The past few days I’ve been going back and relistening to some of the early minimalist pieces I used to love. A lot of these are available on Bandcamp, so I thought I’d highlight some of my favorites here in case there’s ever a Bandcamp Friday again and you’d like to pick one or two of these up.
A word of advice: some of these pieces are very minimal, and if you’re not familiar with this style of music you might find yourself bored or annoyed or both. One of the keys to appreciating them is listening for the subtle changes and shifts that occur over the course of a piece. I find it helps to listen to them using headphones or ear buds, and to walk while you listen (I’m doing this every morning now); the slowly changing landscape matches the slowly changing music.
Also: the “low Kolmogorov complexity” thing is sort of a joke but also not: several of these pieces can be specified by a page or two of sheet music plus a few additional instructions describing how to repeat and vary the musical phrases.
So without further ado, some recommendations:
I’ll start with Philip Glass, probably the most famous of the “minimalists” as far as the general public is concerned, though by his own admission he hasn’t been a minimalist in the strict sense since 1974, when he completed Music in Twelve Parts (below).
Cluster Ensemble Plays Philip Glass. This includes five early Glass pieces from 1969 and 1970, which build from the extreme simplicity of Two Pages to the longer and more varied Music with Changing Parts.
Philip Glass: Music in Twelve Parts. This piece is from the early 1970s, and builds on the earlier pieces, in particular by introducing vocal lines using solfège (i.e., “do-re-mi” syllables.) This recording is from 1993; Bandcamp also has a more recent recording of Music in Twelve Parts from 2007, but I haven’t listened to it and can’t offer a comparison.
Next is Steve Reich, typically spoken of in the same breath as Glass; they were born only a few months apart, and Reich’s Piano Phase (below) influenced Glass’s turn to minimalism.
Piano Phase (Spotify link). Unfortunately Bandcamp doesn’t have any good recordings of this 1967 Reich piece, which features two identical piano lines going in and out of phase to interesting effect.
Music for 18 Musicians. One of the best-known recordings of this classic 1978 Reich piece, played by the Steve Reich Ensemble. Unfortunately, Bandcamp doesn’t have the version that I think is the very best, the original 1978 recording by the Steve Reich Ensemble (Spotify link).
Terry Riley and La Monte Young complete the list of the best-known minimalist composers, both born a couple of years before Reich and Glass. (And I should pause here to note what a blessing it is that all four are still alive.)
In C. Riley’s most famous piece (composed in 1964), here in a recording by the group Bang on a Can. There are a number of other recordings of this on Bandcamp, but I haven’t listened to them. The piece admits a fair bit of freedom of interpretation and instrumentation, so different versions can sound very different. I therefore encourage you to also check out the other ones.
A Rainbow in Curved Air (Spotify link). Another of Riley’s best-known pieces, here performed by Riley himself.
The Well-Tuned Piano in the Magenta Lights. This is a very long, slow, and contemplative piece, over six hours in length. Like Riley, La Monte Young was another notable early minimalist who predated Reich and Glass. Among other things, he’s known for having influenced John Cale of the Velvet Underground.
Now we come to some lesser known minimalist composers, one of whom (Dennis Johnson) has been claimed as the first person to pioneer the style.
An Hour for Piano. Exactly what it says on the tin: R. Andrew Lee’s performance of this 1971 Tom Johnson piece clocks in at 60 minutes to the very second. Bandcamp also has performances of this piece by Nicolas Horvath and Kai Schumacher. My introduction to the piece was the original 1974 recording (not on Bandcamp) by the composer Frederic Rzewski; at less than 55 minutes it runs a bit short but I think benefits from the slightly faster tempo.
November. This very early minimalist piece by Dennis Johnson (no relation to Tom Johnson) was composed in 1959, recorded in partial form in 1962 on cassette tape, then reconstructed over forty years later by the composer Kyle Gann. It is very contemplative and very long: over four hours in total in this recording. As with An Hour for Piano, a recording of November by Nicolas Horvath is also available on Bandcamp; it’s over seven hours in length.
Schlingen-Blängen (Spotify link). To finish off this post I thought I’d give you a break from piano music. This is a 1999 one-hour-plus organ drone piece by Charlemagne Palestine.
If you’re interested in more minimal music available on Bandcamp, see their “Masterpieces of Minimalism” article from last year, which includes several of the releases I mentioned above, and more besides. Enjoy!