Music History

20th and 21st Century Music

Minimalism in Music

Music History
20th and 21st Century Music

How Does
Minimalism Arise?

How Many Know This Piece?

While Ravels Bolero is never described as

a Minimalist composition, it, nevertheless has
elements that are Minimalist - (1) a single tonality
for 99% of the composition, (2) a single rhythm
that continues throughout the composition, (3) a
single melody repeated throughout the piece, and
(4) an exploration of instrumental timbre as
the primary focus of the composition.

Minimalism in Music
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
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 to 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
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.

John Cage (1912-1992)

John Cage (1912-1992)

Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 433, the
three movements of which are performed without a single note
being played. A performance of 433 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).

John Cage (1912-1992)

In a Landscape - 1948
(1948)(Piano Version)

John Cage (1912-1992)

Chance Music

John Cage (1912-1992)

Bacchanale
for Prepared Piano (1940)

A bacchanale is a dramatic musical composition, often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal.

Well-known examples are the bacchanales in Camille Saint-Sans's Samson et Dalila and the Overture and Bacchanale of
Richard Wagner's Tannhuser. John Cage wrote a Bacchanale 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 Dal designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ballet entitled Bacchanale, based on Wagners Tannhuser
and the myth of Leda and the Swan.

John Cage (1912-1992)

John Cage (1912-1992)

In the Name of the Holocaust (1942)

A bacchanale is a dramatic musical composition, often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal.

Well-known examples are the bacchanales in Camille Saint-Sans's Samson et Dalila and the Overture and Bacchanale of
Richard Wagner's Tannhuser. John Cage wrote a Bacchanale 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 Dal designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ballet entitled Bacchanale, based on Wagners Tannhuser
and the myth of Leda and the Swan.

John Cage (1912-1992)

In the Name of the Holocaust (1942)

A bacchanale is a dramatic musical composition, often depicting a drunken revel or bacchanal.

Well-known examples are the bacchanales in Camille Saint-Sans's Samson et Dalila and the Overture and Bacchanale of
Richard Wagner's Tannhuser. John Cage wrote a Bacchanale 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 Dal designed the set and wrote the libretto for a ballet entitled Bacchanale, based on Wagners Tannhuser
and the myth of Leda and the Swan.

Terry Riley (1935- )

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 (19181996), 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.

Terry Riley (1935- )

Relationship to Indian, Moroccan, Asian Music

Terry Riley (1935- )

In C - (1964)

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.

Steve Reich (1936 - )

Steve Reich (1936 - )

Steve Reich (1936 - )

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 responseone of the few
adequate artistic responses in any mediumto 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.

Steve Reich (1936 - )

Clapping Music - 1972
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 first 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.

Steve Reich (1936 - )

Clapping Music - 1972

Preface to Steve Reichs Music for Pieces of Wood - 1973

African Marimba Ensemble led by Dumisani Maraire

Pictures from African Music by Francis Bebey

Steve Reich (1936 - )

Music for Pieces of Wood - 1973
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 for Pieces of Wood is written for five pairs of claves.

Philip Glass (1937 - )

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.
"Introduction? Ten CDs? That's enough. That'll keep you busy."

Philip Glass (1937 - )

Steve Reich (1936 - )

Minimalism Leads To
Other Genres of 20th
Century Music

The Ambient Music of

Brian Eno (1948 - )
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 records such as
Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1978).

The Ambient Music of

Brian Eno (1948 - )

Music History
20th and 21st Century Music

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