Thursday, February 4, 2016

301 - minimalism

The emergence of the minimalists

La Monte Young
was a member of the fluxes movement. His extreme personality led him to the
forefront of the experimental scene

his music is vastly independent. His focus was very Anti-establishment and
focused on performance by non specialist performers

Its not evident in his output but he was highly trained in UCLA, Cal Berkeley and
studied at Darmstadt

Young veered into a minimalist style of music through works like x for Harry
Flynt (1960) , where a person has to maintain a steady percussive pulse for as long as
they can

The music he made during this time was a direct extension of his philosophy and the
control he wanted to take over his music.

He formed the Group for eternal Music to realize his pieces and built a number of
installations to house his works (dream house (1968))

Terry Riley

also studied lots of academic music.

His work relates to the minimalists mainly through a few very influential works

like Keyboard Study (1964). a highly repetitive piece using tightly knit layers of
related material for keyboardist(s) and/or tape

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 Thursday, February 4, 2016
this music, based on cellular organization is designed for repeat performance and
leaves much available to the performance

This is clear especially in the large work in C also from (1964). where the players play
through the 53 rhythmic cells, moving at their own pace. choosing independently, when
to progress

Rainbow in Curved Air(1970) is another layered piece which exists separately in the
performance and recorded realm

Philip Glass is who he is! And people love his music but musicians cant stand him

Steve Reich is like the anti Glass. Hes a sort of philosopher of music. Hes not
especially commercially successful. Hes happy to experiment with the nature of his
processes and uses a variety of ensembles to create different types of compositions.

One of his early pieces Different Trains is based on his experience of travel between
the east and west coast, living alternately with each of his separated parents.

his phase music (clapping music, its gonna rain etc.) deals with the process taking over
the control held by the composer.