Slonimsky's Earbox

Slonimsky's Earbox is a 13-minute orchestral piece written by the prominent American composer, John Adams. The piece is a step toward integrating the standard minimalist techniques with a more complex contrapuntal style. The piece is based on Stravinsky's work, "Le chant du Rossignol", in which Adams was drawn to the modal harmonies that Stravinsky employed.

The name of the piece comes from the Russian author Nicolas Slonimsky, who wrote several books on music, including "The Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" which Adams used quite often.