Minimalist Music PDF

Minimalist Music  Minimalist music Most electronic music today comes from a genre that was established in 1960s, called minimalist music There are plenty examples of it in hip-hop, trance, drum and bass and many other genres. Here is one of them.  Origins The ori...

Minimalist Music  Minimalist music Most electronic music today comes from a genre that was established in 1960s, called minimalist music There are plenty examples of it in hip-hop, trance, drum and bass and many other genres. Here is one of them.  Origins The origins of this type of music stem from centuries, if not millennia ago (such as Gamelan from Indonesia) There were then also famous composers from later periods that initially experimented with this music, such as Erik Satie (1866- 1925)  Origins Most of the composers that focused on this genre in the early days come from America, such as: Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley Through this time, many other famous composers of the time wrote one or more pieces in this genre too. (Arvo Part, John Cage, Henryk Gorecki etc)  Features  Minimalist music uses features like phasing, pulse, and other rhythmic features to create dissonance or rhythmic imbalance that are later resolved. The simplicity of harmony and melody is where its name mostly comes from, not necessarily the simplicity of performance or rhythm.  Features Steve Reich’s piece ‘ Music for 18 Musicians’ is a masterful experiment of rhythm and phasing.  Features  Some of the key features of this piece are Phasing, Additive Composition, Drone, Ostinato and Cell  Cell is a small pattern of notes that is repeated or slightly altered throughout the piece  Ostinato is one of the most important techniques in music. It simply refers to repetition of a pattern.  Drone emphasizes long sustain of the same sound or motif.  Features  Phase refers to constant ‘falling into and out of rhythm’. These shifts could happen due to different layers having a fraction of a measure shorter pattern to play or them shifting the starting note to the end of the pattern and progressively moving towards the start. This results with instruments eventually coming ‘in and out of phase’ but only for a short moment.  Features A good example of additive composition is process music where new layers are added on top of an original idea.  Examples Perhaps the most minimalist piece of all time is ‘4:33’ by John Cage, written initially for a solo pianist, these days is performed by orchestras around the world. Story says that John Cage went to NASA laboratories and sat in a silent room, where astronauts train for conditions in space for a while. He came to the conclusion that there is really no such thing as silence, as he could hear his heart beat and nervous system sounding. One of his ideas behind this piece was that the audience would be the actual instrument in this piece.  Examples Simplicity is sometimes harder to execute well than in technically challenging work. It still takes a skilled musician to make a simple piece beautiful like this piano piece by Arvo Part Or this one by Phillip Glass  Minimalist Music and the Birth of Hip Hop It didn’t take long for creative young minds to find different ways of exploring ideas of classical composers. In Bronx, New York, DJ Kool Herc and DJ Africa Bambaataa created a new genre based around repetition that will soon take over the world. They started organising ‘Block Parties’ in early 1970s and mixing