Out of Minimalism

The rewards of repeated performances.

Hello, yes, it’s been a little while. April was spent finishing the manuscript for Minimalist Music, and while I love having a book to write, and I enjoy rereading and revising, the actual work of typing out a book consumes time, energy, and concentration.

Writing and research for me mean discovering things, and I’m going to share some of that below, along with another expert from the book. Because minimalism is a modern genre its discography is integrated into the creation and development of the music, so one of the chapters is an annotated discography of key works and recordings. The key thing is that it shows how music that began as not just avant-garde but only playable by specialized ensembles started to turn into repertoire music via recordings. That’s the story of Music for 18 Musicians; there was never a published score for this until the Ensemble Modern made their own transcription so they could play the piece.

The rest is recorded and performing history. There’s more below on the former, and for the latter there are these two excellent, complete performances on video that I was fortunate to attend. Music for 18 Musicians should be seen because part of the thrill is witnessing how the musicians work together to make it happen. Since it’s a repertoire piece, there’s more chances to experience this, and that also means instead of performances all sounding alike—all good!—they can have real stylistic differences.

That’s what you get with Bang on a Can and Ensemble Signal. BoaC comes at new music with a strong rock and non-classical background, this performance has that attitude, a little scruffiness, a little punchiness. Signal is more in the classical world, and there’s a sleek elegance to their playing which at first seems less intense but builds up power as it goes along. You’ll also notice some subtle but real differences in how each group plays certain phrases. This is fascinating and meaningful, music like this is defined as a masterpiece because it can contain such variations. So dig these, but make sure you have nothing else to do for a while because it’s tough to put them on pause:

(And if you want one more, the French group Ensemble Links is one of the best Steve Reich groups out there.)

Thank God It’s Friday Again

Today is another Bandcamp Friday, and instead of recommending anything, I’ll point you to the different Guides I’ve written for then on minimalist and post-minimalist music, including one that was published just this week:

• Arvo Pärt’s Delicate Minimalism

• A Guide to Bang on a Can’s Revolutionary Minimalism

• Music in Twelve Parts, Philip Glass’s Accidental Opus

• Masterpieces of Minimalism

And for you full subscribers, here’s an excerpt of the Annotated Discography of Minimalist Music: