Minimal music has been around since the late 1950s when La Monte Young began experimenting with extremely long tones in his music. By the mid - to late 60s, several other American composers, among them Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Jon Gibson, etc. , were writing works which could be categorized as Minimalist. As with much American art, Minimal music was (and in some quarters remains) controversial, yet it has profoundly revitalized contemporary music.
Though Minimal music dates back to the late 50s, its history and development is rather murky. The generally perceived notion is that American Composers - Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, etc. - created and developed the style. There were, however, a significant number of other composers who made important contributions, Glass often cites Jon Gibson, Terry Jennings and Charlemagne Palestine (all participating in the vibrant arts community in Soho in the late 60s) as early and significant Minimalists. Harold Budd, Pauline Oliveros and others whose works could be categorized as Minimalist, were active in Southern California around the same time.
While not all Minimalist compositions are easily categorized, they are frequently characterized by the following elements:
REDUCTIVE STYLE: One finds a minimum of musical means. Early works tend to have fixed, even monochromatic timbres, unchanging dynamics and unwavering tempos.
REPETITION: A motive-a brief melody or theme-is repeated numerous times before proceeding to the next. The music is often modular, comprised of a series of repeated motives. Repetition may be replaced by extended drones.
TONAL OR MODAL HARMONIES: The harmonic language however, is often non-functional.
STEADY PULSE-AN UNFLAGGING, METRONOMIC BEAT: Gradually Unfolding Process: The musical process is in the foreground, readily perceived or understood. The tradional narrative structures of music (e.g. exposition, development and recapitulation, etc...) with their inherently dramatic tension and heights are absent.
ALTERED TIME FRAME: Durations tend to be long, especially in light of the reductive style.
These first four elements fly in the face of the avant garde and academic styles of the 50s and 60s, which made the early Minimalists personae non grata. The last two characteristics, the non-narrative, non-goal oriented structures or processes, and the non-colloquial time element, yield and entirely new musical aesthetic. For the Minimalists, form and content become one and the same. Form is dictated by the process which, in turn, is the content of the work. The reductive nature of Minimal music, repetition, tonal materials and steady pulse all facilitate the perception of the gradual musical processes. Irregular or changing rhythms, chromaticism and dissonance, variable tempi, in toto, constant change and variation of the constituent musical elements would obfuscate the musical processes and were, therefore, frequently discarded by the Minimalists in their compositions. The focus on what is normally considered the minutiae of music, those elements which are usually deemed incidental, demands new modes of listening and reveals an unexpected wealth of interest and detail.
Minized
M.Nomized - Wooden Music 9 - 2002 - Mp3
P. Fraction Studio, France.
