Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SteveReich
PhilipGlass
JohnAdams
Overview
Allthreecomposersworkclassedasminimalmusic OriginatedinNewYork,Americainthe1960s.
In the midtwentieth century, the influence of Asian musical philosophies began to take hold in Western music. Some Western composers began to incorporate Eastern concepts of alternating rhythmic units, drones, and improvisation into their music. These composers also began to shift to a simpler style that placed more emphasis on subtle differences in melody and rhythm. (Edmond) p ff y y ( )
Style
The basic concept behind minimalist music is that the music repeats itself over and over again. O effect of th music i th t it b d i One ff t f the i is that becomes somewhat h t hypnotic and can cause the listener to lose track of time. Through the repetition of musical ideas the listener becomes used to the music, and the introduction of new musical sections becomes a much more important event in the music. (Edmond) In American minimal music a short cell or motive is used as the basis for the In music, compositional process; the cell is repeated many times, while slight changes to the cell are gradually introduced during the repetitions (Sitsky, 2002:361) Cell: a small rhythmic and melodic design that can be isolated, or can make up one part of the thematic context. A cell can be developed independent of its context, context as a melodic fragment It can be the source for the whole structure of fragment. work; in that case it is called a generative cell (Encyclopedie Larousse, cited in Nattiez, 1987:156)
We began with Poe's "Descent into the Maelstrm" as the basis for our work. We sought not so much to interpret the story but rather to extrapolate f l from it a new work that would articulate in theatre f k h ld l h form the h sense of the original. Though the text has all but disappeared from the final work, it has remained as the subtext to the work. And more than just that, were the story to be read aloud it would, with normal dramatic adjustments, fit into the real time of our theatre piece. (Phillip Glass, cited in Christensen, 2002) , )
Bibliography
Sitsky, L (2002) Music of the Twentieth Century AvantGarde: A Biocritical Sourcebook USA : Greenwood Press Nattiez, JJacques (1987) Music and discourse: toward a semiology of music USA: Princeton University Press Christensen,D(2002)ADescentintotheMaelstrom: http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/descent_into_the_maelstrom.p hp(Accessedon21/11/2011) h ( d 2 / /20 ) Edmond,E(2002)Postmodernerainnovations:minimalism,PhilipGlass, and TheHours:http://www.shepherd.edu/englweb/362/pomoeuan.htm (Accessedon21/11/2011)