Minimalism in painting and in music relates to two very different artistic aspects and approaches. The Tate defines minimalism in painting as “an extreme form of abstract art developed in the USA in the 1960s and typified by artworks composed of simple geometric shapes based on the square and the rectangle. It emerged in the late 1950s with artists such as Stella, and then later flourished in the 1960s and 1970s with Andre, Flavin, Judd, LeWitt, Martin and Morris.”
Philip Glass and Steve Reich © Betania Sikora/The Wall Street Journal
Quickly, one will notice that it has very little to do with minimalism in music. In music, it is a genre which is mostly attributed to the New York scene of the 1950s-60s, with its forefathers being Riley, Reich and Glass. If it bears the same denomination as in painting, minimalism in music is much more based on the intention to return to comprehensible harmonies, whilst freely focusing on the complexity of rhythms, structure and repetition and allowing musical ideas to work within or outside of the Western classical tradition.
Philip Glass + Ravi Shankar – Passages
Its influence, though, is plural. In fact, one can wonder if there has ever been a musical genre in the classical world which has taken so much from influences outside of its native world. From the works of the impressionists, to the Second Viennese school, modernism, up to the early New York school, to the music of Indonesia, India and Africa, jazz in all its shapes and forms, and even popular music. From the impressionists, it took the freedom of melody, harmony and rhythm. And the curiosity to look elsewhere, to the East and the West. With the Second Viennese school, it is the return to diatonic harmony. The understanding that complexity in melody, harmony and rhythm creates captivating works, but challenges the listener to the point that it scares him. The influence here is not to sound like it, a sort of musical oxymoron to it.
Terry Riley performing in 2018
In modernism, it is the use of unusual instrumentation, the freedom to allow the music to dictate the sound, and to treat them all equally. In New York, where it was born, it is the use of the recording process as a composing medium, with technology being embraced rather than pushed back. Minimalism without the recording medium – and the recording studio – would simply not exist. Electric instruments, too, form an important aspect of what defines the sound of minimalism. From Indonesia, it is both the usage of exotic scales and the intricacies of the rhythms, which to the Western ears appear as complex. From Indian music, an entire thought process of reframing how music unfolds over time, and how the parameters can be shifted to allow melody and rhythm to flow freely. From Africa, the multiplicity and complexity of overlapping rhythms. And finally, from jazz, the freedom to improvise at one’s will and the intention to create a musical conversation and exchange rather than a simple act of interpretation.
Steve Reich – Drumming
These influences can clearly be observed in the works of the fathers of minimalism, who were all influenced by either all or a combination of them. Riley and Glass are two great examples of the influence of the music of India and Buddhism, although through different lenses. Reich, a percussionist, brings focus to the complexity of African rhythms and Indonesian gamelan, as well as the intention of jazz improvisers, both common in Reich and Riley’s music. Both have also explored the legacy of modern classical music, mostly through experimentation with tape and recording techniques.
Minimalism is one of the first musical styles emerging from Western classical music, focusing so much on rhythm. It leaves the harmonic and melodic explorations, focusing on diatonic material, allowing for rhythm to be the central point of the musical investigation. And this, of course, would not have been possible without the study of some of the most complex rhythms that the human brain has come up with. From the complexity of Balinese and Javanese gamelan music, to the percussive music of Ghana, as well as Carnatic and Hindustani classical music from India.
Terry Riley – Poppy Nogood (1967)
Although Nyman, a minimalist composer and music critic himself, came up with the name for the genre, one might wonder if this word is the best fit for what minimalism really is. It captures so many different musical worlds and universes, and is not always about the restriction of a musical idea, more often its statement and repetition. In fact, its focus on repetition often entails that it is in some way almost maximalist. One thing is sure, minimalism has not restricted itself when it comes to the multiplicity of its influences, and yet the result is often clean and discreet, and of course, minimalistic.
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