Minimalism in Music

ChiaWei Lin

11/30/2011

Minimalism in Music (1)

• What is it?

-a style of composition characterized by an intentionally simplified rhythmic, melodic and harmonic vocabulary.

• Common features:1. Steady Pulse2. Reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units3. Consonant harmony4. Simple texture and structure 5. Stasis or gradual transformation

“Modernist music” vs. “Minimal Music” (2)

• Minimal Music1. tonal or modal harmonic language; the so-called “new tonality”

2. rhythmically regular; continuous

3. structurally and textually simple

• Modernist Music1. atonal

2. aperiodic; fragmented

3. structurally and textually complex

Minimalism in Music (3)

When and Where?-earn currency in 1960s and 70s

-originated in the USA

Important Figures-American Composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley,

Steve Reich, Phillip Glass and John Adams

Minimalism in Music (4)

Why did it emerge?

-Post-WWII composers sought new musical styles in reaction against twelve-tone theory and serialism.

-Two of examples out of many:(1) Steve Reich's concept of progress music(2) John Adams

Why Minimal Music- Steve ReichCompositional Process vs. Audible Process (5)

-the serialism of Boulez and Stockhausen Applied rows as the the basic compositional procedure; however, the procedure is hardly hearable when music is performed.

e.g. Stockhausen's Kreuzspiel

Reich argues:“[I]n serial music, the series itself is seldom audible.” (Reich, 1968; SR #18)

“The compositional processes and the sounding music have no connection.”(Reich, 1968;SR #18)

Concept of Process (6)

Steve Reich:

"I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music.… What I'm interested in is a compositional process and a sounding music that are one and the same thing" (Reich 1968;SR #18).

Concept of Process (7)

• In short:

-music arises from a process audible to the listener.

Concept of Process (8)

• How to make the process audible?-building music on small units ex: figures, motifs, and cells

-restricting oneself to a single, uninterrupted process

-using slower rate of change so that the contrast and change can be perceived

Minimalism in Music (9.1)

Why could it success during 1970s and 80s?In art music field

1.minimalism is an antidote to other modernist musical genres; Its low rate of change provides stability and security without sacrificing artistic uniqueness and individualism

2. La Monte Young, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley were the perfect spokesmen: staunch, prolific, well trained, and uncompromising individualists who performed to promote their music

Minimalism in Music (9.2)

In popular music 

-the danceable steady pause and the repeated patterns of minimal art music was absorbed by popular dance music, such as disco in 70s. Steve Reich's music was even named as “High disco.”  Ex: Amant's If There's Love (1978) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f8WYzFkJJQ

Compositional Techniques-Addition (10)

Compositional techniques employed by minimalist composers:

(1) Additive process: the expansion of tiny musical modules: a five-note grouping, for example, played several times, then becoming six notes, then seven and so on. Ex: Reich's Music for 18 Musicians

Compositional Techniques-Subtraction (11)

(2)Subtractive process:

the contraction of tiny musical modules: a five-note grouping, for example, played several times, then becoming three notes, then one.

Ex: Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach

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Steve Reich and his Music (12)

• An American Composer (b. 1936) who has developed a massive public following

• Went to Julliard and Mills college; Studied with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud

• A “crossover phenomenon” described by the recording industry

-musical tastes: jazz, rock, traditional classical and new music

-the first living “serious” composer to sell out Carnegie Hall in a program devoted to his own works

-The first “serious” composer to sell out the New York rock/jazz nightclub

Reich's Come Out (1966) 1'18”

1.One of Reich's very early “minimal works” (Reich rejects the term "Minimalism" and calls his music "structural".)

2.based solely on recorded verbal material—the voice of a Harlem ghetto boy

3. an experiment with loop tape, introducing slight changes to the synchronization so that the sound builds to a "hypnotic aural effect" -----phasing shift

4.by reducing the element into two words, Reich could intensify the meaning of the words.

Reich's Come Out (14)

-Compositional technique: Phase shifting

- 2 unison channels – one of the parts phasing forward (0'30”; 1'30”) – dividing 2 channels into 4 (2'00”;3'30”), then into 8 voices (12'30”)

Listen to Come Out

John Adams and his Music (15)

-American composer (b. 1947)

-was raised in New England and went to Harvard University

-won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003 by his On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks

John Adams' Musical Style (16)

-Adams' musical style is often categorized as post-minimalist (employs some minimal techniques but not strictly follows the minimalism )

Similarities Adams employs minimalist techniques, such as repeating patterns and steady pulse

Difference He rejects the idea of mechanistic procedure-based process music;

John Adams' Musical Style (17)Adams' post-minimal music 1. repetition (rhythmic and melodic materials)2. steady pulse3.rapid change4. greater harmonic variety5. irregular accents; syncopations6. textually complex7. emotional surges8. rich sound created by orchestra

Minimal music1. repetition (rhythmic and melodic materials)2. steady pulse3. low rate of change4. simplified harmony5. simplified rhythm6. textually simple7.mechanical process 8. lighter sound created by ensemble

Nixon in China (1987) -Proposed by American theater and opera director, Peter Sellars

-Librettist: American poet, Alice Goodman

-Opera in 3 acts

-About American president Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972

-Main roles include Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, Mao Tze-tung and Chiang Ching (Mao's third wife)

-Premiered in Houston on October 22, 1987

Causes of the Diplomatic visit (19)

-Through improving relations with People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union (through negotiating with communist government), the Vietnam War could be ended

-Open trade and commerce with mainland China (PRC)

-Strategies to reach agreementTaiwan issue: Nixon and the U.S. government agreed to recognize China over Taiwan (ROC)

Tuning point in the world (20)

-From the view of the USA 1. marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC 2. Nixon's negotiation with communists

-From the view of the PRC (Mainland China) 1.broke through the two-decade diplomatic isolation 2. viewed this as an international acknowledge that PRC is a powerful country

-From the view of the ROC (Taiwan) 1.The inception of the ongoing struggle of international and national identity.

Historical meaning of this Opera

-an historical opera about the historical present: It was the only opera ever written about people who were still alive (ex: Nixon, Chiang Ching-Mao's wife and so on)

-Opera as a cultural representation: the American curiosity about China

-From John Adams' perspective: "Opera addressed hotly debated issues that people thought about all the time." (from Interview by Andrew Porter, 1988)

Musical characteristics 

1. employs some minimal techniques: repetition and 

steady pulse but does not use process approaches such as additive or subtractive process.

2. rich sound and harmony (an orchestra + saxophones + pianos + electronic synthesizer)

3. emotional surges

Act I Scene I: Aria "News"

-The opera begins with the arrival of the presidential aircraft at an airport outside Beijing; 

-In his ‘News’ aria, Nixon likens his landing in Beijing to that of the Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon. - In “News”, Nixon repeats the word, news, for 12 times:1. to highlight Nixon's fondness of the mass media which would shape him as a world hero.

2. Audience of this opera, which premiered after the Watergate scandal in 1974, were also aware that media serves as the force to destroy his heroic dream.