Getting to know Minimal Music
Minimal Music is the American export hit in contemporary music. Its omnipresence in contemporary music is remarkable. Composers of the first generation: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philipp Glass laid the foundations for this new music in the USA in the 1960s. These four pioneers have been developing minimalist music ever since; a compositional trail that has been followed by numerous ‘post-minimalists’ of later generations. Their influence has also had an impact on numerous composers and styles worldwide. Minimal Music is therefore a living phenomenon of recent history: it is intercultural, global, versatile and defies clear categorisation. Its ability to connect with pop music, techno, jazz and ‘world music’ demonstrates its inclusive power to build bridges between genres. It has always managed to maintain contact with the audience and fascinate amateurs and experts alike. Plenty of reasons, therefore, to take a closer look at this fascinating music.
Music teachers regardless of the institution at which they teach should first acquire the following basic knowledge. It is advised to do own research according to own interests/knowledge/access to knowledge concerning the following key points:
History of Minimal Music
- Emergence phase: USA in the 1960s, spirit of optimism in society, cultural tension in California/New York, Fluxus movement (USA and Europe), serial music
- Protagonists: special features, commonalities among them (influences of non-Western music, career initially beyond ‘classical music’, experimentalists)
The Protagonists specification (keywords):
- Young: static, mysticism, inaccessible person, self-promotion
- Riley: Improvisation, psychedelic movement, openness to all music
- Reich: focus on rhythm and processes, composition for more classically orientated ensembles
- Glass: focus on harmony, work with media (film music), operatic works, strong tendency towards mainstream and popular music
European reception:
Rejection and enthusiasm at the same time, reception by Americans gave strong impetus to the perception of European Minimal Music
Aesthetic values
- Reduction
- Processuality
- Comprehensibility
Compositional principles
- Repetition
- gradual change
- Steve Reich’s process techniques: replacing pauses with tones (and vice versa), phase shifting
Intercultural basics
- Familiarise yourself with elements of the musical cultures of West Africa, Indonesia and India and understand the extent to which American Minimal Music has been influenced by them
Parallels in other arts
Minimal Art: Works by Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Richard Serra, Carl Andre, Robert Morris in the 1960s exhibit similar design principles to Minimal Music: Sequencing or repetition, reduction, simplicity
In principle, inclusion is about every so-called ‘marginalised group’ and the distinction between those included and those excluded, between inclusive and exclusive attitudes or events. This phenomenon also affects artistic life to a large extent. The classical music scene, for example, can hardly be described as ‘inclusive’, considering the numerous factors: social codes, knowledge, experience and wealth that are necessary to belong to this socio-cultural environment. Inclusion in the cultural sector has an enormous field of activity: socially marginalised groups, senior citizens, children, financially disadvantaged people, people without access to the art world. These people need to be included in the arts in the long term.
Music has great inclusive potential. But the ‘classical’ music industry in particular rarely utilises its potential, which is sometimes also true of popular music as a whole. In this respect, the search for a bridging position is interesting, for music that can transport both the accessibility of the broad masses and the sophisticated level of the classical music experience. Music that is certainly sophisticated, but at the same time provides people of all kinds with the easiest possible access to high culture: Minimal Music offers these opportunities.
Minimal Music unites cultures because it includes different musical cultures in itself. Few Western music movements have absorbed so many non-Western impulses. The pioneers of Minimal Music had intensive lessons with teachers from other cultures as part of their training. In the case of Young, Riley and Glass, this applies above all to Indian music, and in Reich’s case to West African and Indonesian music. These non-European musical cultures and the intensive experience with them had a direct influence on the compositions of these musicians. There are also influences from jazz, as some of the minimalists were also active in jazz as musicians. An integrative impulse, a potential for connecting cultures, can therefore already be found in the history of Minimal Music. A further indication of the intercultural and transcultural orientation of Minimal Music is the fact that the original boundaries of US Minimal Music have been abandoned and a lively European Minimal Music scene has existed for many years. Everywhere in Europe, ‘traditional’ Minimal Music is being performed and new forms of minimalism are being established at the same time. It is precisely when one considers Minimal Music not as a closed, historical musical phenomenon, but as a permanently moving current, that its diversity can be recognised.
Activities
Instructions:
Firstly, it makes sense to acquire own knowledge of the above keywords and gain an overview. The BBC documentation linked above and the material at the end of the module can also help with this. It is often also sufficient to go through musicological encyclopaedia articles or summaries from teaching materials. It is also advisable to watch and familiarise yourself with relatively well-known films with music by Philipp Glass (Koyaanisqatsi, The Hours, The Truman Show) in order to be able to quickly prove to students initially that Minimal Music has also found its way into pop culture.
These are some of the most important pieces of Minimal Music for different instruments and from different times. Of course, there are many more and also by other composers that are worth listening to and discussing. This list may be enough to get you started. Afterwards, depending on your preferences and teaching situation, certain Minimal Music should be explored in more depth.
American Minimal Music
- La Monte Young: Composition 1960 No. 7 (1960)
- Terry Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air (1968)
- Terry Riley: In C (1964)
- Steve Reich: Piano Phase (1967)
- Steve Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood (1971)
- Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (1976)
- Philip Glass: Music in Similar Motion (1969)
- Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach (1975)
- John Adams: Shaker Loops (1978)
European Minimal Music
- Michael Nyman: Time Lapse (1985)
- Tom Johnson: Maximum Efficiency (1991)
- Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells (1973)
- Nik Bärtsch: MODUL 35 (2003)
In order to actively familiarise oneself with Minimal Music, elementary and stylistically exemplary pieces should first be worked on in order to enrich the experience of listening through one’s own playing. By playing characteristic and style-defining pieces such as Steve Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood and Clapping Music, Terry Riley: In C, La Monte Young: Composition 1960 No. 7, Philip Glass: Façades and Opening, the basic principles of Minimal Music can be explored: repetition and gradual change (process), patterns and modality as well as specific principles of addition and ‘model-building processes’
With the help of various playing instructions and ‘pedagogical’ pieces by Ulli Götte, these basic principles can also be implemented in improvisation and composition, thus providing inspiration for a creative approach to Minimal Music
Literature
- Fink, Robert: Repeating Ourselves. American Minimal Music as Cultural Practice, Berkeley 2005.
- Götte, Ulli: Minimal Music. Geschichte – Ästhetik – Umfeld (= Taschenbücher zur Musikwissenschaft 138) Wilhelmshaven 2000.
- Mertens, Wim: American Minimal Music, Amersham 1983.
- O’Brien, Kerry: On minimalism. Documenting a musical movement, Oakland 2023.
- Potter, Keith: Four Musical Minimalists. La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Cambridge 1999.