of static harmony,the way of chord progression,the correlation of chords and so on.The fourth part is the analysis of the modern consciousness of harmony aesthetics in John Adams’ music works,mainly from the inheritance and development,the combination of technology and artistry.