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Michael Torke – The Yellow Pages
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcYAPAi9K8k&start=60&autoplay=1] Michael Torke’s The Yellow Pages (1985) is a movement from a three-piece work called Telephone Book. It takes a simple, upbeat musical phrase and develops it slowly, modulating and employing variations on the phrase. Torke’s music falls somewhere in the grey area between Minimalism and Post-Minimalism; he began composing when Minimalism was beginning to…
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Steve Reich – Nagoya Marimbas
I’ve been putting together a mix CD for a person that asked me to give them some classical music. Because I’m a music nerd, I’m putting together a listening guide as well with historical context, a little information on the composer, and some things to listen for. I don’t want it to be too technical,…
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Bang on a…Controller
Via Life’s a Pitch, the news that Bang on a Can, the minimalist/electroacoustic ensemble, has released some of their music for Rock Band play. If the following video of Michael Gordon’s Yo! Shakespeare is anything to go by, minimalist compositions are about as fun as you would think they would be. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6TqadAVk40]
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Arvo Pärt – Fratres
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FukUz9z9HkY] Fratres for Violin and Piano. Arvo Pärt (1935-) is an Estonian composer who developed his minimalist style and compositional methods in isolation behind the Iron Curtain. His music incorporates elements of Gregorian chant and modes; religious ideas; and minimalist textures. When he began composing, he experimented with neo-classical techniques, following Prokofiev, Bartók and Shostakovich.…
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Steve Reich – "Piano Phase"
No matter how difficult it is to define Minimalism, it is undeniable that it is a very exciting time to be listening to and thinking about it. The very actions we take, listening to the music, buying CDs, writing about the music, reading about the composers, are still changing the history of the movement. All…
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Steve Reich – "Piano Phase"
No matter how difficult it is to define Minimalism, it is undeniable that it is a very exciting time to be listening to and thinking about it. The very actions we take, listening to the music, buying CDs, writing about the music, reading about the composers, are still changing the history of the movement. All…
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Terry Riley – In C
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjR4QYsa9nE] I was talking with one of my music instructors about my classes this semester, and I brought up the Minimalism class that I am taking. He kind of half smiled and said that he wasn’t familiar with much minimalist music, “…except, of course, In C. Everyone does that because it’s so easy to play.”…
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Alvin Lucier – I Am Sitting in a Room
This semester, I have been taking a class on Minimalist music. I will be posting occasionally on what I hear as I work through a recording syllabus. They will be in the category Minimalism. “I Am Sitting in a Room” (1969) has a simple premise at heart. A man records a short phrase on a…
