On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement

Name: On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement
Author: Kerry O’Brien and William Robin (editors)
ISBN: 9780520382084

by Kerry O’Brien and William Robin (editors)

Buy on Amazon

"Minimalism changed everything. When composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich began creating hypnotically repetitive music in the 1960s, it upended the world of American composition. Hip, young listeners flocked to a genre that had long been insular and academic, packing concert halls and buying millions of records. But minimalism wasn't just a classical phenomenon: its static harmonies and groovy pulses swept through the avant-garde landscape, shaping the work of experimental mavens Yoko Ono and Brian Eno, radical improvisers John and Alice Coltrane, outre innovators Pauline Oliveros and Julius Eastman, and many others. This book provides a comprehensive, revisionist retelling of minimalism's transformative rise, through the voices of the musicians who created it.…

Recommended by

NPR Books We Love

"Composer Philip Glass once slugged a hater off the stage. That’s how misunderstood minimalism was in the 1960s. Today the music, in its many forms, surrounds us in pop songs and TV ads and has persisted long enough to merit a historical documentation. These editors collected six decades of writing, providing a rich view of the music and its makers. There are essays by “founding fathers” Terry Riley, La Monte Young and Steve Reich, but more importantly, the book shines crucial light on lesser-known pioneers who guided minimalism’s evolution, from Americans Julius Eastman and Pauline Oliveros to Dutchman Louis Andriessen. Extraordinarily researched, On Minimalism satisfies both the nerd and the neophyte."

NPR Books We Love — 2023 · apps.npr.org