Intro to Minimalist Music

This 20th century style of composition offers variations on a single chord in harmonic progression.

Mar 8, 2006 Sarah Canice Funke

Often minimalist compositions appear to be mundane; the same phrase or even chord is played over and over again. What does this music say in the midst of its cyclical, re

Minimalism is a style of twentieth-century Western Art composition concerned with exploring the limits of Western sound, often fusing typically non-Western elements with basic Western harmonic structures in its experiments with various aesthetic ideals.

The composers most associated with the minimalist style (Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams) never felt the term "minimalism" adequately described their work and were unhappy with the label.

Certainly, designating a particular composition "minimalist" can imply that the music is somehow less complex than other works, and minimalist compositions are anything but simplistic. Yet the name conveys the sparse or "stripped-down" sound that a listener often perceives in works from this genre and, despite its shortcomings, the term is still useful for distinguishing a style that sought to create complexity out of the simplest materials available.

At first listen, a minimalist composition appears boring. Often a single chord (or melodic phrase) is repeated for several measures, perhaps minutes. Who wants to listen to the same thing over and over again? However, by removing the distraction of rapid chord changes and narrowing our focus to a single chord (or sound), the composer has shifted our attention to the variations that can be found within the individual sound itself.

It's as if the composer has provided us with a sonic microscope in order to point out the pond critters we normally miss when we glance at the lake in our backyard. We suddenly get to enjoy something that we normally wouldn't notice. Since the music occurs in time, the chord has to be continually repeated in order to stay observable.

Also, the change that does occur in harmonic progression (the pattern in which one chord follows another) takes place so gradually that the transition appears nearly imperceptible. By the twentieth century, Western Art music had formulated, obeyed, and then stretched a standard way of organizing the pattern in which one chord block of sound followed another.

A composition that technically follows the standard pattern of harmonic progression and yet takes so long to do so that our ears have trouble determining the pattern both reinforces and challenges Western constructions of tonality.

The copyright of the article Intro to Minimalist Music in Classical Music is owned by Sarah Canice Funke. Permission to republish Intro to Minimalist Music in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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Dec 1, 2008 7:44 AM

Guest :

how is the music style put together

Dec 4, 2008 2:20 AM

Guest :

weird...

Dec 4, 2008 2:20 AM

Guest :

weird...

Jan 23, 2009 7:18 AM

Guest :

This is a very interesting article as far as it goes, and provides a clear answer to the question many of my students face: "Isn't minimalism just really easy music that doesn't do anything?"

Feb 8, 2009 4:30 AM

Guest :

minimalism is so strange. not sure if i really like this type of music though.

Mar 14, 2009 10:58 AM

Guest :

boring how can it go on for so long and someimes you don't even see the changes

May 22, 2009 9:53 PM

Guest :

Minimalism isnt like that, minimalism is an art of creation and those men were happy with there title at a latter dade because they felt that they were the begining of a brand new era

Aug 27, 2009 9:44 AM

Guest :

I personally prefer minimalism to any other form of XX century classical music. Why? It's deep, soothing, hypnotic, yet interesting; exactly the kind of music that standart radio-friendly listener would instantly label 'boring'. But it's accually not boring at all. The stuff is just happening on a whole different level, so you need to be open-minded to be able to appreciate it.

Sep 9, 2009 2:53 AM

Guest :

GREAT!!!!

9 Comments