Slonimsky's Earbox

Slonimsky's Earbox is a 13-minute orchestral work composed in 1996 by the prominent American composer, John Adams. The piece is a step toward integrating standard minimalist techniques with a more complex contrapuntal style. It is based on Igor Stravinsky's work, Le chant du rossignol, in which Adams was drawn to the modal harmonies that Stravinsky employed.

Adams wrote the piece in tribute to his friend, the Russian-American composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who authored The Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which Adams has used quite often. Adams describes Slonimsky as "a character of mind-boggling ability", and says that Slonimsky's Earbox "memorializes his wit and hyper-energetic activity."