Tempo

Table of Contents - April 2012 - Volume 66, Issue 260  

Research Article

PLURAL STYLES, PERSONAL STYLE: THE MUSIC OF THOMAS ADÈS

Dominic Wells

Abstract

The eclectic taste of Thomas Adès has led writers to comment upon the plethora of influences in his music. Adès himself has made no secret of such composers, frequently performing the works of those who have been a particular source of inspiration to him. While the present study initially acknowledges this vast array of disparate styles, the second section considers the extent to which Adès is influencing himself. It identifies certain trends that are evolving across his oeuvre, and central to this is the distinctive treatment of a pair of intervals, evident in the opening bars of almost a quarter of his published works to date.

While the influences of others remain undoubtedly significant to any discussion of Adès, it is now also appropriate to examine the way in which some of the composer's own characteristic gestures form musical relationships between his works.

Dominic Wells, having received a Doctoral Fellowship, is now in the closing stages of his PhD at Durham University, which focuses specifically on the music of James MacMillan. His present research interests include issues of religion, modernism and postmodernism, especially with regard to contemporary British and American composers. He is currently a Broadcasting Assistant at BBC Radio 3.