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Commissioned by Joshua Bell, he wished to base the piece on the elements — earth, water, fire, air, and space, in the vein of Vivaldi and Piazzolla's "Four Seasons" and Holst's "Planets." Bell asked five prominent American composers to each write a movement around an element.
Sep 27, 2023 · Bell wound up with a stellar line-up of composers: in the order of the movements of the piece: Kevin Puts (Earth), Edgar Meyer (Water), Jake Heggie (Fire), Jennifer Higdon (Air), and Jessie Montgomery (Space). These five composers have contrasting musical styles, "yet all of them share my ideals," Bell said.
For that mission, the Fermi Research Alliance announced Wednesday that Chicago-based composer and pianist Mischa Zupko has been named its 2024 guest composer.
- What Is Minimalism in Music?
- Steve Reich
- ARVO Pärt
- Philip Glass
- Ryiuchi Sakamoto
- John Adams
- Julius Eastman
- William Basinski
- Michael Nyman
- Meredith Monk
Minimalism in music is characterised by repeating musical patterns (ostinatos), harmonic consonance, drones, and, often, the use of steady, pulsating rhythmic patterns. Minimalist composers use repeating patterns rather than developing a musical ‘narrative.’ The music is not trying to ‘go’ anywhere. Rather, the goal is to strip music back to its ba...
American composer Steve Reich has been hugely important to the development of minimalist music since the 1960s. His most famous composition is Music for 18 Musicians, first performed in New York in 1976. The amazing, pulsating work which has been compared to Balinese gamelan music, builds up layers of violin, cello, clarinet, piano, marimba, xyloph...
Perhaps surprisingly, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is one of the most-performed composers in the world today. Taking inspiration from minimalism and religious music, Pärt’s music often features tintinnabulum, a compositional approach that he invented, and is best displayed in the peaceful Spiegel im Spiegel and majestically mournful Cantus in Memori...
One of the founding fathers of minimalist music, Philip Glass is a pianist and celebrated minimalist composer. Exceptionally prolific, Glass has composed some fifteen operas, fourteen symphonies, twelve concertos, nine string quartets, as well as numerous other projects, including a number of film scores. Find a way into his oeuvre via Music in Twe...
Ryiuchi Sakamoto is a Japanese minimalist composer and pianist, whose minimalism ventures more into the electronic music realm than some of the others on this list, even reaching into the realms of electronic dance music. His ambient music collaborations with Alva Noto are of particular note, as well as his film soundtracks that have seen him honou...
John Adams is an American composer whose music has strong origins in minimalism, combined with elements of romanticism and impressionism. Adams’ compositions from the late 70s, Phrygian Gates (1977) and Shaker Loops (1978), are perhaps the best examples of his use of minimalism. The stunning orchestral Harmonielehre (1985)deserves special mention, ...
Julius Eastman was an African-American composer who famously combined elements of minimalist music with pop music, with his compositions often addressing political themes of race and sexuality. Amongst his best-regarded albums are Femenine (1974) and Unjust Malaise (2005).
William Basinski is an American avant-garde sound artist and minimalist composer. Trained in clarinet and saxophone, his largely ambient compositions often heavily use tape loops. His best-known works are the four volume The Disintegration Loops (2002-2003). Some of his other acclaimed minimalist ambient albums include Watermusic (2000) and Melanch...
Michael Nyman is British minimalist composer. Although his preference is for opera, Nyman has achieved significant acclaim in the world of film soundtracks. He is best known for his beautiful piano work ‘The Heart Asks Pleasure First,’ which was part of the multi-award winning soundtrack to the 1993 Jane Campion film The Piano.
The boundary-pushing Meredith Monk is an avant-garde American composer, known especially for her interdisciplinary work which combines music, theatre, and dance. She is one of the most influential avant-garde women composers in 20th century American music. With roots in folk music, her compositions frequently use elements of minimalism – repetitive...
6 days ago · More-or-less all elements heavier than helium were produced in the 13.8 billion years between the Big Bang and the present day. Stars have produced many of these heavier elements through the ...
What are the elements of music? Here is a quick run through of the main musical elements (you will come across variations of this, but these are the crucial ones): Pitch – how high or low a note sounds. Rhythm – the pattern of regular or irregular pulses caused in music by the occurrence of strong and weak beats.
Aug 6, 2023 · This year the guest composers consisted of four women from different parts of the world and different cultures, who have been widely successful in getting their music performed and also frequently as teachers: Reena Esmail (Indian-American, resident in Los Angeles, but frequently returning to India and working with musicians trained in either ...
