John Adams’s Nixon in China: Musical Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives by Timothy A. Johnson (review)

Abstract

John Adams's in Musical Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives. By Timothy A. Johnson. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. [xv, 278 p. ISBN 9781409426820. $99.95.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.Richard Nixon's diplomatic mission the People's Republic of China in 1972 was one of the most important political events of the twentieth century, as it marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the emerging superpower since its transformation into a Communist nation. The meetings held between and his counterpart Mao Zedong were an important part of the former's strategy of detente with the Communist world. John Adams's opera in China-premiered fifteen years later in 1987-was one of the most important musical events of the twentieth century, as it was the composer's first foray in the world of opera and helped secure his place as one of the preeminent composers in the United States.For scholars of diplomacy and political science who wish examine Nixon's visit, the amount of secondary source material is almost embarrassing in its magnitude. The landscape is altogether different for those who wish study Adams's opera. While there are a number of articles and essays about it, it had not been the subject of extensive, monograph-length discussion. Timothy Johnson's new book, John Adams's Nixon in China: Musical Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives, aims correct that deficiency. Johnson had focused his previous work on bridging the gap between and other disciplines. His first two books-Foundations of Diatonic Theory: A Mathematically Based Approach Music Fundamentals (Emeryville, CA: Key College Publishing, 2003) and Baseball and the Music of Charles Ives: A Proving Ground (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2004)-paired theory with mathematics and baseball history. This new book returns Johnson an area he began studying more than twenty years ago, when he wrote the first published dissertation on the of John Adams (Harmony in the Music of John Adams: From Phrygian Gates in China, Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1991).In the present book, Johnson sets out to correlate historical events with those depicted onstage and highlight the actions, emotions, feelings, and motivations depicted in the opera through music (p. 5). By and large he succeeds. In comparing historical events the music, Johnson utilizes two primary methods of musical analysis that focus on metrical dissonance and neo-Riemannian harmonic transformations. When using the former, he borrows from Harald Krebs's notational system. The choice analyze Adams's as containing metrical dissonance is a wise one given that the composer consistently builds offsetting layers of time into his music. The predilection for this stylistic feature is as evident in his 2005 opera Doctor Atomic as it is in in China.The latter method of analysis provides a method through which Adams's harmonic language can examined both accurately and rewardingly. Adams has a decidedly twentieth-century bent his harmonic language, yet it defies serial analysis. Rather, he works largely in triads that shiftslowly over time create the foundational building blocks upon which his formal structures rest. The neo-Riemannian analysis is crafted precisely work with these triads, and Johnson does an excellent job of using the tools of the still-new and exciting system. In examining Richard Nixon's News aria in act 1, scene 1, for instance, Johnson points out the shifts from A-flat major F minor, back the original tonality and then C minor (p. 93). The neo- Riemannian system analyzes these changes as simple transformations from one chord the next based on common tones. Johnson then combines these transformations with the significance he has attached each tonality crafta broader semiotic picture of the aria.What makes this approach so successful is the fact that the analysis is never opaque. …