January 30 - February 5: Listening Assignment (remember that listening assignments apply to the weeks during which the listening is assigned.)

John Adams

• Read this article about the composer: https://www.mydso.com/dso-kids/learn-and-listen/composers/john-adams
• Click the picture of the composer on the page and listen to the pronunciation of their name and say it three times out loud.
• What era did the composer write in? (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary)
• What are three things you learned from the composer's biography that you liked?
• Listen to "China Gates" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY1PeH9fg5A
• Listen to 5 minutes of "On the Transmigration of Souls" (in honor of 2001 NYC attack victims): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwoasXzLdVY

In an interview, Adams explained: "I want to avoid words like 'requiem' or 'memorial' when describing this piece because they too easily suggest conventions that this piece doesn't share. If pressed, I'd probably call the piece a 'memory space.' It's a place where you can go and be alone with your thoughts and emotions. The link to a particular historical event – in this case to 9/11 – is there if you want to contemplate it. But I hope that the piece will summon human experience that goes beyond this particular event."

According to the composer, "Transmigration means 'the movement from one place to another' or 'the transition from one state of being to another.' But in this case I meant it to imply the movement of the soul from one state to another. And I don’t just mean the transition from living to dead, but also the change that takes place within the souls of those that stay behind, of those who suffer pain and loss and then themselves come away from that experience."