Who Is Your Favorite Minimalist Composer/CD?

[KenElevenShadows]

Steve Reich ("Music for 18 Musicians" is my personal favorite!)? Terry Riley? John Adams? Alvin Lucier? Elianne Radigue? Others?

[Nraki]

Good question.. I'd like to learn about them..

[deanmass]

Bobby McFerrin...

[mattzen]

I love Steve Reich's work the most. All of the folks you named are pretty heavy, especially John Adams. 18 Musicians is an absolute masterpiece that is difficult to top. Reich bascially invented the genere. The CD that features current DJ remixes of Reich's work is also VERY cool. Thanks for bringing up the topic. It may lead some new folks to discover these composers!

[whitefang]

Me, for one! Thanks for the tip. Whitefang

[KenElevenShadows]

Steve Reich was heavily influenced by some of the earlier composers, such as Cage (although he obviously doesn't really sound like Cage, Stockhausen, or really anyone else). "Music for 18 Musicians" is my absolute favorite, but I also really like "Electric Counterpoint/Different Trains" and the one with the drums - I can't remember the title of that one - and "Violin Phase". Conceptually interesting, but not at the expensve of a beautiful composition. I even like the "It's Gonna Rain" thing that he did in the '60s. When I hear some of the field recordings from Africa and hear a lot of the incredibly complex polyrhythms, I sometimes cannot help but think of some of Reich's work. Same with some of the odd noseflute things from SE Asia. Perhaps he had some exposure to this kind of music, or perhaps they were just channeling a similar muse? I don't know if Arvo Part is considered a minimalist composer, but "Te Deum" is absolutely gorgeous. Or Henryk Gorecki "Symphony #3", which is incredibly heavy and sad and moving and beautiful and stark and jaw-dropping. Those are really great works to check out as well. I think Philip Glass' music is pretty good, and Somei Satoh "Toward the Night" doesn't suck, either!

[Jotown]

If you are talking about minimalism in the classical sense, Tim Story's "The Perfect Flaw". If you are talking minimalism as in singer/songwriter, I would have to say; Joni Mitchell's "Turbulent Indigo"

[mattzen]

Yes, Electric Counterpoint/Different Trains is also one of my Reich favs. Also, "Triple Quartet", "Music for Large Ensemble", and "Six Marimbas) are awesome. Cage and Glass are also trail-blazers in so called "Avant-Garde" music. There are some great (although sometimes dry) books by David Cope that delve into these types of composers and their techniques. I think they were channeling the same muse. Reich began fiddling with the same source material on two different tape machines in the early 60s. The first noted composition is in the genre of "Musique Concrete" called "Come Out". He took a recording of a short phrase from an interview of a kid convicted of murder. The phrase was "I had to open the bruise up and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them." He then started looping "come out to show them" and adjusting the timing of the two tape decks to gradually change the timing of the phrases. It would morph in and out of different complex polyrhythms. He used this same technique with "Piano Phase" in '67. The basic concept of slowly evolving polyrhythms continued to be the basis of his whole compositional style later adding harmony and ostinatos that morphed right along with the rhythms. This music can be very trance-like and gorgeous. Others might find it tedious. I'm gushing about it because it's stuff that really moves me for some reason. If you haven't heard it, it will at least be unlike most stuff you have heard before. Thanks Ken for the tip on Gorecki "Symphony #3". I will be checking it out! :thu:

[not Cereal]

anyone see "monsters of grace"? i saw glass live with the 3d color projection. awesome. did i mention i saw glass live?

[Mats Olsson.]

I agree with several prior posts here. If the definition of minimalism is in the ear of the beholder, then this from-the top-of-my-head list fits the description good enough. Brian Eno (Thursday Afternoon, Apollo, Distant Memories of Medieval Manhattan), Harold Budd (Music for 3 Pianos, The Plateaux of Mirrors, Luxa, The Pearl), Terje Rypdal (Descendre), Jon Hassell (Dream Theory in Malaya/Fourth World volume two), Wim Mertens (Maximizing the Audience), Roger Eno, Laaraji, Michael Brook, Stephan Micus (The Music of Stones), Hector Zazou (Geologies), Michael Nyman, Stephen Brown + Blaine L. Reininger, Peter Principle (Tone Poems), Vini Reilly, John Lurie, Michael Rouse. A lot of this stuff is very quiet and calm but there is also plenty of minimalism in there. I used to be much into this stuff. On another note, have you noticed that a lot of gifted musicians tend to simplify their expressions as they get older? The same goes for many painting artists. I hear strong influences of minimalism in late recordings by Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker. /Mats Stephan Micus also wrote an exellent book on american minimalism (his definition is "American Repetetive Music").

[not Cereal]

interesting and complex is easy interesting and simple is difficult. i think the real quote goes something like: "interesting is easy, beautiful is difficult" i cant remember who said that though....mahler?

[Super 8]

No question about it... Philip Glass! "Songs from the Trilogy" [i]1-2-3-4; 1-2-3-4-5-6; 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.[/i] Anybody remember that 'Einstein' Pepsi commercial??? Somebody in Marketing had good taste in music... imagine that??? :eek: And you probably thought nobody would know what you were talking about -Minimalism I'm a Neo-Post-Minimalist, myself! Also, a recovering Maximalist... :thu:

[Gulliver]

Arvo Pärt has quite a number of interesting (and beautiful) minimalist pieces under his composer's belt. He's Estonian, btw.

[Wrave]

Phillip Glass is the one I am most familiar with and the Chronos Quartet has done some great recordings with his works. Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" could also be considered minimalist as well. You might also want to check out Georgi Ligeti. his work also tends toward minimalism.

[strat0124]

Jimmie Rodgers would get my vote, cept when he's playing with the Carters or Louis Armstrong. Robert Johnson as well. Fripp does some cool volume plus delay swells all looped up, definitely head music.

[The Bear Jew]

Oh... don't make me choose just ONE...

[KenElevenShadows]

Yes, Arvo Part's from Estonia, a fine place. Tallinn must be cool. Henryk Gorecki's Symphony #3 is very different from his other work. It's different from much of the "minimalist" composers that have been mentioned here. The version of Symphony #3 that is my favorite is probably also the most popular one, with Dawn Upshaw (soprano). It's really moving. Here, Gorecki really broke it down into the simplest melodies and movements, not overplaying it at all. Many of the melodies are simple pentatonic, but wow, are they ever beautiful and timeless. The orchestration is just about all strings (except for some really simple piano that often serves to dot various passages and motifs that the strings are also doing), sloooooow-moving masses of strings, clouds slowly drifting across in many places, and endless variations on motifs. It's incredibly moving, very sad, and just a beautiful piece. We got to see Henryk Gorecki conduct the USC orchestra in Los Angeles a few years ago. That was cool, too.