Scarica Steve Reich - The Minimal Music e più Tesine universitarie in PDF di Storia Della Musica Moderna E Contemporanea solo su Docsity! ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI STUDI MUSICALI “VINCENZO BELLINI” DI CATANIA THE MINIMAL MUSIC And the role of Steve Reich in modern culture Student: Andrea Vittorio Vincenzo Cipria N° 16796 Academic Year 2013-2014 THE MINIMAL MUSIC Minimal music takes place in the '60, grouping a variety of new composition methods based on repetition: as in its figurative counterpart, this art movement is based on the combination of simple figures, motifs and rhythmic and melodic cells. Everything is set in a continuous repetition, but still subject to a progressive and infinitesimal variation, called “static variation”. This concept finds its roots in the Eastern concept of music as a means to life comprehension. In fact, Michael Nyman tells us that the idea of minimalism is much wider and broader than it seems: “It includes, by definition, any kind of music created from limited materials: tracks that only use a few notes, lyrics with only a few words, or music written for a few instruments. It includes those kinds of tracks that are only made of a long electronic rumble. It includes circular tracks, and includes tracks that take much time to develop from a kind of music to another one, and tracks so slow they are only made of a couple of notes per minute”.1 In this artistic context we can find a particular artist, who, as linear as important, took and defined the minimalism vision of art and music as a “gradual process”.2 STEVE REICH Born in 1936, Steve Reich attended courses at Juilliard School of Music with Luciano Berio. He takes inspiration from the indian and african traditions, especially in his typical and unique rhythmic structures. Reich, also, is often included in the “post-Cagean” category of musicians, the ones who hardly suffered John Cage's influence on contemporary music, especially in the prudent use of silence as a musical element.3 His first compositional experiments involve twelve-tone music, but from the beginning, his attention goes on the rhythmic aspect than to the melodic one. Influenced by his close friend Terry Riley, a minimalist, Reich uses his friend's compositional techniques to create his first big work, “It's Gonna Rain”. The track is composed on a recorded sentence - “It's Gonna Rain”, ed – played on several tape 1 MARTIN COOPER, Storia della musica - la musica moderna e contemporanea – 1890-1990, 10, Milano, Feltrinelli- Garzanti, 1992, pp. 748-749, 762. 2 FILIPPO JUVARRA, Reich, Steve Michael, in Dizionario Enciclopedico della Musica e dei Musicisti, Le Biografie, VI, Torino, UTET, 1986, p. 279. 3 PAUL GRIFFITHS, System, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 18, London, Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980, pp. 481. “Big Composition A”, by Piet Mondrian. One of the visual art styles that, more than others, inspired the minimal art movement..
