In conceiving his latest large-scale work for string quartet and orchestra, John Adams states that its inception arose from a lifelong obsession with the music of Beethoven. Out of this fixation, the first impulse for creating a referential work of musical homage came to Adams from hearing a performance of Stravinsky's Pulcinella, a ballet known for its conscious borrowing of material from the 18th-century composer Pergolesi. It is that absorption of another composer's vernacular and fashioning it into a new and unique musical work that provides the primary creative foundation for Absolute Jest.