Repetitive music

The repetitive music , also called music minimalist or music of phase , is current of Modern music appeared in the Années 1960 in the United States. The principal representatives are Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, Terry Riley and Michael Gordon.

The esthetics of the music minimalist is based on several points:

a return to a harmony “consonante” (even tonal, or modal in certain works)
the repetition of sentences, figures or cells musical with or without small gradual variations

Birth

It was then a question of making a rupture with the abuses the post- Sérialisme, which became a music of which the structure was increasingly rigid. The current of the repetitive music is also a return to the tonal Musique. The repetition with profusion of the " microphone-cells mélodiques" , intermingling and play sometimes with " micro" - intervals (like the Quarter tone, or the huitèmes of tone), makes it possible to plunge the listener in a true state of envoûtement.

One could make go up the premises of the music minimalist to certain works of Erik Satie ( Vexations , 1892-93) and of Marcel Duchamp ( Readimades, musical Erratum ) and even of Schönberg ( Farben COp 16 NO3).

Influences

Nevertheless, although born mainly in the United States, the strongest influences of the music minimalist are in the cultures Indian, indonésienne and Ghanaian.

In 4 ' 33 of John Cage (1952), a composition which lasts only the time indicated by its title, we hear only the ambient sounds, work being itself only one prolonged caesura, carrying out it not producing any sound; this work can be regarded as the precursor of some of the most projecting features of the minimalism. The advantage of Cage for the Zen is well-known.

The music of Assembles It Young rises from his study of the traditional Indian theories; the Indian Musique was also the inspiration of Terry Riley for In C (1964) and that of Philip Glass for her operas. In the Years 1970, Reich went to Africa to study the play of the Ghanaian drums and includes of them elements in its music with patterns. Russell Hartenberger and Robert Becker of Nexus studied the African drums and was regular also members of the instrumental whole of Reich. Finally a major influence of the music of phase, of Reich and Glass in particular, is the Gamelan indonésien and more largely the Balinese music than they have both studied.

Localization

The movement settled mainly in the two areas of the United States the most opened with the artistic innovations and the influences of the nonEuropean cultures: New York and the West coast. The minimalism also has followers in Great Britain and continental Europe, but it remains before a whole New Yorkean and Californian phenomenon. Certain theorists make a difference between the “static minimalism” (Ligeti, Feldman) and the “minimalism with impulse” (Reich, Glass, Adams). As one could expect it, its repercussion is large in the popular and commercial music (the formation of Riley comes from the jazz and Glass borrowed some techniques from the rock'n'roll).

Derived

The music minimalist is also current of Electronic music, near to the click' cut, it is represented by several labels of which celebrates it Thousand Plates.

Works essential founders

1964 : In C of Terry Riley, the first part founder.
1965: It' S Gonna Rain of Steve Reich, the first work using a shift of phase.
1967: Piano Phase of Steve Reich, the seminal part of the style minimalist affirming himself as tel.
1971: Drumming of Steve Reich, for stylistic research on the percussions minimalists.
1971: Music in Twelve Shares of Philip Glass.
1976: Für Alina of Arvo Pärt, which will create the style Tintinnabulum attached to the music minimalist.
1976: Einstein one the Beach , of Philip Glass, which will be the first opera minimalist.
1976: Music for 18 Musicians of Steve Reich, the part minimalist probably the most succeeded.

1978: Shaker Loops of John Adams.

1987: Concerto for violin and orchestra of Philip Glass.

Musicians

See too

Internal bonds

Modern music
Minimalisme

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