iSound

Shaker Loops is Adams' first real masterpiece, and one of his most enduring scores ... This recording captures the work's brilliant melding of Minimalist motivic development and Neo-Romantic power.

--Pulse!

"Shaker Loops" was composed in the fall of 1978 and first performed on December 8 of that year by members of the San Francisco Conservatory's New Music Ensemble and has since become my most frequently performed composition. It is scored for 3 violins, 1 viola, 2 celli and 1 bass.

Although being in its own way an example of 'continuous music', "Shaker Loops" differs from most other works of its kind because it sees so much change within a relatively short amount of time. Also it avoids the formal and temporal purity of much 'minimal' music by not adhering to a single unbending tempo throughout. This less severe approach allows a freer movement from one level of energy to another, making a more dramatic experience of the form.