About this Piece

Frenzy is a one-movement symphony that in the course of its 20 minutes encompasses a variegated yet unified symphonic structure. Its title notwithstanding, the piece is generally buoyant and extrovert and postpones its real frenetic energy to the concluding moments. What makes Frenzy unique in comparison to my other works is its focus, almost to the point of obsession, on the development and transformation of small, vivid motives that continue to resurface in various guises throughout the piece. This kind of classic development treatment of motivic ideas—the German term “Durchführung” is familiar to most musicians—differs from the gradual “change-via-repetition” technique in my earlier, minimalist-influenced works. In fact, once completed, Frenzy revealed itself, much to the surprise of its composer, as a melding of the two approaches toward musical form. On the one hand, its rhythmic event horizon is still essentially pulse-driven, while on the other, its melodic world is about shape-shifting and the “spinning out” of ideas.

The opening bars present two contrasting gestures: a punctuated tattoo in the winds and brass and an urgent, muscular theme in the upper strings. Both these ideas reappear throughout the piece, always transformed in one way or another and yet always identifiable.

In place of a “slow movement” the music’s surface simply quiets down; density and forcefulness yield to a feeling of lightness and transparency. The pulse is still there, now carried along by a congenial interplay among the two harps and celesta while the strings limn a lyrical melody that floats above them.

The final section is indeed frenetic, with hard-driven, choppy string figures, tsunami-like waves of brass and madly scurrying woodwinds, all of which come together to earn the piece’s title.

Frenzy is dedicated to my longtime friend Simon Rattle, who conducted the first performance with the London Symphony Orchestra in March of 2024. —John Adams