Minimalism

What are your favorites? Mine is "Shri Camel" by Terry Riley.
His "In C" is also interesting.

 

I agree with Robert Wyatt: "I am a real Minimalist, because I don't do very much. I know some minimalists who call themselves minimalist but they do loads of minimalism. That is cheating."

-- Ian

 

LOL - that's an excellent quote.

Tony.

 

Reich - Music for 18 musicians
Adams - Shaker loops
Hawtin - Consumed

 

Good ones, Zygote, hard to follow those. I'd add Reich Octet and Reich 6 Pianos as performed by Piano Circus - incredible energy compared with the first release.

 

I prefer ‘minimalism’ when it’s a little more developed. With someone like Steve Reich I like the Desert Music – very compelling piece and Tehilim. But with something like Different Trains, although it got some rave reviews, it seems to me to take the ‘minimal’ approach to a point where it falls apart under its own ambition.

With John Adams, I like the Chamber Concerto – a fascinating piece, the Violin Concerto (best violin concerto written in the last few years, there’s a good recording on Naxos with Chloe Hanslip) and of course Nixon in China (best opera written in the last few years). The early work Harmonium is also impressive.

 

I'd really take issue with you regarding different trains. I think it's a genuine attempt to break away from the restrictions that Minimalism places upon composers. It is a very limiting genre, just as serialism was. There's only so much you can do, so either like Berg you extend the genre, or it will eventually fade away as composers take something more challenging. There's only so long that composers can compose music like 'In C'.

I do think that Glass is by far the most cliched and hackneyed of all the composers, even his opera's seem to me to always result in falling back upon cliches. I personally loathe the violin concerto, it's muzak for Classic FM to play and be 'daring' not a piece that will enter the general repertory or at least not with any longevity.

The Knussen concerto has a chance though, that is barborous music, that sounds full of real passion. It's certainly not minimalist though.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks Glass is dreadful.

Does Morton Feldman count? He's not really a minimalist, but his music is pretty minimal. Also, Giacinto Scelsi's piano music is not unadjacent to minimalism, but much more interesting than most of what gets called minimalism. Stunning, in fact.

-- Ian

 

Don't forget John Cage 4' 33"
Is it an art statement , a piss take or just plain provocative?
All I know I "heard" a solo piano version and it made me listen to the ambient environment , people in the bar, a bus passing by, my own breathing.
Not sure I'd listen to it at home - mind you it would make an interesting demo disc!!

 

Cage is great, but definitely not a minimalist.

As it happens, I'm listening to this at the moment:

http://ssl.adhost.com/jazzloft/baskets/pos.cfm?CD=9245

It took me a long time to get my head around Cage and his vast discography, but then I heard his record HPSCHD, which is awesome. He's one of the greats, no question.

-- Ian

 

Glass has produced some gems and some utter excrement IMO. He has followed the typical rock / pop career path, i.e. his very early works genuinely interesting and innovative, later stuff becoming ever more pompous, ambitious and stale - the same tired idea bolstered, reheated and diluted. I love the early ensemble stuff like Music In 12 Parts and Einstein On The Beach, plus his solo piano work is pretty good, but the later orchestral stuff blows chunks IMO.

Glass is a one trick pony – it’s a bloody great trick, but all one needs are a couple of early albums where he did it in it’s most simple, direct and pure form.

Tony.

PS Reich has two tricks, both good.

 

No doubt his earliest works were fresh and interesting. The worst thing of his I heard though was a CD of 'songs' including one with Paul Simon. Real tosh that one

 

Whatever you may say about Glass, his style is instantly recognisable and by quite a wide cross section of people. It has also been very influential – look at composers like Nyman. Some of it is strangely memorable. His music is ubiquitous on TV programmes and commercials – so much so that I wish the people who chose the music for these things listened to a few other (more interesting) living composers.

Another minimalist composer the TV people seem to like is Arvo Part – someone else who is appealing in small doses. If I hear that extract from Fratres again when they want to create a certain mood I’ll dash my brains out.

Lordsummit I take your point about the need to extend a genre like minimalism so that it develops as an art form. Different Trains certainly has a lot of ideas and concepts, it’s just that IMHO they don’t add up to much musical satisfaction and enjoyment. I prefer the way that John Adams has extended minimalism in pieces like the Chamber Concerto and El Nino for example. I find these pieces more musically engaging and they certainly don’t lack for new ideas and concepts.

 

Just goes to show it's horses for courses I guess. I love Reich 'Different Trains'.....played loud. I also like Glass 'songs from liquid days' with Laurie Anderson and Paul SImon . I don't care much for the Adams Operas as the words just annoy me.

As for Part...there's nothing like Miserere for me.

New miimalism? Try Monolake. HERE

 

I'm not a 'minimalist' actually. Hope you don't mind me interfering ....

I always had a weak spot for the album Maximazing the audience by Wim Mertens. Although at some points the singers are a bit out of tune, and I do not really appreciate the recording sound: I would have preferred it a bit more 'classical', because the music deserves it. The way it's recorded is too much 'plastic' for me.
Anyway, sometimes I listen to it, and it's allright. My favourite numbers are the title song and 'The Fosse'.

 

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