Re: Kundun

["Samuel D. Burns" <usonian@mail.clt.bellsouth.net>]

Actually, Terry Riley composed "In C".

TritoneDW wrote:

> <<Anyway!  I needed to point out something about Philip Glass' music with
> respect to looping.  The only looping is from the compositional 
>standpoint,
> and not because of any technology.  To see an orchestra play his work is
> something else, I imagine - the Ensemble alone looked like they shed 
>quite a
> lot of sweat at the Kitchen, Mr.. Glass playing keyboards also, and
> conducting using accentuated nods of his head, which sported a bushy 
>cloud
> of hair (then).  They were playing it all, man.  However, it Wasn't IMHO
> 'looping' as most of us on this list know it.  More like a compositional
> 'repeat', but then I know not much of music composition in the
> parochial-classical sense. :)  Anyone?  Is 'repeat' the correct musical
> term?  I *know* it's not 'loop'. :)>>
>
> Ok, I'm sure I'm not the only "classically" trained musician here, but 
>I'm the
> one who checked my e-mail three times today, so I guess I get first 
>crack at
> the official explanation of all this stuff. Mr. Glass is what's called a
> Minimalist composer. Other famous Minimalists are Steve Reich (composed
> "Electric Counterpoint",  performed by Pat Metheney) and John Adams 
>(composed
> "The Death of Klinghoffer", and "Nixon in China", as well as the 
>Minimalist
> landmark "In C").
>
> The basic idea of Minimalism in music is to compose peices with a minimal
> amount of motivic material--just a couple little ideas, or hooks. The 
>interest
> from the piece comes from the very gradual and subtle change introduced 
>to the
> piece over time. (Make no mistake--these pieces are composed, there is no
> improvisation involved.) Glass, for example, tends to create change in 
>his
> pieces through additive and subtractive processes--adding a note to a 
>motive,
> or taking one away. (If this idea doesn't make sense in print, just 
>listen to
> his music--you'll know what I mean.) Listening to these pieces is very 
>much
> like watching clouds move across the sky, in a good way.
>
> Minimalism, by it's very nature, involves a LOT of repetition 
>(repetition is
> certainly a viable term here). In this way it is sort of like looping.
> Certainly people who can listen to looped music and think it's 
>interesting
> would probably relate to Minimalist work, at least on some level.
>
> The movies Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqatsi (I'm pretty sure on the spelling 
>of the
> two) are excellent introductions to the work of Philip Glass, as there 
>are
> really stunning visual accompaniments to the music. Other pieces to 
>check out
> would be "In C" by John Adams (a piece in which several players play 
>different
> little fragments of music in the key of C), and "Piano Phase" by Steve 
>Reich.
> "Piano Phase" is pretty cool. Basically, two pianists play the same 12 
>note
> repeated pattern, starting in unison. One player then speeds up ever-so-
> slightly, until their pattern has shifted one note ahead of the other
> player's. This goes on until the faster player has come all the way 
>around the
> pattern to play in unison again. You can imagine that it's pretty hard 
>for the
> "steady" player to keep an even tempo. Anyway, the piece takes around 
>twenty
> minutes to play all the way through, and it's really cool. When played 
>well,
> you can hear all these crazy sub-patterns and cross rhythms in the "in
> between" parts. I've been trying to play it on guitar, with the old 
>JamPig
> playing the steady, but the pattern is a bit un-guitaristic (poor me! 
>I'll
> have to practice...).
>
> Drew W.