Minimalism
tagStarted 1960Peak 1964–1985Last big hit still active
Located in 2 routes
Minimalism strips music to recurrent cells, stable pulse, diatonic or modal fields, and slow, audible change. Instead of dramatic thematic conflict, it relies on phase shifting, additive process, sustained harmony, and the trance effect of hearing small differences emerge from sameness.
History
The style coalesced in American experimental circles around La Monte Young’s sustained-tone environments, Riley’s communal repetition, Reich’s process works, and Glass’s amplified ensemble writing; though initially polemical in its simplicity, it quickly became a major compositional current whose influence spread into concert music, opera, dance, film, ambient, and popular production.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Britannica Steve Reich
- Encyclopaedia Britannica on Philip Glass. citeturn10view3turn0search5turn0search17