Minimalism and Music - Essay Example

In a first pass, Minimalism as applied to a musical genre suggests as a sparseness of sound a minimization of sonic effect. While, indeed such a description does not contradict the type of music found under the appellation Minimalism; its development has much less to do with reduction or elision and as will be shown in this paper represents in some way a reaction to the cold exclusion and inaccessibility ostensibly found in serialist and modernist music. The term itself is borrowed and borrows from artistic, literary and architectural movements that sought to simplify the representative elements in the respective genre and present itself prima facie as self-presenting. Artistically speaking, Frank Stella and Constantine Brancusi are representative members of the minimalist school (Davies "Minimalism"). In Literature, the plays and novels of Samuel Beckett with its characteristic lack of plot adornment and character development in such works as Breath and Krapp's Last Tape are indicative of the movement. Architecturally, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's mantra "Less is more," highlights a possible unifying aesthetic imperative present in minimalist music. In analyzing the cultural context, the representative composers and works, and the stylistic cues found in this genre of music, I hope to show that Minimalism sought to expand and extend its relevancy in listening culture rather than withdraw away in some kind of cold aesthetic gesture. The cultural milieu of the first wave of minimalist composers all born in the mid 1930s in the United States was one marked by social upheaval, political revolution, and a new sense of global awareness and connection after the isolationist 50's. This sense of a world stage in which the United States and the Soviet Union were the two antipodes invited an influx of ideas and cultural artifacts from the rest of the world. The late 50's and early 60's saw a massive increase in the number of colleges and universities and the subsequent rise in attendance of those institutions. This academic boom laid the groundwork for the ideological struggles that would precipitate politically, culturally, and artistically. As such, minimalism owes more to non-Western music, jazz and rock than to 20th-century Modernism or any other Western art music, at least that since the Baroque period (Potter "Minimalism"). While their modernist predecessors and their electronic and electro-acoustic contemporaries were interested in withdrawal, socially and musically as evidenced by Milton Babbit's statement, "the composer would do himself and his music an immediate and eventual service by total, resolute, and voluntary withdrawal from this public world into one of private performance and electronic media, with its very real possibility of complete elimination of the public and social aspects of composition" (Schwarz, 374). That particular quotation of Babbit's was present in his controversial essay, "Who Cares If you Listen," Steve Reich believed quite the opposite and suggested that the work that he, Terry Riley and Philip Glass were doing was interested in the public reaction and interested in connecting with a more mainstream approach (Schwarz, 375). The second wave of minimalist composers came later in the 80's and 90's under the rubric of "holy minimalism." This trio of composers included: Henyrk Gorecki, Arvo Part, and John Taverner. Their milieu is also suggestive of a multi-culturally infused, cosmopolitan attitude towards music, with an interest in connecting with the people around them. However, in addition to this cultural context, there is a religious or transcendent impulse in their music that is not necessarily present in the work of Riley, Glass or Reich. This transcendent impulse is also indicative of the opportunity to connect with an audience in a mainstream way, by the utilization of religious imagery perhaps common to many. Stylistically, Minimalism is a response to serialism, free atonality, and aleatory styles of John Cage and other post-war avant-garde musicians (Schwarz, 375). It seeks to find expression in pared-down means of composition, with no sense of time-oriented direction. Stasis and repetition replaced the melodic line, tension and release, and climax of conventionally tonal music. Loops, phasing, stasis, and tonality were all prominent features, used differently (though to similar effect) by each composer. It is tonal or modal where Modernism is atonal, rhythmically regular and continuous where Modernism is aperiodic and fragmented, structurally and texturally simple where Modernism is complex (Potter "Minimalism"). The resultant art is one in which contrast and change, and even the progression of time itself, can only be appreciated at a much slower rate than that to which we are normally accustomed. Minimalism, whether in art, music, or theatre, is an aesthetic which deliberately and severely restricts the materials and resources that the artist, composer, or dramatist employs in his conceptions. It is an art that focuses on small details of structure or concept, and then magnifies these to form the basis of an entire work (Schwarz, 376). Young's Trio for Strings (1958), with its long-drawn-out chords and static harmony, is generally considered the first minimalist work (Davies "Minimalism"). Riley's ensemble piece In C (1964), for an unspecified number of instruments, is a collection of tonal fragments which each performer can repeat in any octave any number of times, emphasizing the collective nature of the group. Glass's early works (e.g. Music in Fifths, 1969) use an additive-subtractive process causing the repeated melodic sequence to change gradually over time (Davies "Minimalism"). Glass and Reich, specifically Reich after 1971 became less interested in the strictness and severity of minimalist composition and began to loosen structure and introduce robust variation in his work (Schwarz, 377). Glass, was perhaps always less interested in tonality and many of his works reflect his interest in the serialist and atonal works of Cage and others. In Holy Minimalism, Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, is fashioned within three slow movements lasting almost one hour and concentrated on the strongly maternal figure of the solo soprano; compositionally, each movement of the Third Symphony "is a scion of his earlier reflective codas, bereft of their original role as diffusers of conflict" (Thomas "Gorecki"). Though it has been criticized by some as lacking in intellectual substance, the third symphony as a minimalist work emphasizes the notion of single musical idea meditated upon, varied slowly and methodically recapitulating the sense of sacred time, that methodical progression that places individuals in a transcendent state. The harmonic emphasis and strophic forms manifested in Minimalism made it commercially more popular than its modernist and avant-garde counterparts and thus by much of the community this "cross-over" popularity was seen as intrinsically desultory to "cultivated" forms of music. Regardless, the impact minimalism had on future music is obvious; many of the holy minimalist composers are still very active and are ubiquitous in the musical field. The recent film Children of Men, the soundtrack of which was composed by minimalist composer, John Taverner is implicative of its present popularity. Perhaps as a positive form, that is one that changes or pushes boundaries Minimalism does not necessarily succeed at as it primary mode was reactionary; regardless, its accessibility and its understated complexity has it made an interesting musical gesture. The other musical genre that will be focused on is the British Punk Scene. In the United States, bands such as the Ramones were rewriting the rules of underground popular music. In the UK, Punk music was more than just a musical genre, it was a cultural, economic and political force. In the United Kingdom is music literally took on a life of its own. Greil Marcus, in his work Lipstick Traces, traces many of the major historical movements occurring the in the second half of the twentieth century metaphorically and times time very unmetaphorically to the British Punk Scene. In this Scene no band stands out more than the Sex Pistols. As a cultural-social force no band has probably been more influential in the United Kingdom (Marcus). Musically, The Clash certainly stand as their equals if not their superiors if only for their longevity. In this section of the paper, I will attempt to elucidate some of the stylistic features indicative of punk, hard to pin down musically because of the nature of the genre. I will also focus on a number of bands namely, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. As the Punk rock generation is diverse and multiform, and there are literally hundreds of bands that might be classified as this; it is likely more prudent to focus on the representative trends of a few bands, than attempt an exegesis from the entire genre. When one thinks of punk, rebellion is often first among qualities that might define the genre. Indeed, this is a hallmark of punk music. However, despite this impulse, many of these punk musicians, were as much punk as they were musician and many did want to have their music heard by audiences. As such the relationship between the music industry and the Punk scene especially in the U.K. especially under the conservative administrations of Callaghan and Thatcher was a tenuous one at best (Hebdige). But despite the controversy the punk scene brought, with punk, the industry thought it had found exactly what it had been looking for. Not only was the sound of punk bands dramatically different, but the whole subculture was flashily unique. The original punks in England, marginally employed or unemployed working-class teens, wore hair cropped to a fuzz and dyed what were, for the times, startling and unnatural colors - very pale yellow, green, orange, lavendar. Faces were powdered pasty white, with sooty eyes and heavy lipstick. They wore leather and imitation leather jackets and jeans decorated with metal studs and zippers. Ripped clothes were held together with pins. Dog or bicycle chains were wrapped around their necks or possibly used to fasten one leg to the other. Women wore spike heels, tight angora sweaters, leopard skin print skirts. Punks were flashy enough and different enough to get attention. As Alison Lurie has said, "most new styles cause only surprise, scornful amusement or admiration; the punk look made people in Britain feel rage, guilt, compassion and fear simultaneously; it was fashion moving toward political action" (Hebidge, 150) And both the culture industries of music and fashion felt they had hit on something new enough, and symbolically powerful enough, that they could market it into a winner. The process of capitalizing on this symbolically powerful scene was not usually a smooth one. For example, when EMI finally had enough of the Sex Pistol's antics and dropped them from the label, even though they were given a five-figure sum in compensation, they released a song on their new label, attacking EMI. The lyrics spell out the relationship between crea-tion, songwriting and the music business from the punk point of view: Your thought that we were faking That we were just money making That don't believe that we're for real Or you would lose your cheap appeal Who EMI, EMI Blind acceptance is a sign Of stupid fools who stand in line Like EMI, EMI (Sex Pistols "EMI") In most popular music genres song writing is a mediated, drawn out aesthetic process in which the lyricists and the musicians are in a sort of dialectic, compromising and changing to fit each other's requests, or not as the case may be. Song writing in the world of punk rock is, on the other hand, a much different process. Punk bands create their music live and on the spot. Lyrics can vary from performance to performance and are nearly always written by members of the band itself, and depending on the state of intoxication, much of the harmonies and melodies can change as well. The performance of punk rock is as much about the music as it is the scene, none totally dominates the other. On one hand if the music takes over, then there is an accusation of selling out, if the scene takes over then there is a similar accusation of being inauthentic and unproductive. Since the song is only a part of the meaning system of the total performance, in punk there is no "pitching of songs" to a band (Hebdige, 79). There is no division of labor between songwriter and performing artist. The Sex Pistols were initially named the Swankers, the group was assembled in 1975 by entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren (formerly the manager of the American punk group New York Dolls), and during a three-year career they combined corrosive music and lyrics with a determinedly anti-social lifestyle. With a bit of reflective irony here, despite the pretensions to anti-establishment and revolutionary tendencies, The Sex Pistols are in essence a constructed boy-band, ala N'Sync or the Backstreet Boys. A series of spectacular performances in small London clubs and halls and fervent publicity from a small clique of journalists sparked record company interest. In 1976, EMI Records signed the group and issued Anarchy in the UK as a single. The furor following a television appearance caused EMI to cancel the contract and after another brief signing to A&M Records, the Sex Pistols were signed (1977) by Virgin, which issued God Save the Queen in the month of the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Despite being banned by all British radio stations and the refusal of chain stores to stock it, the record was a substantial hit. Like its predecessor, God Save the Queen combined a cacophonous wall of sound constructed by its producer Chris Thomas from Jones's guitar chords with lyrics expressing rudimentary but savage social criticism, delivered with malevolent glee by Rotten (Laing "Sex Pistols"). By this time Matlock had been replaced by Lydon's friend Sid Vicious and the group was recognised as the spearhead of a punk rock movement whose other leaders included the Clash, the Damned and the Stranglers. Pretty Vacant and Holidays in the Sun were further hits before the release of the album Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols (1977), which became the subject of an unsuccessful court action brought under the 1899 Indecent Advertisements Act (Laing, "Sex Pistols"). With such early songs as White Riot (1977) and London's burning (1977), the Clash was the politically militant face of the British punk rock movement. The group's approach was built around Jones's crisp guitar phrasing and the pointed sloganizing of Strummer's lyrics delivered by their composer in a staccato, Cockney-flavoured recitative (Laing, "Clash"). British Punk as a musical genre is evident in most popular music today, while its political message of youth rebellion remains a powerful influence in modern politics. Bibliography Minimalism Davies, Lucy"Minimalism,"The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford University Press, 2002. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.9 May 2008, http://www.oxfordreference.com Potter, Keith: 'Minimalism', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 9th, 2008), http://www.grovemusic.com Schwarz, K. Robert. "Steve Reich: Music as a Gradual Process: Part I," Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 19, No. 1/2, (Autumn, 1980 - Summer, 1981), pp. 373- 392 Thomas, Adrian: 'Henryk Gorecki', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 9, 2008), http://www.grovemusic.com British Punk Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London, Routledge: 1981 Laing, David: 'Sex Pistols', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 9, 2008), http://www.grovemusic.com Laing, David: 'Clash', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 9, 2008), http://www.grovemusic.com Read More