A thought-provoking essay, George. Even if the pattern-based style Riley, Reich, and Glass pioneered has lost currency (probably because it was co-opted so thoroughly by media music), the conceptual underpinnings of minimalism continue to be vitally important. Process music is still very much with us, even as its stylistic manifestations multiply.
I agree, and I don't have a full answer to the question. I think a large part of it has just been the radical change in how music making has developed since 1950, and in American there's no historical through-line anyone is obligated to follow. Things become sort of a free-floating collage.
Agree 100%. I'd add that once contemporary classical music ceased to be a well-funded instrument of American "soft power," the stakes involved in adhering to or rejecting high modernism became much lower, opening the door to a greater diversity of languages. Will Robin makes a version of this argument in his superb book 'Industry.'
A thought-provoking essay, George. Even if the pattern-based style Riley, Reich, and Glass pioneered has lost currency (probably because it was co-opted so thoroughly by media music), the conceptual underpinnings of minimalism continue to be vitally important. Process music is still very much with us, even as its stylistic manifestations multiply.
I agree, and I don't have a full answer to the question. I think a large part of it has just been the radical change in how music making has developed since 1950, and in American there's no historical through-line anyone is obligated to follow. Things become sort of a free-floating collage.
Agree 100%. I'd add that once contemporary classical music ceased to be a well-funded instrument of American "soft power," the stakes involved in adhering to or rejecting high modernism became much lower, opening the door to a greater diversity of languages. Will Robin makes a version of this argument in his superb book 'Industry.'