T. Riley – In C.

Although not, strictly speaking, the first piece of minimalist music, “In C” by Terry Riley is arguably the most influential and defining work in the minimalist movement. Preceding “in C” was La Monte Young; the first minimalist composer. Riley elaborated Young’s musical approach of sparse materials and long tone process by adding tonality to the method. For example, while Young was adverse to stating, or even alluding to, a tonal centre in his compositions, “In C” relies heavily on the notion of key.

Though minimalism began with Young it was Riley who bought it to the masses, his compositions being far more accessible to the public. The two contemporaries met in 1958, Young already immersed in his minimalist theory of music and Riley coming from a “rural hippie” upbringing, he was introduced to marijuana and mescaline, and was inspired, so much so that his first tape loop work was titled Mescaline mix. In his own words Riley admits he is indebted to Young for introducing him to “this concept of not having to press ahead to create interest”

It is worthy to note that one key element of this composition is credited to Steve Reich. The high C’s played constantly by the piano are essential for both rhythmic and harmonic cohesion, and are a crucial aspect to the compositions character.

This piece is both minimalist and aleatoric style, the aleatoric style lends itself to minimalism as this genre’s characteristic trait is the subtle development of very simple themes or motifs etc, the fact that in C is left to the emotion of the performance (this is assuming that the musicians performing are proficient in ensemble playing), a composition of another style could rely on the written melody or rhythm to provide interest but the success of a minimalist performance relies much more on the performer than any other genre. That being said, the aleatoric nature of in C makes it difficult to discuss in detail the musical aspects of the piece. as each performance is new, which makes for compelling listening. For example, in the original recording involving Terry Riley there is a canonical section of motif number 7, eventually being echoed by multiple players as they stagger their entrance. Whereas other performances crescendo and then diminuendo at different points leaving perhaps just an electric guitar playing. Also, the timbre can change depending on which instruments are selected to play, the tempo, melodic focus, rhythm all change from performance to performance as well. The two aspects that can be discussed in general terms are structure and harmony. The players can remain on one motif as long as they choose but must always remain with 2-3 motifs of each other, although performances can go for hours or 10 minutes, the general timing of the piece is 45 to 90 minutes. The piece always begins in the same manner, the high c on piano and the other instruments enter at their leisure. The piece also ends in the same way, once one player has reached the final 53^rd motif, they remain on that until all members of the ensemble have arrived, when everyone is playing in unison they crescendo and diminuendo a few times and then cease playing the motif when they feel it is musically appropriate. In regards to harmony the piece generally gravitates towards E minor in the middle and G towards the end.

– Jamie

 

 

Steve Reich- Music for 18 Musicians

Music for 18 Musicians is probably Steve Reichs most well known piece and is considered to be a prime example of minimalism. The term ‘minimalism’ itself has been applied to describe the style of composition from the likes of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Phillip Glass and many others (so ‘minimalism,’ as it was first conceived during the 60’s-70’s). That particular era of minimalism focused on a limited used of pitch material and rhythmic values, with pieces that tended to last between 15 minutes, to up to several hours.

Nowadays, aspects of minimalism can be found in the music of artists as diverse as LFO, Aphex Twin, The Orb, Stars of the Lid, just to name a few. Therefore, it is silly to pigeonhole an artist into the ‘minimalism’ category, since concepts such as repetition can be found in genres across the board.

Music for 18 Musicians can then be considered a precursor to what electronic dance music and ambient music would realise in the years to come. Aspects such as short, repeated fragments, simple (minimal) harmonic structures, strict rhythmic values, a strong focus on timbral quality and a lengthy, drawn out compositional process. Its influence not only resonates with the evolution of musical technology, but also towards the aspiring mind of the artist, as the simplicity of minimalism is quite easy to replicate for anyone with a drum machine or an appropriate digital-audio-workstation. This is perhaps why so many aspects of minimalism appear in such vast quantities of contemporary music today,

Shannon Barnes

Steve Reich – City Life

Oh god, where are the ladders?

City Life by Steve Reich is a minimalist piece that probably got its name from its use of samples. Throughout the piece we here car alarms, horns, brakes, boats. as well as vocal samples “check this out”, “stand by” and many others. The piece is divided into 5 sections, recognisable due to the samples used in that particular section. The first section, “Check it out” started off with some chords that for some reason seemed to scream Sim City. The following section has a really cool texture, with two parts playing an unothodox rhythm one beat apart from each other. The use of samples I found to be particularly brilliant, although I’m not sure why. They just worked. The long chords were often accompanied by a car horn sample or the sound of a door being slammed, and they really fit the mood of the piece.

In the second section, “Piledriver/Alarms”, the piece starts to become much more rhythmically strong, with the samples being used to accentuate the beat. The piledriver becomes almost like a metronome pulse in the first minute or so, then after the tempo change it is used in conjunction with the alarms to accenuate the beat. “It’s been a honeymoon”, part three, uses great repetition on the sample of the same name, and has some dissonent chords in the background. Eventually the sample is accompanied by a particularly dissonant chord and slowly the emphasis fades from the sample to the instruments. Later a second sample is heard and the samples once again becomes the focus. Again, the instruments slowly take the attention and there is some interesting counterpoint between the samples and instruments.

“Heartbeats/Boats and Buoys” features, as you would expect, a heartbeat sample and samples of boats (any buoys). A very dissonant section, there is something particularly disconcerting about the sound of the boat that comes in throughout. There is a low drone thoughout the section that mimics the sound of the boat. “Heavy smoke” uses samples from the NYC Fire Department the day the world trade centre was bombed. The alarms of the fire engines mark the tempo, and the samples are used frantically, often in conjunction with a very frantic rhythm from the instruments.

Overall I found this an incredible piece of music, the sample use was absolutely brilliant, and the rhythmic material was really interesting, as you’d expect from a Reich piece.

Nathan