Minimal Music

Minimal Music (also musical minimalism ) is a collective term for different musical styles within the new music that developed from the 1960s in the United States. The name was the beginning of the 1970s, influenced by Michael Nyman based on the derived from the visual arts concept of Minimal Art

Influences and position in contemporary music

The minimal music influences from Asian (mainly Indian and Indonesian, particularly the gamelan ) and African music (especially their polyrhythms ), the Notre Dame school of 12-13. Century (Free ) jazz as well as certain forms of rock ( psychedelic rock ). It largely ignores the conventions of composition, as they were in the west ( ie, essentially European) culture until then, especially the conventions of the avant-garde of the 1950s and early 1960s, particularly the then- dominant serial music. Therefore, it is often understood as an antithesis to serialism. From representatives of this direction, it is often vehemently rejected, although theoretically applies, for example, La Monte Young on Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. It is often characterized as a post-modern music.

Starting from the minimal music developed in the 1970s, the post- minimalism. Many of today's producers of Minimal Techno see themselves in the tradition of minimalist music.

Characterization

The precise characterization of this kind of music is as difficult as a distinction from a post - minimalism because of the wide variety of styles. There are a number of stylistic features:

• Repetitive structures which, inter alia, created by the juxtaposition and repetition smallest motivic ( melodic, rhythmic or harmonic ) cells or "pattern".
• Stable harmony, tonal musical language with many consonances
• Additive and subtractive processes: By adding or taking away individual notes of motivic cells, these changes in their rhythmic structure.
• Phase shifts, overlays, accent shifts of motivic cells in different voices have a sound layer arise
• Continuity and avoidance of stress build-up.
• Timbre and density are little changed.
• It gives the impression to hear fragments of a permanent musical continuum.
• Extended concept of time: New dimensions in the duration of the pieces - a few seconds or minutes to hours, days, weeks
• Positive function of oblivion

Minimal Music is compared with classical music performances are rather low harmonic complexity: Minimal Music moves mostly in the context of a modal tonality and dissonance used sparingly. The rhythmic element (often polyrhythms ) that is strongly emphasized in the minimal music, it is highly repetitive: A simple basic pattern (Pattern ) is repeated over longer periods continuously with only slight, often barely perceptible variations, the piece is then given by the simple juxtaposition variations. If a pattern is played simultaneously at slightly different speeds, it comes to the so-called effect of the phase shift ( phase shifting, phasing ).

The minimal music has ( with the there are some interactions) achieved a considerable popularity, although not necessarily in the public traditional classical music as contemporary music outside of pop music.

Composers

Among the founders of Minimal music include Steve Reich, La Monte Young, Terry Jennings and Terry Riley. Regardless of the street musician Moondog ( and much later Charlemagne Palestine ) have contributed to the development of musical form. About Tony Conrad, John Cale has become familiar with the minimalism. Other important composers of American Minimal Music are Philip Glass ( the minimal music especially with his score for Koyaanisqatsi instilled in one of the first to a wider audience ), John Adams, Jon Gibson, Tom Johnson and Arnold Dreyblatt.

In Europe, inter alia, the British Michael Nyman and Christopher Fox ( music system, an experimental, specifically British form of minimal music ), the Frenchman Yann Tiersen, the Belgian Wim Mertens, the Estonian Arvo Pärt, the Dutchman Louis Andriessen and Simeon ten Holt (since 1979), the German Peter Michael Hamel, Hans Otte, Norbert Walter Peters and Ernst Albrecht Stiebler, Liechtenstein Jogen Debel, the Italian Ludovico Einaudi and Gianmartino Durighello and György Ligeti submitted compositions ( in his late work ), to minimum to Music can count or who are affected by this.

As a precursor, Erik Satie, John Cage and Morton Feldman called sometimes. In addition, there are individual features of minimalist music already in the film music of Bernard Herrmann and / or in the Carmina Burana by Carl Orff.

Exemplary works

• Terry Riley: In C, 1964
• Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace, 1985-7
• La Monte Young: The Well - Tuned Piano, 1964ff.
• La Monte Young: The Four Dreams of China, 1962
• Steve Reich: Piano Phase for two pianos, 1967
• Steve Reich: Drumming, 1971
• Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians, 1976
• Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach (Music Theatre ), 1976
• Philip Glass: Akhnaten (Music Theatre ), 1983
• Philip Glass: Glassworks, 1981
• Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together and Attica, 1972
• John Adams: Shaker Loops and Phrygian Gates, 1977/78
• Louis Andriessen: Hoketus, 1975-77
• Simeon ten Holt: Canto Ostinato, 1979