Minimalist Music - Steve Reich & Philip Glass

Minimalism is an art movement that originates in the post-World War II era of the early 1960s and can be described as the pursuit of objectivity, schematic clarity, logic, and depersonalisation. While minimalism is probably occurring more frequently in arts and design, featuring simple, geometric Primary Structures, in music Minimalism is characterised by frequent repetitions as well as gradual variation. Two of the most famous pioneers of minimal music are Steve Reich and Philip Glass. 

Born in 1936, Steve Reich dedicated his life mostly during but also after the 1960s to the development of minimal music. One of my favourite pieces featured in this seminar is his “Music for Mallet Instruments”. Indeed, Reich stays true to the composition's name featuring not only a large variety of mallet percussions but also composing the piece in order to focus on the glaring sounds of xylophones, vibraphones, and marimbas. The canon choirs augment the performance without overshadowing the rhythmic and resonant sounds of the mallets. To me, it is a really relaxing experience listening to Reich’s “Music for Mallet Instruments” as I feel like the instruments themselves in combination with the choir’s serene vocals create calmness and, as one would expect from a minimal composition, a clear state of mind. What makes this even more interesting is the underlying pattern that Reich appeared to have used to compose the piece. Although I described my feelings while listening as calm and clear the pattern Reich used is the so-called Moiré pattern, a large-scale interference pattern that rather suggests a chaotic experience. Minimal music can be despite its name be overwhelming at times, i.e., like Philip Glass’ “Einstein on The Beach” which starts like a rocket and hits you like a truck with its indescribable gradual progress, but the beauty particularly lies within said gradual progress. In fact, the simplicity in instrumentals and vocals, that is clarity in choice and variation, seems underwhelming at first but given the pieces’ timeframe and the gradual progress, they undergo the underlying complexity of minimal music reappears and entrances the listener with an ever-repeating yet never boring-sounding conjuncture of patterns. While I genuinely enjoyed pieces like Reich’s “Music for Mallet Instruments” and “Different Trains” or Glass’ “Music in Twelve Parts”, I could not quite find myself enjoying pieces like “It’s Gonna Rain” or “Einstein on The Beach”, as listening to them entirely proved to be tedious and unnerving after all.