Minimalism

Like Jazz music, Minimalist music is originally an  American genre of Experimental music or Downtown music named in the 1960s based mostly in consonant harmony, steady pulse (if not immobile drones), stasis and slow transformation, and often reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells.

Experimental music is a term introduced by composer John Cage in 1955. According to Cage's definition, "an experimental action is one the outcome of which is not foreseen" (Cage 1961, 39), and he was specifically interested in completed works that performed an unpredictable action (Mauceri 1997, 197). In a broader sense, it is also used to mean any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. David Cope describes experimental music as that, "which represents a refusal t o accept the status quo" (Cope, 1997, 222). Michael Nyman (1974) uses the term "experimental" to describe the work of American composers (John Cage, Christian Wolff, Earle Brown, Meredith Monk, Malcolm Goldstein, Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Philip Glass, John Cale, Steve Reich, etc.) as opposed to the European avant-garde at the time ( Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis). The word "experimental" in the former cases "is apt, providing it is understood not as descriptive of an act to be later  judged in terms of success or failure, but simply as of an act the outcome of which is unknown" (Cage 1961, 13).

Downtown music is a subdivision of American music. The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono — one of the Fluxus artists, at that time still seven years away from meeting John Lennon — opened her loft at 112 Chambers Street (Manhattan) to be used as a noise music performance space for a series curated by La Monte Young and Richard Maxfield. Prior to this, most classical music performances in New York City occurred "uptown" around the areas that the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center and Columbia University would soon occupy. Ono's gesture led to a new performance tradition of informal performances in nontraditional venues such as lofts and converted industrial spaces, involving music much more experimental than that of the more conventional modern classical series' Uptown Spaces in Manhattan that supported Downtown music from the 1960s on included the Judson Memorial Church, The Kitchen, Experimental Intermedia, Roulette, the Knitting Factory, Dance Theater Workshop, Tonic, The Automation House, the Gas Station, the Paula Cooper Gallery, and others. Brooklyn Academy of Music has also shown a predilection for composers from the Downtown scene.

John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer. A pioneer of chance music, electronic music and nonstandard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde and, in the opinion of many, the most influential American composer of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for the most part of the latter's life.

Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4  33  , the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. A performance of 4  33   can be perceived as including the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence and has become one of the most controversial compositions of the century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the most well-known of which is Sonatas and Interludes  (1946– 48). !   

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A bacchanale  is a dramatic musical composition, often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal . Well-known examples are the ba cchanales  in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila  and the Overture and Bacchanale  of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser . John Cage wrote a Bacch anale  for prepared piano. The French composer Jacques Ibert wrote a Bacchanale commissioned by the BBC for the tenth anniversary of the Third Programme in 1956. In 1939, Salvador Dalí designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ba llet entitled Bacchan al e , based on Wagner s Tannhäuser !

A bacchanale  is a dramatic musical composition, often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal . Well-known examples are the ba cchanales  in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila  and the Overture and Bacchanale  of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser . John Cage wrote a Bacch anale  for prepared piano. The French composer Jacques Ibert wrote a Bacchanale commissioned by the BBC for the tenth anniversary of the Third Programme in 1956. In 1939, Salvador Dalí designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ba llet entitled Bacchan al e , based on Wagner s Tannhäuser !

A bacchanale  is a dramatic musical composition, often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal . Well-known examples are the ba cchanales  in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila  and the Overture and Bacchanale  of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser . John Cage wrote a Bacch anale  for prepared piano. The French composer Jacques Ibert wrote a Bacchanale commissioned by the BBC for the tenth anniversary of the Third Programme in 1956. In 1939, Salvador Dalí designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ba llet entitled Bacchan al e , based on Wagner s Tannhäuser !

Terry Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer associated with the minimalist school. He studied at Shasta College, San Francisco State University, and the San Francisco Conservatory before earning an MA in composition at the University of California, Berkeley, studying with Seymour Shifrin and Robert Erickson. He was involved in the experimental San Francisco Tape Music Center working with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, and Ramon Sender. His most influential teacher, however, was Pandit Pran Nath (1918–1996), a master of Indian classical voice, who also taught La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. Riley made numerous trips to India over the course of their association to study and to accompany him on tabla, tambura, and voice. Throughout the 1960s he traveled frequently around Europe as well, taking in musical influences and supporting himself by playing in piano bars, until he joined the Mills College faculty in 1971 to teach Indian classical music. Riley was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Music at Chapman University in 2007.

In C  is an aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work". As its title suggests, it is in the key of C. It is a response to the abstract academic serialist techniques used by composers in the mid-twentieth century and is often cited as the first minimalist composition

Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer who pioneered the style of minimalism. His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (examples are his early compositions, It's Gonna Rain  and Come Out ), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, Pendulum Music  and Four Organs ). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage. Different Trains  (1988) has been called "the only adequate musical response—one of the few adequate artistic responses in any medium—to the Holocaust", and was credited with earning Reich a place among the great composers of the 20th century. Reich's style of composition has influenced many other composers and musical groups, John Adams, the progressive rock band King Crimson, and the art-pop and electronic musician Brian Eno. Reich has been described by The Guardian  as one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history", and the Village Voice 's   Kyle Gann has said Reich "may [...] be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer." On January 25, 2007, Reich was named the 2007 recipient of the Polar Music Prize, together with Sonny Rollins.

Clapping Music  is a minimalist piece written by Steve Reich in 1972. It is written for two performers and is performed entirely by clapping.

A development of the phasing technique from Reich's earlier works such as Piano Phase , it was written when Reich wanted to (in his own words) "create a piece of music that needed no instruments beyond the human body". However, he quickly found that the mechanism of phasing slowly in and out of tempo with each other was inappropriate for the simple clapping involved in producing the actual sounds that made the music. Instead of phasing, one performer claps a basic rhythm, a variation of the fundamental African bell pattern in 12/8 time, for the entirety of the piece. The other claps the same pattern, but after every 8 or 12 bars s/he shifts by one eighth note to the left. The two performers continue this until the second performer has shifted 12 eighth notes and is hence playing the pattern in unison with the fi rst performer again (as at the beginning), some 144 bars later. In Reich's 1974 book "Writings about Music" there is a picture of the piece being performed at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas on 13 November 1973.

Preface to Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood  - 1973  African Marimba Ensemble led by Dumisani Maraire

Pictures from African Music  by Francis Bebey

Claves are very important in Afro-Cuban music, such as the Son and Salsa. They are often used to play a repeating rhythmic figure throughout a piece, known as the clave, of which there are several different variations, each used for different styles of music. Steve Reich's Music f or Pieces of Wood  is written for five pairs of claves.

Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American classical music composer who has been nominated for three Academy Awards. He is considered one of the most influential composers of the late-20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the American public (along with precursors such as Richard Strauss, Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein). His music is described as minimalist, however he wishes to distance himself from this label, describing himself instead as a composer of "music with repetitive structures". Although his early, mature music is minimalist, he has evolved stylistically. Currently, he describes himself as a "Classicist", trained in harmony and counterpoint and studied Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert. Other operas followed — more than 20 of them, including, Satyagraha, Akhnaten and The Voyage. Glass has composed eight symphonies, concerti for piano, violin, and saxophone quartet. He's written for film, including the sonic landscape he created with filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, Koyaanisqatsi. And he's collaborated with choreographer Twyla Tharp, poet Allen Ginsberg and rocker David Bowie.  A fraction of that work is included in the new 10-CD set, Glass Box. The composer says it's a good introduction to his work then stops himself.

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (born 15 May 1948), commonly known as Brian Eno, is an English musician, composer, producer, music theorist, and singer, who, as a solo artist, is best known as the father of ambient music. Art-school-educated, and inspired by minimalism, he became artistically  prominent as the keyboards and synthesizer player of the 1970s Glam rock and Art rock band Roxy Music. Upon leaving them, he recorded four original Rock music albums, before concentrating upon abstract sound landscapes (ambient music) in reco rds such as Discreet Music  (1975) and Ambient 1/Music for Airports  (1978).