# Minimalism



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

.

What do you think of the minimalism in this work? Someone from a different forum showed me this as a response to my own EP I just released here in the Today's Composers section.

I find the minimalism exacting and of something to be treasured. It's so full of merriment! I think Mozart could have written it.

Here is a second example:






I'd love to find more like these!


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Some existing threads on Minimalism:

Do you like minimalism?

Minimalism: A More or Less Neutral Discussion

Minimalism

Minimalists


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

SanAntone said:


> Some existing threads on Minimalism:
> 
> Do you like minimalism?
> 
> ...


Ah, should have used the search function. But, this conversation does revolve specifically around the two works in the OP, and opens it up to offer more to discuss and share.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

It's interesting that both pieces were featured in movies (Master and Commander and Badlands), which goes to my personal feeling that everyone likes classical music; they just don't realize it.

The third Agnus Dei from Josquin's Missa Pange Lingua is another example of proto-minimalism.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Manxfeeder said:


> It's interesting that both pieces were featured in movies (Master and Commander and Badlands), which goes to my personal feeling that everyone likes classical music; they just don't realize it.
> 
> The third Agnus Dei from Josquin's Missa Pange Lingua is another example of proto-minimalism.


Lots of folks like orchestral soundtracks. Like my melody thread implies, I think we need strong hooks to make classical come alive again.

I love the link you shared, it's beautiful.


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## chipia (Apr 22, 2021)

Manxfeeder said:


> It's interesting that both pieces were featured in movies (Master and Commander and Badlands), which goes to my personal feeling that everyone likes classical music; they just don't realize it.


People like classical music only if it sounds like Pop. The examples in the OP are popular because their minimalism makes them more similar to Pop Music than most classical music.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

chipia said:


> People like classical music only if it sounds like Pop. The examples in the OP are popular because their minimalism makes them more similar to Pop Music than most classical music.


If by pop you mean a good melody, than I see nothing wrong with that.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> The third Agnus Dei from Josquin's Missa Pange Lingua is another example of proto-minimalism.


I don't see this at all.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> .
> 
> What do you think of the minimalism in this work?


I don't see this at all.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

What do you think of the minimalism in this?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> I don't see this at all.


Hmmm, maybe it's the relaxed feel of both the works rather than being actually minimalistic.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

François Couperin's _Le Tic Toc Choc ou les Maillotins_ is a fun minimalist piece that sets you in a groove and carries you along with it. It reminds me in their similar ebb and flow of Philip Glass's _Mad Rush_.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

A lot of minimalism isn't melodic at all, and a lot of dance music was repetitive by nature. Minimalism was a specific development in music, it isn't just defined by a lot of ostinato passages like in Schubert 9/4 or something.

I actually think a lot of longer-form adagio/slow movements are more in the mode of what became minimalism based on their emphasis on gradual shifts in a sustained mood rather than moment-to-moment development.

One of my favorite ones from the romantic era to show this- the amazing Offertorium movement from the Berlioz requiem, with swirling orchestration under a repeating two note choral melody.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

I like a lot of minimalist works by Glass, John Adams, and Gorecki's _Symphony #3 "Sorrowful Songs"_ is a one of the great symphonies post WWII. Minimalism came at just the right time in the early 1970s when classical music audiences were growing bored with the international serial movement and related experiments. Popular composers who were still composing in the tonal and more traditional style such as Britten and Shostakovich were dying off, and others such as Walter Piston and William Schuman were much admired and discussed by critics but not much loved by the wider audience. Back in the 1980s, lots of critics and snobs called Philip Glass a flash-in-the-pan and now in 2021 they guy has 14 symphonies under his belt and he has earned the respect of the likes of Gidon Kremer, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, Dennis Russell Davies, Yo-Yo Ma, Marin Alsop and many other well-respected names that have recorded his music. Indeed, Glass can be identified as reaching the status of having become a "Grand Old Man of American Music" right up there with Ives and Copland.

I think that like everything else from Baroque to Classical to Romantic to Neo-Classical to Serial; Minimalism will be incorporated into the paradigm of classical music and it's already a part of the new eclecticism. Just as contemporary composers of all styles occasionally employ serial technique, or John Cage's "indeterminacy", minimalist technique will be one more tool in the tool shed.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Hmmm, maybe it's the relaxed feel of both the works rather than being actually minimalistic.


Three senses of minimalism

1. Repetitive -- e.g. this






2. Drone based music like this






3. Music which seems not at all busy, lots of space, quiet. I think this is what you want Captainnumber 36.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Especially liked the last piano one Mandryka


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Especially liked the last piano one Mandryka


I knew you would. It's from a set of 20 pieces.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

This sort of issue has interested me in the past. Ages ago, I opened a discussion on it:

The origins of "Minimalism"


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Simeon Ten Holt : Canto Ostinato XXL

Sandra & Jeroen van Veen (piano duo), Elizabeth & Marcel Bergmann (piano duo) & Aart Bergwerff (organ)

Try this Captain.



You can also find it on You Tube.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

I am not quite familiar with Minimalism, but according to my limited experience (John Coolidge Adams), Minimalism isn't bad since the music is also fun and quite melodic, which as a fan of Mozart, you might love.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Rogerx said:


> Simeon Ten Holt : Canto Ostinato XXL
> 
> Sandra & Jeroen van Veen (piano duo), Elizabeth & Marcel Bergmann (piano duo) & Aart Bergwerff (organ)
> 
> ...


1st track sounding great, thanks for the rec.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

chipia said:


> People like classical music only if it sounds like Pop. The examples in the OP are popular because their minimalism makes them more similar to Pop Music than most classical music.


Do you have a further point to make?

This sounds like an aloof dismissal minimalism because it is popular and nothing more. Is that your unspoken point?

You don't like pop music?


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

One forgotten composer I've always liked who should be remembered today, but isn't, is Colin McPhee. He was actually a friend and I believe one-time roommate of Leonard Bernstein. In any case, he wrote wonderful music, including this gem that is quite "minimalistic" WAY before minimalism was a "thing" (he wrote this in 1958). I don't think he's trying to be "minimalist", just trying to write good music (he was actually inspired by world/ethnic music). Here's a live performance and also a recording:


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> 1st track sounding great, thanks for the rec.


Did tou explore it any further, I am on to Ludovico Einaudi , I fell in love at once.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Rogerx said:


> Did tou explore it any further, I am on to Ludovico Einaudi , I fell in love at once.


I got about half way, remember really enjoying it!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I got about half way, remember really enjoying it!


If you have time try a little Einaudi, see if it's your cup of tea .


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Rogerx said:


> Did tou explore it any further, I am on to Ludovico Einaudi , I fell in love at once.


I tried one work by Ludovico, I didn't much care for the instruments used, or at least how they were used. Too electronic sounding or something. I could be way off with that though.

Edit: Tried another, it's a piano piece. I like it more!


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