American Standard (Adams)


American Standard is an early ensemble work by noted American composer John Adams. The work is named for American Standard Brand appliances although Adams says that the title also reflects that the constituent movements are "indigenous musical forms" of the United States.
The piece in its entirety has only been recorded once for commercial release, by Adams himself. The commercial release was produced by Brian Eno and released on Eno's Obscure Records label in 1975. The recording was of a 23 March 1973 performance at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by the New Music Ensemble of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music of which Adams was director and was released together with two works by Christopher Hobbs and one by Gavin Bryars on an album called Ensemble Pieces.

Movements

It consists of three movements:
Adams himself notes that the first movement is "obviously a march, but… stripped down to a plodding pulse, with no melody or harmony" and that it sounds "like the retreat from battle of a badly wounded army ". All of the players play a B chord repeated about 60 times with an addition of what he calls "corny march rhythms". Adams felt that the piece was technically difficult to perform.
The middle movement, which includes slow tonal chords and a recorded sample of a preacher speaking, has achieved notability independent of American Standard as a whole. It is usually the only part of the work recorded or performed, and the only part for which published performance materials are available.
The final movement is an "arrangement or reworking" of Duke Ellington's jazz standard "Sophisticated Lady" that separates melody from harmony.