Monday, April 27, 2015

Minimalist Music Composition Methods

The conception of "Minimalism" in classical was peerless named as such in the tardy 1960s, on the contrary its roots drive very back, arguably to the tardy 19th-century occupation of Erik Satie. Minimalist melody is generally typified by its challenging characteristics, such as the call of silence and repetition, or "looping," of particular phrases at varying interval intervals. A minimalist composer might as well knowingly restrict the tonal reach of the quantity, manipulate drones or practice an immoderately slow throb. Advanced forms of electronic dance rhythm such as techno owe all the more to the minimalist institution of Essay.


Pre-Minimalism: Anton Webern and Serialism


Anton Webern (1883-1945) composed short pieces using Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone technique, whereby all 12 paper money on the chromatic scale are treated as equally as practicable. He employed a "serialist" way, repeating particular patterns throughout his compositions. A lyrical "series" is a particular locate or row of paper money. Glass has said that he prefers the term "music with repetitive structures" to "minimalism" when describing the majority of his output.

Steve Reich

Steve Reich (1936- ) has incorporated elements of rock, jazz and non-Western music into his work, having studied drumming in Ghana, Indonesian music at the American Society for Eastern Arts and cantillation (traditional chanting) in Jerusalem. Reich's music tends to feature a hypnotic, rhythmic "pulse." He pioneered the use of tape loops, by using two identical tape recordings which were played together at slightly different speeds.



Philip Glass (1937- ) learned Schoenberg's 12-tone means at university, nevertheless his early activity was heavily influenced by eastern modern and he spent time researching in India and North Africa. Glass composed music which featured repeated musical "cells" which would gradually vary, For instance by the addition or subtraction of a note. He tended to write pieces for small ensembles, especially for vocalists, organists and wind instruments. Webern focused on the paper money' mathematical correlation, rather than their consanguinity in terms of solution. Such repetition became a interpretation Component in the minimalist compositions that would replace succeeding in the 20th century, although chief minimalist composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass would further bring widely varying influences into play.

Philip Glass



Although the two recordings would start identically, they would gradually move out of phase with each other, creating unfamiliar harmonies and rhythms. Reich also used this technique with instruments for "Piano Phase" and "Violin Phase" (both 1967).


John Adams


John Adams (1947- ) said in 2006 that minimalist music must contain "a perceptible pulse, emphatic tonality within a relatively slow harmonic rhythm and a repetition of small cells or motifs, which over time create larger architectonic structures." Rapid harmonic or rhythmic changes are out, as is "the rhetoric of closure", as a minimalist piece is more likely to stop abruptly than to use a traditional ending. In his 1977 piece "Phrygian Gates," Adams limited himself to the Phrygian and Lydian modes; this restriction allowed him to explore the harmonic possibilities of these scales.