Dovetailing in John Adams’s “Chain to the Rhythm”

Minimalist composers have used the overlapping technique of musical “dovetailing” since the 1970s. Dovetailing can be thought of as a method of connecting neighboring formal sections of a work, allowing smooth transitions through an overlap of preceding and subsequent musical material. Dovetailed transitions begin with the appearance of new motives during a passage that otherwise exhibits block and textural subtractive processes—a block subtractive process involves a gradual removal of notes from a pattern, while a textural subtractive process entails a reduction of instruments playing collectively. The closing stage of a dovetailed transition is signaled by the exclusion of earlier motives.

John Adams’s compositional style bears affinity for dovetailing in his instrumental works from his most recent compositional period.¹ Dovetailing is a signature technique of Adams’s compositional style; examining this technique sheds light on the process of creating smooth transitions and their influence on formal structure and the growth of gradual processes. Adams’s “Chain to the Rhythm” from Naive and Sentimental Music (1997–98) illustrates remarkably lucid instances of dovetailing, and because its processes are comparable to other instrumental works by the composer, it will serve as a representative model.² The first part of this study will provide some background to the term “dovetailing” and detail the various ways musical closure can give way to a new dovetailed section. It will also examine ways in which recurring motives can be modified to allow for such a process. I will elaborate on additive and subtractive processes and general modifications such as transposition, beat-class transposition, and inversion. The second part will illustrate different models for dovetailing and demonstrate an interrelation between formal sections and dovetailed transitional passages. The final part will consider a recurring “Adamsian” set class, the minor seventh chord, which serves as a signal for new formal sections, and will compare dovetailed passages in terms of duration and opening gestures.³

Figure 1.

Dovetailing in Carpentry

The term dovetailing stems from carpentry as a method of inter-locking two pieces of wood (see Figure 1). This metaphor seems useful in describing overlapping formal sections of a musical work. Given the flexibility of its application to music, scholars have used the term rather freely to refer to transitions of musical processes that bear some overlap. In attempting to describe Adams’s smooth connections, I will at times equate dovetailing as a general method of overlapping formal sections where one texture subsides while another emerges. In other instances, dovetailing will parallel the interlocking technique originating from woodworking, where a variety of textures engage in subtractive and additive processes.

In regards to music, Daniel Warburton defines dovetailing as a smooth transition between two superimposed processes.⁴ According to Warburton, the overall form and moment-to-moment content of early minimal pieces formed part of the same phenomenon he refers to as process; thus, the end of a process points toward the end of a formal section.⁵ As the process comes to a close a new process emerges, thereby giving way to a new formal section. Minimal works commonly feature superimposed sections to obtain smooth connections, or they may employ a splicing technique where one process abruptly gives way to another—a stark contrast to dovetailing.

Other scholars have used the term dovetailing to represent slightly different musical events. Douglas Green employed the term in a tonal context to describe a smooth connection between the last two sections found in ternary form.⁶ Example 1 reproduces Green’s example 8–6, featuring musical dovetailing. This excerpt is taken from Schumann’s Romance, Op. 28, No. 2. According to Green, dovetailing creates a conflict of tonal structure and design in order to make the connection of parts two and three more subtle than by having a dominant-tonic progression in the original key mark the restatement of the A section. In this passage, the return of the initial theme appears on measure 18, while the tonic harmony is delayed until measure 19. For Green, dovetailing calls for the interaction of the...