Class 6

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Class 6

• Contemporary Music

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Minimalism

• New genre that also arises in the 1960s
• Begins at around the same time as FLUXUS and
  beginnings of exploration of extended techniques

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Minimalism and the 1960s

• In the last class, we discussed how the 1960s
  were a time of social upheaval in the US
• FLUXUS was a sort of artistic upheaval that arose
  around the same time
• Questioning prevailing standards

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• Minimalism also questions prevailing standards,
  but in a different way
• Questions atonality and serialism - why all the
  dissonance?
• Questions Babbitts belief that contemporary
  classical music should be cloistered
• More broadly, questions the values of Western
  music by using key aspects of Indian music,
  African music and rock

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Minimalism

• What does the name suggest?

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What it sounds like

• Extremely repetitive
• Limited number of materials (that is, short
  phrases, small number of phrases, and so on)
• Usually consonant

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Listening log 24 Terry Riley, In C (1964)

• How does this sound like it was made?
• Is this pleasant or unpleasant to listen to? Why?

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Terry Riley

• 1935- (Colfax, California)

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Terry Riley

• Strongly interested in Indian classical music,
  which typically features a drone (a main pitch
  that never goes away)
• and then improvisation based around that drone
• Notes twist around the drone
• That is very similar to what Riley does in In C,
  except he uses major key and regular pulse

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Steve Reich

• 1936- (New York)

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Steve Reich

• Has a traditional music background, studies
  12-tone music
• Inspired by In C, as well as (later in his
  career) West African drumming and Indonesian
  gamelan music

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Come Out, 1966

• Plays a recording on two different channels that
  are playing at slightly different speeds
• As time goes on, the two recordings begin to
  interact with each other in slightly different
  ways

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Music as a Gradual Process

• Performing and listening to a gradual process
  resembles
• Pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing
  it gradually come to rest
• Turning over an hour glass and watching the sand
  slowly run through the bottom
• Placing your feet in the sand by the oceans edge
  and watching, feeling, and listening to the waves
  gradually bury them.

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Listening log 25 Reich, Come Out

• Does this piece sound like those things? If so,
  in what sense?

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Phasing

• Reich writes instrumental music as well
• Similar elements moved past one another in Come
  Out
• Reich applies the same principle to his
  instrumental music
• This is called phasing

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Phasing

• In contrast to serialism, phasing creates
  complexity that it is possible for the layman
  to hear and understand
• Reich and other composers begin to use it in
  instrumental works that become wildly popular
• (At least by contemporary-music terms)

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Piano Phase (1967)

• For two pianos playing the same figure over and
  over
• One gradually gets off from the other
• Creates an unusual psychoacoustic sensation
  (messes with your head)

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Listening log 26 Reich, Piano Phase

• Where would be the best place to listen to the
  piece?
• Is there ever a point when you lose track and
  forget what instruments youre listening to?

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Philip Glass

• 1937- (Baltimore)

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Glass

• Studied at Juilliard, then in Paris
• Travels to India and becomes interested in Indian
  music
• Attempts to emulate rhythms of Indian music
  (additive rhythms)
• Moves to New York in 1960s
• Composes, and makes living as a cab driver

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Glass

• Forms his own ensemble and goes out on tour, like
  a rock band
• Difference with usual composer-performer
  relationship in classical music
• Different skill set required to play minimalist
  music
• Intense concentration
• Ability to reproduce same sound in a precise way

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How Performers Play

• Throughout 20th century, performance practice
  becomes more machine-like
• Less vibrato
• Less rubato
• Without inflection
• Minimalism, in particular, requires many exact
  repetitions

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Pair Group Activity Rachmaninoff vs. Glass
Music in 12 Parts

• Listen to these two examples and compare the role
  of the performer in each
• Pay particular attention to the vocalist in the
  Glass piece

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How they Play

• Focus more on precision as 20th century continues
• Less on overt emotion

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How We Listen

• Minimalism not always meant for active listening
• Example Glass opera Einstein on the Beach lasts
  about five hours
• Audience members free to enter or leave as they
  please

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Machine Music

• Less emotional
• Less dependent upon the human things in
  performance
• Reichs Process Music -- you set up the
  process, then let it go (like turning on an
  appliance)
• You can partake in a performance even if you
  wont commit to hearing all of it--it is
  indifferent to you

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In any case

• Minimalism becomes very popular, and remains an
  important strain of American classical music

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