I love Morton Feldman. Also great works of his are Patterns in a Chromatic Field, Rothko Chapel, Clarinet and String Quartet, etc.

 

I like his pieces but not to the extent of the time that is required to listen. So his piece above that I posted for example, I understand the structure and I quite like the sounds, I enjoy that aspect of it, but the length of it and the iteration/repetition I don't enjoy nearly as much. That's the part of minimalism that I don't like.

 

I do like minimalism, although not all of it. There are different degrees of minimalism - not everything is Terry Riley's In C.

I don't think minimalist pieces are necessarily long, so I don't get that criticism.

 

I do like minimalism, although not all of it. There are different degrees of minimalism - not everything is Terry Riley's In C.

I don't think minimalist pieces are necessarily long, so I don't get that criticism.

Sure, the length issue is something that tends to, but not always, be a defining thing about minimalism in order to home in the minimalistic musical theme. That's the part that I don't think it works that well especially for long pieces that go over and over.

 

I do enjoy most minimalist music I have heard, but sometimes wonder about it's worth. And I tend to like the fact that john Adams has moved on from minimalism.

 

I don't think I could have ventured an opinion on this a couple of months ago, but thanks to listening to Glass in particular I can give a definate 'Yes' vote on this one

 

I haven't heard much. What I have heard I liked but I don't think I know enough to decide.

 

I selected "Don't know enough to decide" but my gut feeling is that I don't like it (or won't like it).

 

Feldman is legendary. Although, it's funny, I've never tagged him as a "minimalist." I don't quite know what he is, and that is a prime variable in why I consider him so special. When listened to superficially, it seems like slow repetition. When listened to with an open periphery, subtle changes are happening all of the time.

I consider him to be one of the grandmasters of the 20th century. And although I like minimalist composers like Glass and Reich, I don't feel comfortable placing Feldman in that restriction. He was doing something else.

 

Feldman is legendary. Although, it's funny, I've never tagged him as a "minimalist." I don't quite know what he is, and that is a prime variable in why I consider him so special. When listened to superficially, it seems like slow repetition. When listened to with an open periphery, subtle changes are happening all of the time.

I consider him to be one of the grandmasters of the 20th century. And although I like minimalist composers like Glass and Reich, I don't feel comfortable placing Feldman in that restriction. He was doing something else.

As far as I know, Feldman has always been "tagged" as being part of the New York School whose intentions to create were not necessarily the same as what composers such as Glass and Reich did. Glass and Reich respectively sought inspiration from non-Western music, Indian classical music and African drumming, as inspirations for structure in their compositions.

"Minimalism" is, I think, one word that applies better to the visual arts (minimal use of the elements of art to create an artwork) than it does to music. Repetitive, gradual changes based on certain sources of inspiration in the music of composers we dub as "minimalists" would be better described with words that can directly relate to technqiues that composers employ.

That said, I do enjoy the works of Philip Glass from the 60s and 70s, especially his magnum opus of this period "Einstein on the Beach." Here's one of my favourite sections:

 

None of the above. There are pieces I like and pieces I don't like. For this reason I can never really commit to either pole of this poll or any other on the matter of a movement or genre.

 

Adams and Glass provided some short-term enjoyment. But twasn't long before I was borrowing from Peggy Lee..."Is that all there is?"

 

Most of the Minimalism I've heard is by Glass. I like Glass' music!

 

I like Minimalism minimally.

 

While I don't like it quite as much as I used to, there are certain pieces that I still like quite a bit.

The usual suspects: Glass, Reich, Riley, etc.

One composer I really like, that seems to have flown under the radar, is Daniel Lentz.

Here's a great sample of his work. "Is It Love" from the album, "On the Leopard Alter".

 

While I don't like it quite as much as I used to, there are certain pieces that I still like quite a bit.

The usual suspects: Glass, Reich, Riley, etc.

One composer I really like, that seems to have flown under the radar, is Daniel Lentz.

Here's a great sample of his work. "Is It Love" from the album, "On the Leopard Alter".

I love the music of Daniel Lentz. I have most of his albums. Every piece is wonderful.

I also don't think Feldman was a minimalist. He was one of the most mysterious composers to me.

There are various types of minimal music. Reich and La Monte Young sound very different, but I like both kinds very much. Nyman, Riley, Fullman, Palestine are all great. I am not sure if Wandelweiser composers, and Cage who influenced the group, can be considered as minimalists. Their works are very sparse and quiet, probably much closer to "minimalism" in visual arts than Reich's music.

Here is a nice article by Kyle Gann about the definition of minimal music.
http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/minimal-music-maximal-impact/2/

 

I voted Unsure because there are few pieces I really like and a lot I don't. And personally, I don't consider Feldman a minimalist.

 

...personally, I don't consider Feldman a minimalist.

Well you're right enough there, since Feldman is not a minimalist, lol.

Feldman is not included under that stylistic tag, and for good reason -- he really didn't use any of the same premises or procedures that qualify what minimalist music is and how the procedures used in minimalism "make a piece minimalist."

Feldman's works are fundamentally so different from minimalist works that to say he is a minimalist is tantamount to call a composer who never wrote a symphony "a symphonist"

 

The minimalist 'school' is not the only minimalism: there are many fine pieces of music by other composers that exhibit minimalist structures, such as some of the works of Ligeti, Scelsi, even late Schnittke and many others. It depends on the composer and the music, rather than the style classification.

 

That is fuzzy at best, and hovers in that area of "why Beethoven is not really a romantic composer." This is kinda like saying so will not make it so

Traces and traits in similarities do not qualify, it is the musical approach and procedures that count. The composers you named are nowhere near in deploying those signature procedures as the fundamental basis of any of their pieces at least -- is just not enough, even in their their simplest or 'leanest' approach -- to really be "minimalist."

 

I'm don't listen to Glass much. Some Reich I like a lot. I'm pretty much a fan of Adams, but don't think he's been a "minimalist" for many years -- just an arrow in his quiver. That said, I very much enjoy his early Shaker Loops.

 

Echoing Crudblud's sentiment, I can't really pick any poll option here. I enjoy some minimalism. But all in all it's still one of the more hit-or-miss schools of composition out in the contemporary era.

I don't see Feldman as a minimalist either, but would one count the "spiritual minimalism" movement? Again a bit hit-or-miss, but at least I could add a few composers to the small list of Reich and a select few pieces of Riley and Glass.

To the OP: I would suggest posting questions about the nature of certain musics and whatnot before posting a poll boldly (and incorrectly) stating what minimalism "is".

 

For me, less is not more. MORE is more! Or usually so. I don't enjoy the repetitious skipping-record quality of the minimalism I've heard. If I want a concept boiled down to its essence, I'd go with Satie. That's minimalism in the way a haiku is minimal.

 

Calling Feldman a minimalist should be a capital offense.

 

I haven't heard much minimalism, some Adams I like, but Reich seems a bit odd. I just listened to some of Riley's In C and...found it interesting but at the same time quite tedious. Though again, I haven't heard enough to judge.

 

Minimalism is fine if you relax your brain into a trancelike state and enjoy the subtle shifts. It is simply boring otherwise. I suspect people who don't like minimalism would also be unable to meditate.

 

For any listener there's a point at which a musical idea, like a relative at Christmas dinner, wears out its welcome. Minimalism in more or less pure form is, for me, like garrulous uncle Harold who has only a few things to say and says them over and over because saying them once and moving on to a new idea requires a new idea to move on to, and that requires more creativity than uncle Harold can muster.

I know one isn't supposed to say that minimalist music lacks creativity. I know that repetition is an intentional structural device which is not designed to bore or irritate me. I know that some people get something out of it that makes them say "I feel like some minimalism today" and makes them keep listening past the point where I would have slit my wrists. Knowing all this does not help.

Repetition in music isn't something I necessarily dislike. Sometimes it's a nice special effect in the context of something else; sometimes it underlies other material. In the Baroque a bass line or harmonic progression could be repeated for as long as the composer could find interesting stuff to set against it - but of course it was that "interesting stuff" that justified the repetition. In later music I love the beginning of Sibelius's Tapiola, or Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead, or - heck, let's go way back - Wagner's Das Rheingold, where the composers are creating a mood and an image. But once they do that (and usually there's slight variation even early on) they know just when to move on, and fresh ideas proliferate. I know that those guys aren't wanting to alter my brainwaves by trying my patience and then saying "See? I changed the D to a D-flat, and now you're going to hear that twenty-four times, so just relax." If I wanted to just relax I'd watch reruns of Frasier.

I don't remember why minimalism as a basic formal concept got started or why it caught on. That was a long time ago now. I'm sure there must be some pieces I'd like, at least for longer than the two or three minutes I can usually get through. Maybe ones with longer phrase units, or more complex harmonies, or ones that don't do minimalist things until they've tricked me into expecting something else. I like the fact that John Adams got past his minimalist phase and has written some beautiful stuff where the minimalist aspect is hardly present if at all. It looks as if minimalism is generally viewed that way now: as a device to be employed when useful. As anything more than that it strikes me as probably the weakest principle of musical construction ever devised, and a potential trap for composers who might do something more interesting (or a fallback for those who can't).

Well, that's the maximum I can say about minimalism. I shouldn't get so worked up about it. I need to just relax. Maybe Frasier's on.

 

I know that some people get something out of it that makes them say "I feel like some minimalism today" and makes them keep listening past the point where I would have slit my wrists.

...with a spoon. Never forget the spoon.

 

From John Adams's blog:

"So, Marcel, if you're gonna write regularly you have to be open to other stuff too. What will you write if it's a concert of Minimalist music?"

"Minimalism? Check your brain at the door."

http://www.earbox.com/posts/40

 

Ah, the great persona in Adam's blog (often very fun and funny reading) of "Marcel Proost."

Fairly early in his career, Adams said he was a composer who was called and maybe was a 'minimalist' who had already become weary of minimalism. He accepts the 'label' now, I think about as readily and happily as Debussy accepted the tag of "Impressionist." LOL.

 

It's not quite my style, but I'll give credit for creativity! ^^"

 

........................................................

 

Marcel Proost? A musical illiterate but still... "Marcel can’t even read music and the only cd’s I seen in his trailer were by some Goth bands like Alien Sex Fiend and Inkubus Sukkubus, which I saw next to his lava lamp."

 

Marcel Proost? A musical illiterate but still... "Marcel can't even read music and the only cd's I seen in his trailer were by some Goth bands like Alien Sex Fiend and Inkubus Sukkubus, which I saw next to his lava lamp."

Hey, don't knock Marcel; them illiterates can still hear -- and may even, ya know, actually listen beyond just hearing, and some are highly perceptive.