Shaker Loops (Shaking and Trembling) by John Adams

[xplode16]

@technoshitor

this is a modern/contemporary piece. It sounds awkward because there are so many parts and each part generally has between 3-5 notes. Its just an incredible amount of counting you have to do.

[Lerofey]

Можно и почище играть. Строй плавает.

[Dangles1989]

Awesome work :)

[belindalibrarian]

love Adams and this piece in particular. You all did a great job of playing it. :D

[technoshitor]

sounds awful and out of key!! awful...

[lithiumjimmy]

The more of John Adams work I hear the more I want to hear.

[human8128]

Absolutely brilliant - Great piece and great performance. It is so uplifting to not only hear one of my favorite composers - but that there is a large enough collective of young musicians that are interested in him. Next project I recommend Frank Zappa, Steve Reich or Arvo Part. ;-)

[undersolo]

I have just started listening to Adams and I like the way this particular piece is conducted (all the drama is there).

[NavinJohnson90]

Awesome song- and is that Tim Heidecker conducting?

[Orpheus1356]

lol no its matt cmiel

[jakjonsun]

impressive conducting . . . I'd lose beat one in about 15 seconds

[Thumelikar]

"Barfly" -Sountrack. Super. 5*

[yokatipunero]

cIV!

[Freshlix123]

true :D ... Modern Age

[TibbsTV]

What a magnificent piece, and great performance everyone!

[superdeluca1993]

wow

[ihatejazz2000]

All I can say is goose bumps. Man, I'm floored.  Made my day seeing these kids play. F'in Awesome.

[TomSwirly]

Wow, these are all teenagers, right?!

Top of the line performance of this excellent piece, and what a great experience for a kid to have!

[sugarhed]

Ahhh this reminds me of the one year where the music staff made us play more Late Romantic/Modern pieces like Debussy (Nuages), Stravinsky(The Firebird) and Shostakovich (String Quartet No. 8). Let me just say it was more liberating playing those pieces than playing some banal concerto by Tschaikovsky or a movement from a Brahms symphony.

[ChrisspacePatti]

If I had had to guess, the conductor was a techno geek who was super into Civ 4 and wanted to do something for the game itself when he was blowing off his homework. I remember some of the choirus geeks back in my high school playing some tunes from the X-Men movies at the end of my senior year. Chances are they've all become successful enterpernuers by now...while I work at a stinking job I hate, being who I don't want to be 40 hours a week for life. Let that be a lesson to every joc out there!

[redflags123]

I love this video. It takes enormous courage and skill for a professor to guide his pupils to learn and perform a piece like this. Kudos to all involved and a hearty thanks for bringing this video to YouTube!

[Matthewcmiel]

I'd just like to point out that there were no professors or teachers involved in this project whatsoever. It is from a new music ensemble of teenagers. No one performing is over 18, and the "head" of the ensemble was barely 18 at the time of this video. Now I'm all mature at the grand old age of 19...

[redflags123]

Well, more the merit to them for courage and artistic maturity! The world is yours, thank God!

[gab1279]

Wow, very impressive. Young people playing young music...I love it! I looked you guys up on the web - curious how this group got started...were you guys all in orchestra together in school, how did it come to be? The group is fantastic!

[Matthewcmiel]

Well, I went crazy one day.

I realized that every time I shared music with my friends, I was able to get people interested in modern music. I then thought, why not put together a whole show?

Then I convinced people to do it with me. We started small, a lot of duets etc. but by my final year we had close to 50 members playing in the concert. Now it has passed on, and soon will pass on again!

[BergerKing064]

@Matthewcmiel Much respect for you. Me and a friend tried to make a startup of talented teenagers in the Bay Area to get a pure youth orchestra like this together, but it fell flat when no one could make it to rehearsals.

[boringname05]

No, as far as I remember, it is a piece for a string orchestra.

[jetlaggp]

Stupid question, but is there a clarinet part for this at all? And how difficult is it?

[Orcas1250]

I really love this piece, and it is well played here. But I'm pretty sure I've never seen such strange conducting.

[jabber12345]

If you take a look at the original score you will see why there is this "strange conducting". The original version is composed in small modules and submodules repeated until the conductor gives the performers numbered cues to change to the next module. In fact, the first movement has not meter, only the single metronome marking quarter = 144.

[Keytaster]

you're right, and because this piece was misinterpreted so often John Adams wrote it out :-) Watch "SummerFest 2002: John Adams: A Precise Process" That's some interesting stuff...

[mrazm]

An interesting bit of trivia: an excerpt from this piece was used in a scene from the 1987 movie Barfly starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.

[drum866]

Here's another one :p John Adams' music (including this fascinating piece) features heavily in the computer game, Civilization IV.

[Toyboy789]

A true classic of modern American music! I have this track as part of Adams' Earbox set, but have never heard it live . . . thanks so much for the post!

[LorenzoLassek]

Well played, Im impressed, that you are in time with this conducting.

but I want to see the orchestra and not the conductor