Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra by the American composer John Adams, written in 1980-1981 for the first season of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California.
The work is based on poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson and is regarded as one of the key compositions of Adams' "minimalist" period.
[4] Each movement is a setting of an entire poem: "Because I could not stop for Death" ends with an orchestral interlude that segues into "Wild Nights" without a pause.
[5] K. Robert Schwarz has noted the influence of the musical techniques of Steve Reich on Harmonium, and also has commented on the less schematic and more "intuitive" manner of Adams' composition in the work.
[6] "Negative Love" is featured in the film Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990).