# The origins of "Minimalism"



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*I'm interested in what people think of what sources "Minimalism" came from & how it developed.* Here's a quote from Australian musicologist Andrew Ford's book on c20th music titled _Illegal Harmonies _(page 173) which kind of got me thinking:



> Tracing the origins of minimalism is problematic, and it might be argued that certain pieces of baroque music work in a broadly minimalist manner: the last movement of Bach's third Brandenburd concerto would be an example. Then there is the first movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony whose development section repeats the same figure 72 times. But these are moments in larger works and they contain a good deal more harmonic variety than is generally the case with minimalist music of the 20th century. In fact, the roots of modern minimalism are not in the classical tradition at all. Minimalism was an American invention, and seems to have been inspired, in part, by the examples of other American musics, all of which had their own origins in the vernacular.


Ford goes on to discuss how things like jazz made more of an impact on the post-war generations of composers who moved towards the "Minimalist" style/techniqes than the things they were taught in university (eg. European avant-garde techniques). He mentions that Steve Reich is/was a big admirer of be-bop.

So, some (possible) precursors to "Minimalism" may have been things like the Bach & Beehoven pieces Ford mentions. But then there's other aspect of repetition like this that I recognise in the music of guys like Rachmaninov (Paques, from Suite No. 1 for two pianos), Ravel (_Bolero_), Orff (_Carmina Burana_), & maybe also Giacinoto Scelsi, Harry Partch (although he said he hated the "sell by the yard" music of the East Coast, whatever he meant by that?), Xenakis (eg. _Pleiades_, a piece for percussion instruments only, quite a bit of repetition in that) & Akira Ifukube (the Japanese composer here who is member Tapkaara's favourite). Then of course, there's non-classical music, like many aspects of repetition in folk musics.

*So what does this all mean? *Are there any connections here or do you think "Minimalism" as we know it, which took of in the USA from the late 1960's, was mainly rooted in the American "vernacular" as Ford suggests? Rachmaninov did tour and live in the USA for many years after leaving Russia in the 1910's. I think Ravel also went there & a number of others who may also be of some relevance here, eg. Prokofiev (possible impacts?). Reich in more recent works has connected with things like West African drumming (& also hip-hop).

*Do you know more about this than I do? Can you draw any conclusions from this? Please share your thoughts & provide examples which you think may be relevant...*


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I don't know what the earliest examples are, but I've always thought one of the earliest stand out composers that used hints of modern minimalism to my ears was Schubert, I hear traces of this in much of his chamber output.


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

Satie was a minimalist before there really was such a thing. I've heard something about the transparency of his writing influencing a lot of minimal electronic music outside the contemporary classical field, too.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Sid James said:


> ... "Minimalism" as we know it, which took of in the USA from the late 1960's, ...


I always thought "Minimalism" as we know it (i.e. in the usual sense of the word referring to this genre of 20th century music post World War II) started off in the 1950's?

Regardless, the one composer who seem to catch my attention with this is Philip Glass. I'm often left wondering if he is a composer of "Minimalism"? Let's pick a piece that's without a doubt composed during his earlier/middle years right in the period of "Minimalism" - _Music in 12 Parts_ written in the early 1970's. Quite listenable with more "inner voices" as you listen to it over its duration (in small doses for me anyway).


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

regressivetransphobe said:


> Satie was a minimalist before there really was such a thing. I've heard something about the transparency of his writing influencing a lot of minimal electronic music outside the contemporary classical field, too.


I'm not sure about that but i think that the link is in pieces like Vexations, not in his "normal" music.
But i know Reich listened for example to Perotinus:





other possible inspirations are in different ways some oriental music and the industrial rhythms (i'm thinking for example of Colin McPhee and Alexander Mosolov):


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

i was forgetting about Bruckner, another composer considered as a grandfather of minimalism.
I'm not an expert of his music, but for example there's a fragment here in his 9th symphony at 2:12 that is interesting


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

A lot of influence from the East. Gagaku, Indian classical, Gamelan. All modal and thus concentrated on static harmony which became key to minimalism. I think from the West, Cage, Webern and Satie were particularly influential on the more Eurocentric composers.

But really, La Monte Young was the guy who really set the ball rolling with his long drone pieces (he used to listen to the electrical hum from a local powerstation when he was a boy). Before him you had composers using instances of minimalism but he was the first to concentrate his whole sound around pure interval drones. Riley, Reich and Glass extended upon this in terms of rhythm and structure.


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## Pieck (Jan 12, 2011)

tdc said:


> I don't know what the earliest examples are, but I've always thought one of the earliest stand out composers that used hints of modern minimalism to my ears was Schubert, I hear traces of this in much of his chamber output.


I thought about that too, I was listening to his 2nd piano trio, and thought to myself: where are all the romantic thick and heavy melodies and lines? It's really possible to call him minimalist (but not always)


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2011)

The first use of "minimalism" seems to have been in 1968,* in an article by Michael Nyman about Cardew's _The Great Learning._ While he expanded this in his 1974 book on experimental music, the fullest exposition of minimalism, in all its variety, must surely be Tom Johnson's continually evolving essay, first started in 1972, for the Village Voice.

This is essential reading for anyone interested in minimalism.

www.editions75.com/Articles/Minimalism in music.pdf

There's also this cute little article, which is cute and funny and serious and informative, all at the same time.

http://www.glasspages.org/minimal.html

*the music that composers had been writing in the early sixties was referred to as the hypnotic school.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Surely what distinguishes 'minimalist' music, such as that by Young, Glass, Reich, from music which is repetitive is that *miminalist music is about itself*, while merely repetitive music is repetitive for some other reason (eg the Molosov piece quoted above). The apogee of music that is about itself is surely _Einstein on the beach_ whose textual content is the counting of the beats, the naming of the notes.


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Surely what distinguishes 'minimalist' music, such as that by Young, Glass, Reich, from music which is repetitive is that *miminalist music is about itself*, while merely repetitive music is repetitive for some other reason (eg the Molosov piece quoted above). The apogee of music that is about itself is surely _Einstein on the beach_ whose textual content is the counting of the beats, the naming of the notes.


Satyagraha is about Gandhi and Akhnaten is about an Egyptian pharoah. They still sounds minimalist.

Like all genre classifications, 'minimalism' has it's flaws and grey areas. I think repetition, simplicity, more from less, a focus on time and evenness of form and dynamics are pretty key to the sound.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

What fascinates me about minimalism is that while from one point of view it could be seen as a big synthesis of Perotin, Bruckner, Beethoven, Sibelius, American jazz and a reactionary movement against serialism, it's also a deconstruction of what is thought to constitute what music actually is.

I suppose, from what I've heard, the cornerstone of minimalism in music is taking the concept of a pattern and bringing it into focus at the exclusion of everything else. Music up until the 20th century is based completely on patterns, diatonic scales, chords of various types, rhythmic ideas, forms based on the order of how one expounds a thematic idea/pattern. So when the 20th century came around Schoenberg decided to try to eliminate this interaction of patterns (which incidentally just creates more patterns, just seemingly more intricate), then Boulez in the 1950's expanding that to include all aspects of music (total serialism). So minimalism was the reaction, eliminating everything but patterns as an item of focus. So really, without serialism, I don't think minimalism as it is would ever have happened.

As for influences and other catalysts and stuff, I think that popular music from the time certainly has its role. I've heard some jazz that at times sounds like it was taken directly from Riley or something. Bruckner, Satie, Ravel (Bolero), Beethoven (6th symphony), Schubert (Anyone notice that Erlkonig is just an elaborate version of minimalism? Repeated chords, a scale leading up to an arpeggio...take away the voice part and the chromaticism and it could have been written in the 1960's.) Renaissance ideas, maybe the Alberti bass figuration, I'm sure they play a part, but really I think the catalyst that sparked real minimalism is serialism, particularly once Boulez started obsessing over total serialism.


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## johnfkavanagh (Sep 9, 2011)

Thank you for the Colin McPhee mention - very interesting. I'd never even heard of him but I will investigate.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)




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