So the ther gy replies “Unity wat mistake come on to wholeness.” Cage contin: “But the take & very revealing, Wholenest-—the cay objection Sect wholeness tat suggest tht there are boundaries othe whe, and then wholewess stk unity 1 wouter hve open-est ot wityor whale tess open-est—and ope partic tthigs wath wich a wa a (ne Cageun tact that always pz mi in eating tess wih hi tow he wl alten ational seattle move terms tO eso bts profil benefit Let me quote an example from my Conersing wth Cage Shore he sa of his Preman Ender Sor ve “They ae intentionally a Sake Lean mae them, ease hk ee ow surrounded by vey senous problems Ie sty and we elt thnk that he sation i hopes and that its ost ponte todo something that wl als everything arto prop- ery So hin hat this us, which alot impose [to ply, gern Since ofthe praca ofthe ponte” ‘ace | recut tendenty toed social tioalzation in Cage com amen Iwan septic aout thinking wight have represented crn “potas: bt Chae come 1 recognise Cage ss someone wo cae of agen {He 10, hen Wea bout scl betterment trough at were more let Indeed tha een he center hippy, Te ne, Cage ts xen 1900s ety, more intersting than ther wo cum ont tht peri Deca sade sone orga perceptions mt enya art ba epecayabot the place Of polis fa then the ponuble role fw fo plc, he we ‘alnlng true the etinent ofthat ne ny seas of Cap, Zen ane chance td eventing ee came aflerwars hey are evel cng on this nar an Aste thes om Of (MPa, 15) y pen 9 he a th Cyd © 183 y Ward Kate Minimalism in Art and Music: Origins and Aesthetics “The esteemed American masaigst H. Wiley Hitchcock (br 192) hus ma on tolutns ta maiaogy a scholar, wife er, nd edector Hs ly rfid ‘tings have shaped scholar vow ofthe sce sec, cated ermal sed ‘sperimental tration: of American mis anny cer subjects A profes emerts a ro Clg weer he owed the tte fr Ses n America Musee Isao taht at the Unerty of Michigan and Hater Cllege.eeived numerous sands nd ats for aha work, and been proineatmerber of several leerc sot. edie the Prentice Hal Hist of Mase Seves (of which hs Ma si athe United States ns thin edition a wel x many ether bleations ae ec itchesck: Momalon in Artal Masi Origine and wheter 900) tion of muse, including Barer Americon Suse, Recent Heearchs in merous Musi, tnd The New Grove Dictionry of American Mua (a co-etiter) Hea ao writen ‘books on aide range subjects, nly Chess, Mate Antone Charpentier, andthe history of the phonograph "Minimal in Art and Muse" aletre oh tally ges atthe Calle Art Action nthe ate 195 Hick traces thea twcedentsconrbutions, aesthetic, at eeption of four major ures of win sme La Monte Youn, Tey ile, Stee Reich and Pip Clas He races the devel ‘opment of minimal music n the United Stater—inchiding it rot i sera ech niques. aleatorc processes jz techie aban and won Western el ‘ur—and ras sting pall to minut patting nd sel, Minimalism in the visual arts was a well-recognized movement by the mid 1960.1 Musial minimalism, however, eame to public consciousness only inthe late 1970s: two landmarks, bth dating from 1976, were the opera by Philip Glass and Robert Wilton Eistin onthe Beach, which had a scrésdextine, welling ‘out two performances atthe Metropolitan Opera House (specially rented forthe ‘ccasion), and Steve Reichs Mase for 18 Musicians the recording of which sold ‘more that 20,000 copes within a year Only the 1980s, moreover dl the mass ‘media o the musical establishment pay much altention to musieal minimalism. let alone acknowledge it as a force of significance. Even erties and historlans Ipove show tn schncwnge ts oxcnoco’ But in fat manent mask haar about the sane time as minimal art an the muse was in many ways aestet- ‘cally and stylistically sila tothe art. My aim here kt sketch these of mini ‘malist music, then to explore some analogies between and minimal art ‘The inasical stage had been set by various vanguard trends in the 1950s, in to major cape One camp was cocupied by adherents of the chroma, feelve-tone (r serial) composition methods of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton ‘Weber: Milton Bubbit was American company commande The oer eat was by adherents ofthe random, chance, and aleatory methods of John Cage, especially group of NewYork composers inclading the late Morton Pekd- ‘man and Earle Brown. Important the background of minimalist musie were 1. Pe et tent ence oa co bce nal awa th sete ond bung Oxteber1e by cte Eas Gmina th Hates Re nem ‘Redon New ork: (Conese fe an th eal ph Sang Art ‘crepe n Mol Art A Ciel Ann Cnpey Bator [Now York: EF Dan. Tea pp 1-100) Ono int inal dap th ne ater) srr Bala Row “A 9 Arb i th Caer Neces145 ue fA mer (pata Ml. 22-97) Dat Medes ha tented ta te {teil tnry of omer 1860) bat nthe vec 97 ein tn (Ged inal tng ete nd ian scp Sr grt aa he Th ny, Mn Irn (tng CM, NJ Prete 11907 wx mp en th ned Ste A itr arecon iN. Pest a1) ened mma mot ‘Soden (bh 190 seh = San epeialy tpt sven eho aha Rsk i bi Al Ameo See Compote ithe ae Teeth Cory he at A Ka)the reductive tendencicsn the music af some of these composers—for example, the post Webernter tendency to sola singe tones and give them a microcox tn identity all their own: oe Feldmas comin, murmuring low-level vol ‘tne and slou-mationshythms. Also important was Cage's prefiguration of con- Cpt at, in which the concept of work sa significant as the work ef, And (Gage wiped the sate absol that ited the auence sk ‘ght thei attention (as Robert Rauschenbergs contemporaneous white cx ‘ase imvited attention to any himisous oF shadow-created visual echoes fom thir viewers environment). Elements of jz oo, were important, particulary ‘ts powerful, isntent pulse and ts eyeieal vanation ike structure, Technology ‘counted fora ot—especilly te technology that had reduced much ofthe word toa nonstop et ight, and that led othe long playing dsc and magnetic tape as now recoding media these made available an unprecedented range of musi luding much won-Western musie—Iodlan, African, Indonesian—that was thse on very different prindples of stcture and contnity from those of the Winter triton. (Tape-recording techniques allowed composes to work Airey inv th the materials of composition, and imple, a {tert in deep cutres—paricay Anand eres, pik pics and sate fae conactsncs chewed hrogh mean or rs Ive wef coop ine! thas ros cand of etc eel cob sf the 185s in ont fo recogize the conn growed among the founding ‘resof mal ininalin tho sae the asene recogains hr ery ilar tat personalities. The early enlers were Lt Monte Young, Ter Tiley. Stove Mac, and Philip Gls all were born the mi-19305 (ight emphasize that {ts these four componers oly. sed cel thc adel early minis work that Tan concerned ath ere La Monte Young often lind to be the east minimal compen In the mitL1850 he began to nace ito his pst Webern srl compose tually lngheld ote and lengthy lence, hie Tri for Strings of 1058 nas ten reste Only four notes ere ftoced te the i Te te of i fity-inite work. By 1960 hal been lflenced by Cage and was naling such lees x Compoton 1950810 the acre of which const ony othe see {eoce"Derwastraght ne and follow Young war lo showing interes i am $e based almost exces on long-srtined tone or drones—for example Compost 195097" to ek for along tire” focus on drones, ee ss ncreaing preocepaton with just intonation and mot-terpered ning 5 ‘ers, were cote ylemgthy sy th Idan master Pant Pran Nath 1 As tpt hin ery Jin (8) oe gent Mile ston” The Vilage Ws Jan 1b) 3 1 nyc Rat nea Ps Pitre GT ate Mi itcheack: Mnialom Art and Maske Orginzand Aiheties SAL ‘ery Riley* was an associate of Yong on the West Coast and ater in New York: Riley too became a student of Prat Nath. Inthe early 1960s he himself partly as jazz pianist and his jz background fd into one of the sem ‘al early minimalist works, his nC of 1964, nC 8 ork for any number of ‘musicians, playag any melodic instroments. Each musician runs through a = ries of some 50 bref mele iguresrepeating each figure, however a8 many tines ashe wishes before moving on to the meat one; the work ends when all the layers have completed thelr ran-through ofthe 30-o melodie gues. The to- Hength of fu C and ts noment-to-moment deta, aswell sis instrument ton, are variable and unprediable—which may suggest a. Cagederived slestory randomness. But this randomness i offet hy the repetitive element — anathema to Cage atthe tne—and by a stietycontolled hythm, governed by 4 steady, continuous pulse (heard naked drummed on the top two Cs ofthe iano keyboard, to begin the piece): these later aspects arejzzrelated. ‘Steve Reich alo became interested in masic based on the repetition of bref ‘modula patterns (at atime when he, ike Riley was working. along with other innovative composers a the recently onganied San Francisco Tape Muse Cen ter) Paty infsenced by Riley’s work, party by acident when foo around with tape recorders and tape-lop mancivers, Reich developed a type of compo- Sion based on "phaseshift™patteris—ereated. when identical, repeated ‘hrases, at fist played by two sound-sources togetber and simultaneously Cin has”), gradually get “out of syne"—out af phase—as one put ever so slowly {moves aed ofthe ether. Early works by Reich Based on this technique were + {Gonna Hain (1965), Come Out (1966), and Vilin Phase (1967) Important in these works were not only the new posses openel upto compontion esi, ‘magnetic tape but paradoxical combination of procompostional decison: ‘making on one hand anon the other, final musical outcome that was in many ‘etal unforeseeable and impersonal Philp Glasst—after a crical encounter Paris wth the Indian music ofthe great sitar player Ravi Shankar—albo bryan building pieces by repetition of melodic cellsvarying the repetitions however, by occasional ations or sub tractions of units within them, a in Strung Out, For amplified ila (1967). and Tho Poges (originally tiled Tico Pages for Steve Rich), fortwo amplified key- bard instruments (1968) The radials af hese work ay in thee fejetion of polyphony (in for of single-line melady—monophony—or two-nate parallel 1: Sf Rte, “Ty Rey” Don ent 8.5 (Mey SS) 9p 96-28, 6, ou La ‘trey ey Ars Quiet Deas 1 Now She eres” Manali Mach 1S, ‘p12 and ar Schl Cen Inst Tey Rey” nfo 1, m0 Tange spp. 38353, ee Kb Sar Se Rh Me oa Wn 12 Pal Wr 0) pp 3-82 5 Appice Sx in Fp Ch, te by Php rl Pen Pref Now Ma alk Wc 95g Sum Mi Se the ogee (a nk Hobo Tonen (Now Wok Mapr Rom 187). 3-3 se se Rockwell ‘Ames Mcp. (The Ons the Wal At the Br of Mai Pip Gee312 Muse Aone rie Ans ere } \ tion cared tothe nth degree! and moreover repetition with unchanging timbre, Pith, pace and lve of volume lalgh the texture ina work of Bley oF Reich Inight increase in density, by aceretion, as one repetition was lad ever easier ‘nes stati, evphonions, nonmodulatory harmony if any at all; and lack of dae Imatie devices—by which I meat contr, opposition, argument, climax, patterns ‘of tension and vleuse, sense of developments Ara result ofall these fctrs thet tsi hat nupraticil acess, lack of com plenty, denial of atellectalty, and lack of “expreatvenest” or “emotionality” Moreover as the Belgien crite ‘Wien Mertens har pointed out, ne might cain that in tht musi “the concept of work is] replaced by the notion of process» ‘The reception acconted earl minimalist musi by composers of olher prs sons was one of incredulity, hostity, and disdain The academic serials Case the minimalist of aesthetic iis: the aleatorc avant-garde accused them of aestetie fascism. And the critics—wel, most ofthe eis are tl sy= aging minimalist music callingit by such names as Trance muse, Hypnotic mie ‘Se Steady-state musie, Going-nowhere mute, Needle-stuck-in-the-groove mi ‘Se, Wallpaper musi, Blank music, and so forth This precisely the poi at ‘which we can begin ur attempt to relate anuscal minimal to the art word, fori was among amiss thatthe minialist composers found ther eathest sup Prt an se foamy Gl ft a {La Monte Young left Calforna for New York in 1960 and was toon involved wth a irl of pater, sculptors, porformane artis, an dancers: isk by him was heard in evening-lengt progres that also included works by Larry Poon and Robert Rauschenberg tr December 1960 Young ongunized a series of concerts and mixed-media events in Yoko One’ lot ia Chambers Steet out of these grew the loose international coalition of vial artists, writers, and must Mi etn An nn ae 0, To. Sx expe ol Mean “The Cat Nene Mu ad Wie Cane Prin” Ne York ies Deter 61913 p12 a Har Scheer Png Se Tout tk Ane ort Peery Be pI 71 Quoted Howe Ae Map. 8 ee aon Kab & el ‘tcc Miimalon i rt and Mae Orgn ond Aches 313, Virtually a Fins manifesto was An Anthology of 1969, slesigned by the artist George Maciumi, edited by Young, and published pr ‘ately by him and Jackson Mae Low a performance att, compose, and port. ‘Among the contributors to the anthology was the sculptor Robert Morris: who in 1963 made a song especialy for Young’ compostion Studies ithe Bowed “etry Riley ao moved from Calor o New York 1961) and was asc ated there wth the Fass group before pong to Earope the nex your where he played the plano in Fred Payne's Artie Barn Pace Pg bfore toring x {ensively with other atts, organizing happenings and street heater pees Stove Rich and Philip Glass were bth in New York hy the wi 1, ‘ral thee the attic ferment of he Soo quarter. Both were cos toe Amal atts ech bosame a frend ofthe scp Sol LeWit, who bought the ‘tigi ore ofthe pce Four Organs (170) so thal Reich coll bay ome spe {al gchenpiels for anther pee, Richard Serra adds supe Cane Tack for the onginal score of Reichs ano Phase (1967), Michie Sow and Brace Nauman wee other att fiends was Wiha Wily to San Prat ‘isco, sho dda pinting forthe jacket of one of Bei earhet record albums” ‘Gls, ton, was lone to Sera and LaWit he worked for atime a Serr ai tant, and one of hie earestrcoralbum jacket ws esiged by Lait The Performance jroup that Reich organied to play his music—Steve Rech and silage sft major concern March 1967, atte od Park Place Galler then an by Pala Cooper who ter funded a sucess gallery weer Ir oem nae; they played at he Whitney Muse in 0B The sia romp that Glass onganined, the Philp Gas Ensemble, at fit payed indent [Now York artists lots and in the Leo Castell and Pala Cooper galerie, even sre they gat "uptown performances thse were Bist presced ot in concert Tall but inthe Whitney and Guggentm meus, Cas esenbles et ap eatance onde New York City as a the Waller Art Cetera Minneapolis 1970, and fst ous were sponsored most by art deprtnents in Ameren colleges and verti, and wt schol in Bran. A piv moment in Glass ‘rcoypitin ata major vanguard compeer was the performance of bis inet) nite Mave with Changing Parts nthe Soft ot af sculptor Do the sping of 107. “The counecions between minimalist music and mina art are much move profound, however than personal relationship and cllabrations 12 Thc foie wrk, which ces cottons y 28 tats, ted as, a uly ele Aahlgy of Chace Oprainsaayt enn Wor Neel Date atcrmnarpnt arto f nlp Sar ages Det Ci srcteneCompete/Marmicse TA Cacia Maseror ses pod by Des Booman (MS-T25, we 1 ‘ns ile Phe i Goa ah The aon hs arr debs om ete ‘etm Stew Rach ated Sopombe 108 1A, Nac Ree ee ort} 2 (gpa A200 5a Music AwoNe THE AS Arvngthee connections the mont self the drat eduction of ma vee nich singe woot ced La Monte Youngs “Dr a strait ne td fie i—edhatd, by the ay, to Bab Mors ™—intes pesformance isn sige sound drawn oot or along tine, Pip Class» 1 (1908) bulk Su ty mms sl 7D and be ppd ona ited tabletop (hus having one single aco’ proper). Reh tape tie pce 1s Gonna Rtn like Come Ot, as no other sound soar han 4 “ingle Sen phrase, Eve his hourant--hallong chanber-nsemble piece Drumming has only one bas thane patter: By bp Seppe Doo Sth nial ar wee ino ma songs wae hat have teresting aces th nial a. Raps the mest obvious oe. 1a Monte Young sad“ very interested in repeton --Deoase I think {natater conta Ove of Youngs wont ncomprombing pce sed {Rio eny Flt the tobe replace bya integer, wc stands the Imbert ne single sous tobe repeated regal, and for 8 long tne —to rake the performance; a werdon ttf heard oun do inthe cory ts had hm Beating an overturned pan wth wooden spoon sorte 600 mrt, One night rake analogies been thi lee an eral sclpare by Donal Jul er Roald Bladen or certain portat mails by Andy Warhol Frank Stl, speaking of some puntings by Jape Joos (pertaps some of {he target or the America lag) ad “The hing that tuck me Che ost ak the aye stuctothe mot te ea of stipes the rythm end intervals thetdea of repetition ean to think abo repetition Stella went on > ‘And Glas emphasizes that in his music there is "focus on structure rather than ‘on there" This makes ane think of Donald Judd critique ofthe sculpture of ‘Mak Di Suverc [He] uses beams as they were brushstrokes, smitating movement, as Franz Kline di. The mater never has ws own movement. A fhoam thrust, «pce of ron follows a gesture: together they form a naturalistic and anthropomor phic image. 22, Westnet Me 9.11 Bc a Kn nl CoB he Sed Rat ey a2 Jl Sete Ob gt Read K.P Mat eps New ‘itcock Minimalism in Art and Mase: Orgs nd Aedes 37 Stella, oo, rejected the programmatic approach in his at People wa want to retain the ld vas in panting... end up ser ing ther something tere bess the pit on the amas Bal pasting based on thal what an eso here tere eel ‘MintmaissmusieesimselEreferenthl. This is most obviously tre of the ‘dane pices of La Monte Young: isa, infact is to have us, ashe puts. get Inside the sound. concentrates heally pon a given sound —fgive oncelf] lover tot to such a degreothat whats happening the sound all one i] a element ofthe sound." Minimalist music ts also nonrdltional ke minimal ar Stell contrasted American minimal art with European geomet painting sing: “The base oftheir whole ides ie balance. You do something in one corner and you balance it with something inthe other comer. but we use symmetry in ‘deren way Its nonrelational Glas sid analogy of his musi that tiie anew mode ose "om “The at crite Rosalind Krauss has ponte to the grid a a figure especialy sel to minimal artist in thelr pursuit of nonnarrative, nonrelatinal, oe toblographicl and nonstorytlling art. She ites the grids “asolute stasis its lack of hierarchy of center, of inflection «its ant-referential characte, [and] its host to narrative." The grid in panting or the threecmenstonal equ lent in sculpture, the repetitive cubic or ather polyhedral module fonctions, ‘ofcourse, to divide space into evenly repeated segment. The musical equivalent tospace is time, and the musical minimalist equivalent ofthe grid there peated musical module, whether of rhythm alone oF of pitch combined with ‘rhythm to form a melodic or a harmonic pattern. The minimalist’ module has 28. ntence wh Jud and Stella coded by Race Ger, aot on WBAL-FML New Tort ebay 19, dr he ener Mom New At pada ttl fi jlo Ly Lapp, rN (Septem) p51 epee Mina Pp et-iot Reenter ote bead wr A Qt in Roca Te Tet of Mand ou. 17 3 Gerona odl™ ESieguctaanp 3h "The Ongay of he hat Cade der 19 (a 981), Ka. The nmgaaty of the Sane Cord and Otor Madera My (Cambri MTT Pr,ans Moste Aone HE Arty measures, the division of measures into “strongly” and “weakly” ace tions the burp of messes ito phrases or phases nto periods, and the ike ‘These are chun oy bcktont-—fr oc ater hats concesed—and perceived forza (sally melody). But the minimalist module itself Tie the grids foreground sure a subject aie hugh it can sometimes be oth foreground and background. ; saan Arete alo 1 the AAR of wich sina painting—its dei dk of pte planes af propecia the ack of dep of foreroand- Servo-bkgrouod; in mach minal msi of the 196s a 70s Even when there is considerable density of texture, sin Riley’ A Rainbow in Curved Air (100) ar as bul up in sof Reich's works, especialy such alange-ensemble cess Mia for 8 Musitns (1974-1978 the dns of deta eens all on the surface ike that of «compleay patterned rug ot foreground seems to trade ‘places continuously with backgronmd, in an aural equivalent of op at. And one Inight argue thatthe lack of one-point perspective i inital paintings and their tack of isory picture planes—or the lack of hierarchy inthe cube modular ‘onstruction of So Le Wit, the Nooe seulptne of Carl Ande or Richar Serr, ipl tetraedons of Robert Mors—find rusia equivalents in the raitonal tonality au of fron hierarchical harmony. a of 3 called “accompaniment inmost nial music etme geet ral anaogy betwen mina art and minimalist muse ae cevibtity AMD es 2 conscious goal of some minimalist Sela sai punting tb at that you case the ‘What yu se what you see eich ‘erote similar“ am interested tn perceptible processes... want [oul tobe ‘thet ear the process happening tronghont the sounding musi" Such art sng for accent was tn conscious reaction gant what ‘hey considered RAEN RAISNETAEBBAAB Som ri ics have viewed this reaction, however in a broader contest asa kind of ex psn: Amercan-art storan Danie! Menelowts has lamed that in much ‘minimal at, one feels a weartnes of man’s spit, a deste to eacape Int an en folding quete from the pressure of a freneti,dscordant work and, for ‘musi eric and historian Ere Salzman, “leary [mista] minimalism rea tion to twentictcrntuy information overload, to the zing, blooming conta sion Whether escapist o et however, minimalism proved tobe enormously fracfing in music avn art—pace the nayaayers among the musical eta nent, both composers and crits. tn the 1970s large number of composers, 2. “Quinn ies and fod” 1, gs Ao Map Mette i dead ue ps ty ithe compe Jon Cap hat aed panes ‘Seton we seed {1A Hor of Amar ot Sed NewYork Hal, Rahat and Wi, 10, p58 “8 Tarn Errary ie Se) p 8 Hitchenck: Moan Art an Musi Origin and Athetis 319) performers, performance artists, dancers, and pop and rock musicians were rawn to t—not to mention a huge new ation, large enough to sll cut Carnegie Hall and other such venues for entire one-man shows of minimalist ‘muse, Tre, in the ater 1970s, and especialy in the 1980s, musical minimalism tended to be abandoned by is major originators in favor of am expansive post ‘mnimalism (dubbed masimalism by ene John Rockwvel)—rather ike the de- ‘velopment of some minimal artists such as Frank Stella On the oer hand, some younger composers have driven minimalism to a logical conclusion by re: ducing the sound of theie music to a near-nero level, as in Toe Jonson's Four [Note Opera of 1072 (which employs only four pitches), orn fact 2er0 level an his Synmetries (1981) a collection of unages, based entirely on musi symbels, ‘whose constructive premise i syinmety and whose presentation i ashe say in ‘refatory comments, "n purely visual form—their purest form, [which] leaves ou to imagine aural parallel for yoursel"® Pbk y permis ofthe th Copii © 1996 Yk Hho £5 Soh ii hrs hat Dp 9) cing ee fea etic onl cently ed tes pobignently onthe meh ne Erie eptced Te we Cove stay of Mae Wey Hen nd Siuley Se (and Mactan) "Nan Wt wc pes ewe he slg ah rel he a ithe nt: anal re it to ‘Sak vain sound sites fo pl, Hary Betas or Bl ontanewe so he Toterbteen ai me