John Zorn is renowned as a prolific and fast-working composer, but even by his standards his latest outpouring is remarkable.
Adamo is a spirited, fast-witted composer, and if he can stop himself from writing more Merchant and Ivory sing-alongs he ought to have a major career.
The eight short movements (which the group recently recorded on a Glass disc) include fast ones featuring the composer's trademark ostinato patterns and pulsing energy and poignant slower ones variously offering a soulful cello melody, a harmonically rich, choralelike episode and a haunting violin solo.
There will also be a premiere of a quintet by the inventive and fast-rising young American composer Sean Shepherd.
Schubert, one of the fastest of great composers, had, for example, an almost reverential habit of slowing and controlling his pen when real inspiration struck.
Shostakovich's unusual three movement slow-fast-fast symphony is rooted in the composer's history.
THE talented 26-year-old Arab-American composer MOHAMMED FAIROUZ is fast establishing himself as a prominent new voice, creating works that blend Middle Eastern and Western elements.
Yet comparing these composers, who were fast friends from different generations, misses the point.
Moving to a piano backstage, Jimmy begins "Fake Your Way to the Top," one of the many fast-boiling numbers that the composer Henry Krieger and the lyricist Tom Eyen wrote for the original show, which was directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett and opened on Broadway twenty-five yeago ago this month.
With its rotating motion and its chunky design, the gadget looks like a cross between a kinetic sculpture and a toy, but when you watch Bluhme sample everything from a smashed beer can to a ball bouncing, and even some celery being munched, the gears in your brain will be the things XOXX Composer begins spinning fastest.
