The first music by Samuel Adler that I ever heard was two movements of his Third String Quartet, played in Kilbourn Hall at Eastman in the fall of 1966. The occasion was an all-school convocation to introduce faculty members new to the school that year. To a junior-year piano student who composed but was very put off by most of the contemporary music he had heard, this quartet came as a revelation of something that I could not explain but to which I responded with huge excitement. Right here was new music, barely two years old, that for some reason I could follow. Its emotional communication came straight through to me. This experience was the first of two exciting surprises; the second was learning that this composer was going to be my teacher. My lessons (Thursdays at 8:00 a.m.) were wonderful, treasured times. My interest in Adler’s music, especially his piano music, began quite naturally at that time and has continued to this day.

Because he is such a prolific composer, I imagine Adler is the only person who has heard every composition he has written. His notes surely run by now into the millions! I offer my thoughts in this book, therefore, not as an expert on his music but as one who over time has studied his piano compositions deeply.

Samuel Adler’s music is thoroughly modern without being beholden to any of the many fashions and “isms” that have come into use over the last several decades. Adler has said of his work: “I have been labeled a composer of the ‘radical center,’ and I rather like that classification. I am a happy eclectic who has never been anxious to pursue novelty or the avant-garde, but who tried to be open to all stylistic trends.” His piano music invites the player to project a wide spectrum of emotions and their gradations. It is by turns joyous, frenetic, simple, direct, intellectually complex, lightweight, deeply moving, intense, contemplative, energetic, wild, beautiful, kaleidoscopic, and serene. Musicians who experience a wide variety of his works will recognize that they arise from one irreducible spiritual element: that of affirmation.