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39-398: Avalanche featured interviews with artists, done by either Béar, Sharp, or both of the editors together. The magazine featured a single, often close-cropped, portrait of an artist on almost every cover. Its editorial emphasis was to document artists' work and Postminimalism art news. It avoided standard art criticism and art reviews as a matter of editorial policy. The singular intention of

78-400: A tabloid format , but bankruptcy brought a halt to its run in 1976. In 2010 a reprint of the first eight issues of Avalanche was created by Primary Information . Postminimalism Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism ) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971 and used in various artistic fields for work which is influenced by, or attempts to develop and go beyond,

117-529: A kind of social pathology, as an aural sign that American audiences are primitive and uneducated ( Pierre Boulez ); that kids nowadays just want to get stoned ( Donal Henahan and Harold Schonberg in the New York Times); that traditional Western cultural values have eroded in the liberal wake of the 1960s ( Samuel Lipman ); that minimalist repetition is dangerously seductive propaganda, akin to Hitler 's speeches and advertising ( Elliott Carter ); even that

156-428: A long time. It includes pieces made exclusively from recordings of rivers and streams. It includes pieces that move in endless circles. It includes pieces that set up an unmoving wall of saxophone sound. It includes pieces that take a very long time to move gradually from one kind of music to another kind. It includes pieces that permit all possible pitches, as long as they fall between C and D. It includes pieces that slow

195-423: A lyrical melody in long, arching phrases...[It] utilizes repetitive melodic patterns, consonant harmonies, motoric rhythms, and a deliberate striving for aural beauty." Timothy Johnson holds that, as a style, minimal music is primarily continuous in form, without disjunct sections. A direct consequence of this is an uninterrupted texture made up of interlocking rhythmic patterns and pulses. It is in addition marked by

234-534: A series of works that incorporated additive process (form based on sequences such as 1, 1 2, 1 2 3, 1 2 3 4) into the repertoire of minimalist techniques; these works included Two Pages , Music in Fifths , Music in Contrary Motion , and others. Glass was influenced by Ravi Shankar and Indian music from the time he was assigned a film score transcription of music by Ravi Shankar into western notation. He realized that in

273-515: A single page, this work has frequently been viewed as the beginning of musical minimalism." Inspired by his work with Terry Riley on the premiere of In C , Steve Reich produced three works— It's Gonna Rain and Come Out for tape, and Piano Phase for live performers—that introduced the idea of phase shifting, or allowing two identical phrases or sound samples played at slightly different speeds to repeat and slowly go out of phase with each other. Starting in 1968 with 1 + 1 , Philip Glass wrote

312-507: A string quartet in pure, uninflected C major. In the early 1960s, Riley made two electronic works using tape delay, Mescalin Mix (1960-1962) and The Gift (1963), which injected the idea of repetition into minimalism. In 1964, Riley's In C made persuasively engaging textures from the layered performance of repeated melodic phrases. The work is scored for any group of instruments and/or voices. Keith Potter writes "its fifty-three modules notated on

351-621: A work of art music in the Western classical tradition , and its innovations in the musical language of rock can be compared to those that introduced atonal and other nontraditional techniques into that classical tradition." The development of specific experimental rock genres such as krautrock , space rock (from the 1980s), noise rock , and post-rock was influenced by minimal music. Philip Sherburne has suggested that noted similarities between minimal forms of electronic dance music and American minimal music could easily be accidental. Much of

390-429: A world of minimalism. All that junk mail I get every single day repeats; when I look at television I see the same advertisement, and I try to follow the movie that's being shown, but I'm being told about cat food every five minutes. That is minimalism." Fink notes that Carter's general loathing of the music is representative of a form of musical snobbery that dismisses repetition more generally. Carter has even criticised

429-474: Is a form of art music or other compositional practice that employs limited or minimal musical materials. Prominent features of minimalist music include repetitive patterns or pulses , steady drones , consonant harmony , and reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units. It may include features such as phase shifting , resulting in what is termed phase music , or process techniques that follow strict rules, usually described as process music . The approach

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468-561: Is generally categorized within the meta-genre art music . Writer Kyle Gann has employed the term more strictly to denote the style that flourished in the 1980s and 1990s and characterized by: Minimalist procedures such as additive and subtractive process are common in postminimalism, though usually in disguised form, and the style has also shown a capacity for absorbing influences from world and popular music ( Balinese gamelan , bluegrass , Jewish cantillation , and so on). Minimal music Minimal music (also called minimalism )

507-570: Is marked by a non-narrative, non- teleological , and non- representational approach, and calls attention to the activity of listening by focusing on the internal processes of the music. The approach originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly around the Bay Area , where La Monte Young , Terry Riley and Steve Reich were studying and living at

546-430: Is more of an artistic tendency than a particular style, but in general, postminimalist artworks often use everyday objects, simple materials, and sometimes take on a pure formalist aesthetics or post-conceptual approaches. However, since postminimalism includes such a diverse and disparate group of artists, it is impossible to enumerate all the continuities and similarities between them. But as two opposing examples, take

585-488: The commodity-fetishism of modern capitalism has fatally trapped the autonomous self in minimalist narcissism ( Christopher Lasch ). Elliott Carter maintained a consistent critical stance against minimalism and in 1982 he went so far as to compare it to fascism in stating that "one also hears constant repetition in the speeches of Hitler and in advertising. It has its dangerous aspects." When asked in 2001 how he felt about minimal music he replied that "we are surrounded by

624-449: The West time is divided like a slice of bread ; Indians and other cultures take small units and string them together. According to Richard E. Rodda, " 'Minimalist' music is based upon the repetition of slowly changing common chords [chords that are diatonic to more than one key, or else triads, either just major, or major and minor—see: common tone ] in steady rhythms, often overlaid with

663-404: The aesthetic of minimalism . The expression is used specifically in relation to music and the visual arts , but can refer to any field using minimalism as a critical reference point. In music, postminimalism refers to music following minimal music . Postminimalist visual art uses minimalism either as a conceptual art aesthetic or a generative art practice. Like Fluxus , Postminimalism

702-399: The charm of Steve Reich 's early music had to do with perceptual phenomena that were not actually played, but resulted from subtleties in the phase-shifting process. In other words, the music often does not sound as simple as it looks. In Gann's further analysis, during the 1980s minimalism evolved into less strict, more complex styles such as postminimalism and totalism , breaking out of

741-495: The development of an earlier style had run its course to extreme and unsurpassable complexity. Parallels include the advent of the simple Baroque continuo style following elaborate Renaissance polyphony and the simple early classical symphony following Bach 's monumental advances in Baroque counterpoint . In addition, critics have often overstated the simplicity of even early minimalism. Michael Nyman has pointed out that much of

780-433: The face of mass-production and The Bomb ". Steve Reich has argued that such criticism is misplaced. In 1987 he stated that his compositional output reflected the popular culture of postwar American consumer society because the "elite European-style serial music " was simply not representative of his cultural experience. Reich stated that Stockhausen , Berio , and Boulez were portraying in very honest terms what it

819-569: The few composers to self-identify as minimalist, also claims to have been first to use the word as new music critic for The Village Voice . He describes "minimalism": The idea of minimalism is much larger than many people realize. It includes, by definition, any music that works with limited or minimal materials: pieces that use only a few notes, pieces that use only a few words of text, or pieces written for very limited instruments, such as antique cymbals, bicycle wheels, or whiskey glasses. It includes pieces that sustain one basic electronic rumble for

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858-659: The filmmaker Michael Snow (as performers, in Reich's case). The music of Moondog of the 1940s and '50s, which was based on counterpoint developing statically over steady pulses in often unusual time signatures influenced both Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Glass has written that he and Reich took Moondog's work "very seriously and understood and appreciated it much more than what we were exposed to at Juilliard". La Monte Young 's 1958 composition Trio for Strings consists almost entirely of long tones and rests . It has been described as an origin point for minimalist music. One of

897-428: The first minimalist compositions was November by Dennis Johnson, written in 1959. A work for solo piano that lasted around six hours, it demonstrated many features that would come to be associated with minimalism, such as diatonic tonality, phrase repetition, additive process, and duration. La Monte Young credits this piece as the inspiration for his own magnum opus, The Well-Tuned Piano. In 1960, Terry Riley wrote

936-437: The first to develop compositional techniques that exploit a minimal approach. The movement originally involved dozens of composers, although only five (Young, Riley, Reich, Glass, and later John Adams ) emerged to become publicly associated with American minimal music; other lesser known pioneers included Dennis Johnson , Terry Jennings , Richard Maxfield , Pauline Oliveros , Phill Niblock , and James Tenney . In Europe,

975-555: The latter influencing Cale's work with the band. Terry Riley's album A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969) was released during the era of psychedelia and flower power , becoming the first minimalist work to have crossover success, appealing to rock and jazz audiences. Music theorist Daniel Harrison coined the Beach Boys ' Smiley Smile (1967) an experimental work of "protominimal rock", elaborating: "[The album] can almost be considered

1014-903: The magazine was to foreground conceptual artistic ideas without mediation from art critics or other writers. Avalanche was initially designed as a square-shaped journal similar to Artforum . Its covers resembled vinyl albums. Among the featured artists were Vito Acconci , Laurie Anderson , Bill Beckley , Joseph Beuys , Chris Burden , Daniel Buren , Hanne Darboven , Walter De Maria , Jan Dibbets , Barbara Dilley , Simone Forti , Gilbert & George , Philip Glass , Hans Haacke , Jannis Kounellis , Meredith Monk , Barry Le Va , Sol LeWitt , Richard Long , Gordon Matta-Clark , Bruce Nauman , Dennis Oppenheim , Steve Paxton , Yvonne Rainer , Klaus Rinke , Joel Shapiro , Jack Smith , Keith Sonnier , Richard Serra , Robert Smithson , George Trakas , William Wegman , Lawrence Weiner , and Jackie Winsor . For its final five issues, Avalanche went to

1053-944: The minimalist aesthetic was embraced by figures such as jazz musician John Lewis and multidisciplinary artist Julius Eastman . The early compositions of Glass and Reich are somewhat austere, with little embellishment on the principal theme . These are works for small instrumental ensembles, of which the composers were often members. In Glass's case, these ensembles comprise organs, winds—particularly saxophones—and vocalists, while Reich's works have more emphasis on mallet and percussion instruments. Most of Adams's works are written for more traditional European classical music instrumentation, including full orchestra , string quartet , and solo piano. The music of Reich and Glass drew early sponsorship from art galleries and museums, presented in conjunction with visual-art minimalists like Robert Morris (in Glass's case), and Richard Serra , Bruce Nauman , and

1092-534: The music of Louis Andriessen , Karel Goeyvaerts , Michael Nyman , Howard Skempton , Éliane Radigue , Gavin Bryars , Steve Martland , Henryk Górecki , Arvo Pärt and John Tavener exhibits minimalist traits. It is unclear where the term minimal music originates. Steve Reich has suggested that it is attributable to Michael Nyman, an assertion that two scholars, Jonathan Bernard, and Dan Warburton, have also made in writing. Philip Glass believes Tom Johnson coined

1131-510: The music technology used in dance music has traditionally been designed to suit loop-based compositional methods, which may explain why certain stylistic features of styles such as minimal techno sound similar to minimal art music. One group who clearly did have an awareness of the American minimal tradition is the British ambient act The Orb . Their 1990 production " Little Fluffy Clouds " features

1170-488: The organization, combination, and individual characteristics of short, repetitive rhythmic patterns into the foreground. Leonard B. Meyer described minimal music in 1994: Because there is little sense of goal-directed motion, [minimal] music does not seem to move from one place to another. Within any musical segment, there may be some sense of direction, but frequently the segments fail to lead to or imply one another. They simply follow one another. As Kyle Gann puts it,

1209-563: The phrase. The word "minimal" was perhaps first used in relation to music in 1968 by Michael Nyman , who "deduced a recipe for the successful 'minimal-music' happening from the entertainment presented by Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik at the ICA ", which included a performance of Springen by Henning Christiansen and a number of unidentified performance-art pieces. Nyman later expanded his definition of minimal music in his 1974 book Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond . Tom Johnson, one of

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1248-484: The strongly framed repetition and stasis of early minimalism, and enriching it with a confluence of other rhythmic and structural influences. Minimal music has had some influence on developments in popular music. The experimental rock act The Velvet Underground had a connection with the New York down-town scene from which minimal music emerged, rooted in the close working relationship of John Cale and La Monte Young ,

1287-786: The tempo down to two or three notes per minute. Already in 1965 the art historian Barbara Rose had named La Monte Young's Dream Music , Morton Feldman 's characteristically soft dynamics, and various unnamed composers "all, to a greater or lesser degree, indebted to John Cage " as examples of "minimal art", but did not specifically use the expression "minimal music". The most prominent minimalist composers are La Monte Young , Terry Riley , Steve Reich , Philip Glass , John Adams , and Louis Andriessen . Others who have been associated with this compositional approach include Terry Jennings , Gavin Bryars , Tom Johnson , Michael Nyman , Michael Parsons , Howard Skempton , Dave Smith , James Tenney , and John White . Among African-American composers,

1326-595: The time. After the three composers moved to the East Coast, their music became associated with the New York Downtown scene of the mid-1960s, where it was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School. In the Western art music tradition, the American composers Moondog , La Monte Young , Terry Riley , Steve Reich , and Philip Glass are credited with being among

1365-542: The tonality used in minimal music lacks "goal-oriented European association[s]". David Cope lists the following qualities as possible characteristics of minimal music: Famous pieces that use this technique are the number section of Glass' Einstein on the Beach , Reich's tape-loop pieces Come Out and It's Gonna Rain , and Adams' Shaker Loops . Robert Fink offers a summary of some notable critical reactions to minimal music: ... perhaps it can be understood as

1404-421: The use of bright timbres and an energetic manner. Its harmonic sonorities are distinctively simple, usually diatonic, often consist of familiar triads and seventh chords, and are presented in a slow harmonic rhythm. Johnson disagrees with Rodda, however, in finding that minimal music's most distinctive feature is the complete absence of extended melodic lines. Instead, there are only brief melodic segments, thrusting

1443-505: The use of repetition in the music of Edgard Varèse and Charles Ives , stating that "I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times." Ian MacDonald claimed that minimalism is the "passionless, sexless and emotionally blank soundtrack of the Machine Age , its utopian selfishness no more than an expression of human passivity in

1482-481: The work of Eva Hesse and her use of modern art grids and minimalist seriality that were usually hand-made, introducing a human element into minimalism in contrast to the machine fabrication more typical of the minimalism of someone like Carl Andre . Richard Serra was another prominent postminimalist though his large metal sculptures are completely machine made. In its general musical usage, "postminimalism" refers to works influenced by minimal music , and it

1521-408: Was like to pick up the pieces after World War II. But for some American in 1948 or 1958 or 1968—in the real context of tailfins, Chuck Berry and millions of burgers sold—to pretend that instead we're really going to have the darkbrown Angst of Vienna is a lie, a musical lie. Kyle Gann , himself a minimalist composer, has argued that minimalism represented a predictable return to simplicity after

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