Relationship of Minimalism to Electronics? (any good refs?)

[Acoustic Interloper]

What is the primary relationship between musical Minimalism and Electronic Music? Also, any recommended readings on Minimalism? Prendergast's *The Ambient Century* is OK as far as it goes, but I'd like some technical reading on Minimalism without getting immediately dumped into derived or fused flavors of music. Looking for perceptual and aesthetic DNA here, not corpses, because I like to do my own derivations and fusions.

I've been a casual listener for a while, but I finally want to do a serious study aimed at composition. I've read Reich's "Music as a Gradual Process" (copy at http://www.columbia.edu/ccnmtl/draft/ben/feld/mod1/readings/reich.html), and it doesn't seem to me that there's anything fundamentally electro about this. There are certainly a lot of acoustic only performances of Minimalist music. I think the answer is that there is a subset of electronic instrument capabilities that overlap with Reich's process mechanisms. For example, in finger picking the long neck Tubaphone tone ring banjo that's getting me into this in a practical sense (long sustains, rings like a bell, allows hammer-ons from open to the 12th fret and higher for big intervallic interplays, more like a harp than bluegrass), I am begining to find ways to make transitions that are based on gradually morphing the microstructure of how I am picking -- accents, sequence patterns, interlaced pairs of harmonies, bring macro patterns like AABA down to the level of individual phrases and notes, etc. etc. -- that over time covers some distance, but without structural leaps of over-reliance on cliches. It's like taking a walk -- one step at a time, the scenary changes gradually, and over time you cover some serious ground. Compared to some other approaches to composition, it also seems like composing through a microscope. By morphing the microstructure of what you are playing, over time you can morph the macrostructure.

So, if that a fair novice's description of Minimalist composition, what is the inherent relationship, if any, to electronics? Coming from an acoustic string finger picking background (as well as 1 life as an electronics tech and a later one as a computer scientist), it seems if acoustic morphing of the patterns of accents, intervals, etc. over time is the grist of Minimalist composition, then electronics should fundamentally be used to do similar things - gradual morphs of the acoustic structure, not wholesale importation of technology or fusion with other styles as a primary step. Echoes, delays, loops etc. that gradually morph acoustic playing would certainly fit this strategy. Maybe other electronic approaches that are not in the standard arsenal as well.

Thanks. Dale

[mosc]

to the forum, Dale.

I think you more or less answered your own question.

Electronic instruments have an ability to be programed in one way or another for gradual changes over time. So, they may be exceptionally well suited for minimalist music, but maybe not. Most of the minimalist music I've heard is for acoustic instruments.

As for books, check out the electro-music.com affiliate amazon.com store. (I'm just starting to set this up.) I set up a page just for minimalism, just for you.

http://electro-music.com/astore.php?node=3

[Acoustic Interloper]

Thanks, Howard. Your list of references is way better than the list I came up with Saturday morning. Does electro-music get a percentage if I order through the electro-music.com affiliate amazon.com store? I had already ordered Steve Reich's Writings on Music, 1965-2000, at that point, but if EM gets a hit for clicking through, I'll make sure to click through.

When I get something decent together on the banjo I'll come up & give you a sample. Got another axe in May to bring along, too. Lots of sonic variations in these things, despite the stereotypes. Take care.

[mosc]

Yes, we will get a commission if you click through and the cost to you is the same. A win/win if there ever was one.

This minimalist movement stuff never got me. I mean, the music of Erik Satie is minimalist as is the some of the music of Pachobel. I've even heard some J. S. Bach music that would be called minimalistic - even boring.

I think the "minimalists" take things beyond the usual 8, 12 or 16 bars for phrases (for want of a better term). The phrases are made up of very short 1 or 2 bar motifs (for want of a better term). Thus, the listener begins to loose the expectation of change, and when changes come, no matter how minimal, they are often unexpected, but never surprising.

Nicholas Slonimsky once told me it was like listening to a washing machine or an air conditioner. I've always loved old washing machines.

[Acoustic Interloper]

[mosc]

[Acoustic Interloper]

[kijjaz]

For me, electronic music were started in some more laboratoric settings..
scientist / researchers trying some new electronic gadgets
and hear some signals out..

But those were not firstly as controllable as traditional music instruments .. for creating musical (not so hard to listen to) things.

So one way of thinking might be very useful for playing with these gadgets creatively:
Letting go.. listening.. and let the body flow..
Not like playing actual notes from traditional score..

And I guess that somehow reflect some part of minimalistic nature.

It's just my opinion ^_^ I don't know that deep in psychology,
but it is what i guess from reading about late electronic music works and experiments.

[dewdrop_world]

All this talk of minimalism inspired me to dial up Music in Twelve Parts on my iPod.

If Mosc doesn't behave, we can grab him at EM2008, strap him onto a hospital gurney, and force him to listen to all 3 1/2 hours at one go.

No, that's too cruel. I can't quite make it through the whole thing in one sitting myself.

James

[cbm]

Any school of music will have some good and some bad composers/pieces.
Composers I like here are most Terry Riley, most Steve Reich, and some La Monte Young, Philip Glass and John Adams.

Some of the early Terry Riley pieces exhibit the most minimalism / electronics crossover, e.g "Rainbow in Curved Air", "Poppy Nogood".

If you don't like those two pieces, and Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" holds no charm for you, then I think you might as well put minimalism aside for a while.

[cbm]

As a footnote, I incorporated some of Steve Reich's phase ideas in a Max/MSP based performance interface I'm working on: http://www.xfade.com/Gyre

[mosc]

cbm, Chris, I just check out your web site - because of the above link. Fab. I love it, even the photos of all those doggies.

It looks like you did quite a great job on your program, Gyre.

[Acoustic Interloper]

[cbm]

Howard - Thanks for the kind words about Gyre. I'm trying to create a Max/MSP - Buchla 200e environment for composing and improvising. Some days I'm pleased at what I can pull off right now, other days I'm swamped with a stark realization of how far I have yet to go.

[jksuperstar]

I think minimalism and electronic music began out of necessity. The first electronic music instruments, as mentioned, were simple, and somewhat uncontrollable. Not to mention rare, expensive, unreliable, etc. The only way they COULD be used was in a minimalist manner. Since then, it's either tradition that's maintained, or the love of "that one sound", entraining a listener to hear that single sound that they may have never heard before. And playing complex & layered scores doesn't usually give our attention the room it needs to focus on the sound itself. It the way the progression may evolve that sound.

[rbedgar]

My two centavos...

Minimalist strategies came about in several media around the same time.
In art, the 1950s introduced abstract expressionism, which brought to prominence paint over visual separation of forms, and surfaces that were busy and noisy. Minimal visual forms started showing up more often, first within an abstract expressionist brushstroke, and later with the brush stroke disappearing. In sculpture Don Judd and Carl Andre and others got attention for sculpture comprising a matrix of metal squares or a row of boxes. In came conceptual art where many artists tried to get single ideas to float above simple constructs. And process art, where artists produced pieces where the trace or map of their creation was the subject of the piece. Steve Reich had some early examples of process works, including a composition generated by a line of microphones swinging on long cables over a spatially fixed sound source (causing phasing patterns).

You'll find the same thing in dance, film, video etc.

At the same time you had an influx of world music recordings getting popularly distributed for the first time...Nonesuch was a big contributer to this. Non-modulating Indian music, polyrhythmic percussion from Bali, Java and Africa, throat singers, and different time scales, such as performances and tribal ceremonies with minimal elements, lasting over a day. There were a lot of compositional strategies that drew attention away from complexities of western forms, and each could be explored in itself.

It was, as they say, in the air. Other chemical substances increased an audience's willingness to listen to tiny audial changes over long periods of time too. However, there are examples of prominent composers who dipped into chemical experimentation but never into minimalism.

My experience, when I travel, is that I can get focused on tiny aspects of a place or practice that I'd not be likely to notice at home. I think this type of thing happened in the late 1960s, and a lot of folks spent time away from the immediate western tradition to make close study (some might say myopic) of newly introduced phenomena.

Personally, I think most of it has been mixed back in the stew...Reich and others whose early work was stark now have increased the frequency of change quite a bit, as well as the range of timbres used etc. And while minimalism is a compositional option, it is no longer one available outside of western tradition.

[Acoustic Interloper]

[mosc]

Just found this radiom.org site run by Charles Amirkhanian. A great resource for experimental music. Here is a concert by Steve Reich and friends in Berkeley, 1991. I remember hearing that on the radio when I was a student at Mills College.

http://radiom.org/detail.php?et=music&omid=C.1971.03.14

[cbm]

Howard,

Thanks for that Reich link. I was at that concert, and it had a major impact on my musical outlook. It's great to know that it was recorded.

-C

[elektro80]

Possibly totally Off Topic - but perhaps not..

I did find and still find minimalism of interest, but I never felt any need for going there.. at least in the sense of subscribing to "all things the school of minimalism".

Instead I found stuff like this way more inspiring:

Please check out:
Wright, J.K. Auditory Object Perception: Counterpoint in a New Context. ( 1986 )

Uh.. more related.. to the proposed comosing/interaction/performance machine thingie suggested in other threads here..
( I know this is a bit dated but it is still entertaining ):

Music Analysis by Computer: A Field for Theory Formation - Bo H. Alphonce

[Acoustic Interloper]

Thanks for the references. I used to have to balance family, job, music, and outddor activities. Now I've got to add a good growing reading list! Almost done with Reich's book; Auditory Object Perception sounds promising.

[elektro80]

[Acoustic Interloper]

[elektro80]

Try attaching that file to a post.

[Acoustic Interloper]