Short Ride in a Fast Machine - Definition and Overview

Short Ride in a Fast Machine (Fanfare for Great Woods) by John Coolidge Adams is one of the most frequently requested and performed encores in American concert-halls. It was commissioned by the Great Woods Festival for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's opening concert at Great Woods in 1986. The music consists of a succession of chordal passages against a consistent beat on the wood block, and gives the impression of a single long-delayed cadence.

It has three times been scheduled for inclusion in the Last Night of the Proms in the UK. On the first two occasions it was removed from the concert as it was felt to be inappropriate: first in the wake of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and four years later just days after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack. Finally it was heard at the Blue Peter Prom on July 26, 2004.