John Adams may be best known as an agent of minimalism, but he didn’t become America’s most successful living composer by remaining static as the world changes around him. “Adams moved years ago far beyond the basic chords, reiterative melodies and pulsating beat of that musical language.” Why the change in harmonic thinking? Put simply, he “began to feel that the minimalism was like cubism, limited in its potential. My needs are enormous. I need expressiveness, shock, surprise, high energy.”