Harmonielehre

In "Harmonielehre," Adams added hints of Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone process to his own minimalist style (the German title, which means "the study of harmony," comes from a Schoenberg book about music). The first part of the piece was inspired by a dream wherein the composer saw an oil tanker on the San Francisco Bay suddenly take off like a rocket. In the second movement, Adams explores the mystic legend of the "Fisher King." The conclusion of the work comes from yet another Adams dream, involving his young daughter Emily — whom he saw riding through outer space on the shoulders of Johannes Eckhart, a German philosopher/theologian from the 1300s.