American minimalism

[GeoffonTour]

I'm doing a project on american minimalism & I'd appreciate some input with regards to the beginnings of what I got so far. It's a presentation so I'm sort of writing a script but I have to have it done in a week

This is literally the beginning of what the project's gonna be about, I'm going to look for influences of AM in modern music & tbh so far I haven't found many, so I think I'll wrap the project up with; (in brief) interesting ideas, perhaps a necessary event, but overall there's not a lot musically that has been taken from it.

 

American Minimalism The American minimalist movement of classical music has been greatly discussed in terms of the styles & influences leading to its creation, and it's effect on classical music & the classical music establishment of the time. I intend to examine in greater detail the influences of minimalism on other forms of music, particularly popular music. American minalism was a genre created by academic classical musicians in the late 60s, which is very difficult to define. A number of things that would normally be used as criteria were unique to the song or artist, which makes it very difficult to replicate without sounding too derivative. One of the things that does define american minimalism as a genre was the ensthusiasm for using new techniques for recording and composing. The emphasis was on experimentation, and simplicity, which was derived from an anti establishment attitude towards the overly complex serial composers of the time. This is possibly one of the things that led to its disappearance from the classical scene - once you start experimenting with conventions for the sake of it , it gets very difficult to stop. The ideas and aesthetic of the music either stay the same (ergo it's no longer considered fresh & new)

[Hard Truth]

The minimalist music of Tery Riley, Steve Reich etc. had a profound influence on today's music. One of the first rock musicians to incorprate the influence is Brian Eno who as a producer and collaborator went on to influence Robert Fripp, The Talking Heads and many others. Fripp's "frippertronics" solo performances were minimalistic.

 

Minimalism also influenced new age music, ambient music, industrial music and much electronica. Phillip Glass's popular minimalist soundtrack to Koyanosqatsi was very influential and changed the direction of film music away from being romantic and linear.

[Raymar]

I like that John Cage piece involving silence, not too short either.

 

He's not American but you might want to check out Erik Satie too.

 

Steve

[Ed A.]

La Monte Young was a major influence on Terry Riley, who composed In C, Steve Reich was one of the musicians who played on its premiere. Philip Glass and John Adams are two others who were pioneering minimalist composers from about that same time.

Tangerine Dream, Neu, Fripp & Eno borrowed from the earlier minimalist composers and built on what they had done, especially Fripp & Eno with their tape loop experiments.

I also think of Eno's ambient music as his variation on minimalism.

[Brittanylips]

You

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

There are hardly any composers who self-identify as minimalists. It's not necessary to call it "american" minimalism, there was no minimalist music composed outside america. Composers who followed this ideas outside america go under postminimalism. Eric Satie is definitely a composer not belonging to the minimalist music category. Also clapping with one hand is not a minimalist music idea, but something Mr. Donovan explains us in a few days.

 

Did i spell everything right, B-Lips?

 

This article isn't too bad at all:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_music

 

.

[Brittanylips]

Originally posted by Angelo Clematide Composers who followed this ideas outside america, would be called postminimalism.

What if they came before the quote "minimalsts?" There's arguably a ton of minimalist music that predates the 1960s by a few thousand years.

Originally posted by Angelo Clematide Did i spell everything right, B-Lips?

Almost. That's "Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips.

 

Pace Luv & Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips

[object.session]

i think the term "minimalist" in this context means the musical minimalist *movement* (or things relating to that movement).

 

actually, depending on your audience, you might want to make sure you define that early on in your presentation.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

 

Originally posted by Brittanylips What if they came before the quote "minimalsts?" There's arguably a ton of minimalist music that predates the 1960s by a few thousand years.

 

 

I know what you talk about! Or is it possible that you make fun of my Symphony No. 1 (a.k.a. "The First Note"), Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips?

 

Here a colored charcoal (press photo) found in a cave in southern France, seen as i conduct my first one:

[Brittanylips]

 

Originally posted by Angelo Clematide I know what you talk about! Or is it possible that you make fun of my Symphony No. 1 (a.k.a. "The First Note"), Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips? Here a colored charcoal (press photo) found in a cave in southern France, seen as i conduct my first one:

 

Not making fun, paying my respects!

 

I notice you've lost a little weight since your diet of brontosaurus and protosalvinia...

 

Peace Love and Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips Beeee-Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips (the beginning of a minimalist ode...)

[GeoffonTour]

Thank you for all the comments so far, really really helpful having an insight from people with more experience. I was supposed to have this finished last september & it's due in a week (damn pot) so I'm basically going to spend a couple of the next few days in a library.

 

 

Revision 2:

 

 

Four ten minute sections: 1. Introduction to minimalism 2. Common minimalist ideas 3. Comparison with modern music 4. etc? The American Minimalist Movement. The minimalist movement in classical music has been greatly discussed in terms of the styles & influences leading to its creation, and it's effect on the classical music establishment of the time. I intend to examine in greater detail the influences of minimalism on other forms of music, particularly popular music. American minalism was a movement which was started among academic classical musicians in the late 60s. It was a breath of fresh air to many involved in the composition of classical music of the time, and a kind of two fingers up to the musical establishment. The most recognisable convention in american minimalism was the use of repeating cells that either remained the same, or changed very slowly. This was often used to create an ambient background over which the main theme of the music was played. This was not a new technique - composers such as wagner have used arpeggiating notes underneath a theme to similar effect, but it became a recongisable trait of minimalism because of the excessive use of repetition, in particular the overlapping of cells that are not of the same length. PICTURE: OVERLAPPING CELLS (music notation) In modern music, the idea of building layers of cells is very common. The repeating cells will usually have a simpler arrangement than a minimalist piece, which is partly due to the way programs like cubase manage midi information (by formatting it into cells & bars).PICTURE: OVERLAPPING CELLS (cubase) Another reason for this simplicity of most electronic music is that it's created for the popular market, and is therefore bland & conventional so as not to upset the punters. There are modern artists with more of an avante garde attitude towards timing, and their work does resemble in many ways that of some minimimalist composers. This track does differ in a lot of ways to the minamlist works though. The timing, instead of being polyrhythmic (ie overlapped) is controlled with the drums, and the samples are more intentionally placed within the music - ie the background is written as a background and follows the time of drums, and the 'melody' samples are very syncopated, emphasising the same kind of double pulse found in funk.

 

[Ed A.]

 

Originally posted by Brittanylips In any case, the American Minimalists have a dubious relationship with the academic classical field. While one foot toys with academia, the other is and was popular. Not only has American Minimalism enjoyed popular success, and been used in a variety of popular media (e.g. films, videos, recordings, etc.) but also has involved collaboration with popular recording artists. Check out Philip Glass

[Brittanylips]

Originally posted by Ed A. Philip Glass really is a good example of this. I saw the Philip Glass Ensemble in Hartford a while back and half the audience were art-school quasi-punks, while the other half were wearing formal wear like they were going to the opera.

As far as the art-school punks, I think it's pretty much required for art school students watch "Koyaanisqatsi," and drop acid in their first week.

 

Actually, there's some interesting links between art schools and music. The Talking Heads met in art school; so did some other groups. (There's a paper)

 

-PL&B

[Brittanylips]

 

Originally posted by GeoffonTour Thank you for all the comments so far, really really helpful having an insight from people with more experience. I was supposed to have this finished last september & it's due in a week (damn pot) so I'm basically going to spend a couple of the next few days in a library.

 

Couple quick comments:

 

"3. Comparison with modern music"

 

sounds like you mean to say modern popular music.

 

"American minalism was a movement which was started among academic classical musicians in the late 60s."

 

They were renegades, not established academic composers.

 

"The most recognisable convention in american minimalism was the use of repeating cells that either remained the same, or changed very slowly."

 

Drop "American" - it's redundant. Plus, there's other characteristics that are also central, such as diatonic unchanging harmonies, polyrhythmic textures, etc. Why not go to the library, listen to some first hand, and just write down what you hear?

 

"This was often used to create an ambient background over which the main theme of the music was played."

 

That's way off. The whole point was that the ambient background WAS the music itself, and there was no "main theme" played on top of it. It's all about textures, NOT melodies. The closest you get to a theme are the ingredients in the cells that repeat. But they don't behave like traditional themes, any more than one line in a gamalon is a theme. Each is part of a fabric, and the fabric is the thing.

 

"This was not a new technique - composers such as wagner have used arpeggiating notes underneath a theme to similar effect, but it became a recongisable trait of minimalism because of the excessive use of repetition,"

 

Wagner is not a good example. A much better example would be, say, an Alberti bass in a Mozart sonata. That is a more recognized form of repeition in classical music. Citing Balinese Gamalon as a musical source would be even closer to the mindset of the composers, themselves.

 

"In modern music, the idea of building layers of cells is very common. The repeating cells will usually have a simpler arrangement than a minimalist piece, which is partly due to the way programs like cubase manage midi information (by formatting it into cells & bars)."

 

I think you're getting close to a really good point. I don't know that I'd agree that the cells of modern (what you mean as "popular") music are simpler than minimalism - sometimes they are far more complex - but drawing a parallel to the way programs like Cubase manage MIDI data is a great point.

 

Finally, don't smoke pot for at least a day to give your head some time to dry out - it may improve your writing. At least it's worth a try for a day or two.

 

-Peace, Love, and Brittanylips

[GeoffonTour]

Brittanylips you're a legend, excellent points throughought.

 

I'm gonna be headed to oxford library either tomorrow or thursday to see how much they have, cause they're difficult to get hold of online (to download). I'll post another revision before the weekend (already redone it but I reckon I got enough to go on for now)

 

Again, many thanks

-Geoff

[UstadKhanAli]

I just wanted to add to some of the excellent points/help that you've gotten here. Steve Reich was indeed, as B-Lips pointed out, heavily influenced by Balinese gamelan music, and has mentioned so in interviews (and you can probably tell by listening to many of his compositions anyway). If you can get a hold of some of these interviews (The LA Times Calendar had an interview with him quite a few years ago), that might help you out some.

 

Brian Eno and others have repeatedly pointed to Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain" piece as being heavily influential. In this piece, Reich took two Wollensack tape recorder with a recording of an African American Pentecostal preacher, and allowed the tape recorders to fall out of sync with one another, creating interesting phase variances in which many listeners swore that other things were added.

 

You've probably come across this already if you are researching on the internet, but in case you haven't:

 

"The word "minimalism" was first used in relation to music in 1968 by Michael Nyman in a review of Cornelius Cardew's piece The Great Digest. Nyman later expanded his definition of minimalism in music in his 1974 book Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. Tom Johnson, one of the few composers to self-identify as minimalist, also claims to have been first to use the word as new music critic for the Village Voice. He describes "minimalism" (1989, p. 5):

 

"The idea of minimalism is much larger than most people realize. It "

 

And also....

 

"Minimalist music is a genre of classical music and experimental music named in the 1960s which displays some or all of the following features:

 

emphasis on consonant harmony, if not functional tonality;

reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells, with subtle, gradual, and/or infrequent variation (no musical development) over long periods of time, possibly limited to simple repetition;

stasis, often in the form of drones, pulses, and/or long tones.

The term minimalist music is derived from the concept of minimalism, which was earlier applied to the visual arts. Previously the terms process music or systems music were used, particularly for music constructed using fairly strict rules."

 

Both of these are from the Wikipedia, an interesting resource.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_minimalism

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

"Art Of The States" is very interesting website on music in the states:

 

http://artofthestates.org/

 

I think a treatise should also include a bit what was before and how it came to minimal art and what followed.

 

.

[GeoffonTour]

KK this is the entire thing so far, gonna spend all of today at the library listening & rewriting but this is gonna be the basic structure.

 

 

 

Part One: Serialism

 

Serialism is a method of composing that involves organizing pitches, note durations and accents into a series, or row, and manipulating them within a set of rules. It was a development from the Atonal music of the early 20th century, which is music that is not built around a central chord or key.

Arnold Schoenberg [picture] was one of the first people to organise notes in a manner that would later be defined as serialism. He was using it as a method of writing atonal music in a twelve tone manner - where none of the notes in the octave have prominence over the other. His work was hindered by the onset of the Second World War, and the Nazi prosecution of what they considered to be 'degenerate' music. [tune - schoenberg something]

After the War, several composers began to develop the ideas of schoenberg further. They began organising the other elements of music - the dynamics, instrumentation, duration of notes and many others.

Karl Stockhausen [picture] was a student of acoustics, phoenetics, and information theory & composition. He became interested in exploring ideas based on the fundamental aspects of music and produced several works with electronic instruments or effects, and recording techniques including manipulation of stereo spacing and other such effects. [tune: kontrapunkt]

Other famous serialist composers include Pierre Boulez [picture], who experimented with the idea of 'controlled' chance', where performers were allowed to choose between different possibilities at certain points, but not improvise freely.

And Jean Barraqu

[UstadKhanAli]

It's Gonna Rain, was an example of process music. He recorded an african preacher giving a sermon, and cut & rearranged it with tape, playing some parts out of phase. >>

 

 

Just so you know, he played this on two tape recorders, allowing them to drift out of sync, resulting in phase anomalies.

[GeoffonTour]

Ah thanks will expand on that. Just went to the music library in oxford, finally get the chance to actually hear all the music I been chatting about. In C sounds like a creepy japanese anim

[syncretism]

poor, neglected tony conrad, john cale and even charlemagne palestine. i understand that brevity may be a necessity, but you're missing out on important and vital musical intersections by passing them over in favour of lamonte's cult of personality {...and said Young was the 'freakiest man he had ever met'?}.

[Brittanylips]

Geoff -

 

Ken's point to wikipedia is a good tip. I'd also check out Philp Glass in Wikipedia for some tips on popular musicians he collaborated with, including Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, etc.

 

I think your paper is getting better and better, although it is also getting very broad. You know, you could take any sentence from your post and write an entire book about it. There's so much material on any one of the many topics you are hitting, that I wouldn't feel the need to talk about EVERYTHING. I liked the point you made in your very first post in which you said that the origins of minimalism have been much discussed; you intended to talk about its less-discussed influence on popular music. In any case, whatever you do I'm sure will be fine. The main thing, I think, is just to listen to it and say what you honestly think.

 

By the way, how old are you?

 

What is this report for?

 

FWIW, here's some of my own impressions working wiith members of Philip Glass's ensemble:

 

1. They are very serious, and they wear black clothes. Their facial expressions are dead pan, and their demeanor is reserved. They didn't laugh at my jokes.

 

2. One of their innovations - and one of the elements of their style (which sometimes worked for me, and sometimes did not), is that there is an equality accross musical parts. This is more radical than it may sound. For example, in traditional pop music, or even in traditional (homophonic melodic) classical music, different musical parts enjoy different "status" in the overall hierarchy. Some parts are louder than others, some parts are accompanying others. Typically, for example, the singer is king, and other instruments support the singer and the singer's melody. However, the Glass ensemble is trained to subvert the typical hierarchical relationships among parts, and the singer is not neccessarily King. If you check out his own music, (e.g. Einstein On The Beach) vocal parts are often given solfege syllables, or similarly "de-humanizing" lyrics that diminish the primacy of their traditional role. They are no longer the stars, they are treated like any other instrumental part in a fabric of instrumental parts in which all parts interact as equals.

 

When working with them, that was great when I wanted to treat a vocal part as an instrumental part. However, if I wanted the vocal part to stand out with more flavor and attitude - that's not really what they're about.

 

And did I mention they wear black clothes?

 

-Peace, Love, and Brittanylips

[GeoffonTour]

I'm 19, & the project is basically a 40 minute presentation on a subject of our choice. So far a couple of drummers have done the history of drums/cymbals (both ran to an hour & a half) and a guitarist did the history of metal (an hour) so with all the music I'm playing I've been trying to keep the text as concise as possible.

I've been using wikipedia as my main resource of information as it's fantastic for context (everything is interlinked, generally the more times a name shows up the more important they were) and a few other sites including kylegann.com which was where I got the impression that minimalism was no longer a practical form of music.

I would've like to start the project much earlier on as I would've been able to filter far more information, but it probably would've ended up too long. I'm hoping to be able to answer questions on the backgrounds of the composers as I've been reading far more than I've written (it's not really a written exam).

[syncretism]

...but how much have you been listening to, geoff?

[GeoffonTour]

Not enough, it's not very easy music to find (I cannae afford to just buy a load of CDs). Most of the project has been done from descriptions of what I should be hearing.