Doctor Atomic and His Gadget: Composing the American Mythology

What this episode covers

Known for moving American concert music away from academic modernism and toward a more expansive humanist musical language, Adams brings wide ranging creative insight to his Tanner Lectures. As well as his renowned orchestral and choral work and politically charged operas, Adams’ recent memoir, “Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life,” has been lauded as an explication of the creative process and was named a New York Times Notable Book. In his teaching, writing and composition, Adams has been hailed as a “philosopher/craftsman, attempting to reflect and render the truth as he observes and feels it, in all its complexity and its simplicity.” In the second of his Tanner lectures, Adams discusses how signal events in a nation's history can rise to the mythic level and why, despite controversies, he regards these mythic events as rich and legitimate material for musical and dramatic treatment.

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.