Minimalism

Minimalism grew out of the work of a small group of musicians in California experimenting with Eastern influences. Pianist La Monte Young, Avant-Garde composer Pauline Oliveros and tape loop pioneer Terry Riley began experimenting with repetition and duration in composition while studying at U.C. Berkeley in the 1960s. Young went on to cofound the Theatre of Eternal Music with John Cale and Angus Maclise (both members of an early incarnation of the Velvet Underground), his lifelong partner Marian Zazeela and filmmaker Tony Conrad. Along with Oliveros, these musicians began experimenting with non-Western tuning and focused on intonation rather than melody. Composers such as New Yorker Steve Reich and conceptual musician Alvin Lucier created droning, cyclical experiments with tape loops, phase shifters and other new technologies. Minimalism first broke into the mainstream when pianist Philip Glass composed the repetitive, undulating soundtrack to the 1982 nature vs. industry documentary Koyaanisqatsi. But both before and after this, Minimalism has had a wide-reaching influence. In providing a new way of approaching repetition, loops and alternate tunings, it has inspired everything from David Bowie's 1977 Low LP, to the Detroit Techno sound, to the religious music of Estonian composer Arvo Part.