Minimalism rose to prominence during the mid – 20th century and developed as a way to counter the complexity of other genres such as neoclassical music. Minimalism is considered to mainly be an American musical genre although some European countries still contain elements of musical characteristics that are common in minimal music. Minimalism can be easily recognized by its ability to focus on developing certain themes or rhythmic figures over an extended period of time, the reiteration of smaller phrases, and having more gradual transitions than other 20th century genres. Unlike other musical genres, minimalism does not have a set instrumentation and can feature both acoustic and electronic instruments.
While composers such as Philip Glass and John Adams are described as the forerunners of minimalism, none of them can truly say that they have had as much of an impact the way that American composer Steve Reich has had on the future development of music. An example of his influence on minimalism can been seen in his development of phasing. When he was composing “It’s Gonna Rain” in 1965, the recordings on the two separate recorders he was working with became out of sync and created echoes of the original recording; this resulted in his innovation of the technique of phasing – where two or more instruments play a melody in a steady tempo, but one instrument gradually changes tempo, creating multiple variations of the melody. Reich notes in his interview with Jonathan Cott that “it [phasing] was a process of gradually passing through all the canonic relationships making an entire piece and not just a moment in time”.
Piano Phase served as an important stepping stone for Steve Reich. During this time, Steve Reich had only been able to apply his phasing technique to electronic instruments. In previous compositions, Reich utilized tape recorders to produce the actual phasing. The piece represents Steve Reich’s transition into working with acoustic instruments and his ability to continue applying techniques achieved with electronic instruments to acoustic instruments.
While composers such as Philip Glass and John Adams are described as the forerunners of minimalism, none of them can truly say that they have had as much of an impact the way that American composer Steve Reich has had on the future development of music. An example of his influence on minimalism can been seen in his development of phasing. When he was composing “It’s Gonna Rain” in 1965, the recordings on the two separate recorders he was working with became out of sync and created echoes of the original recording; this resulted in his innovation of the technique of phasing – where two or more instruments play a melody in a steady tempo, but one instrument gradually changes tempo, creating multiple variations of the melody. Reich notes in his interview with Jonathan Cott that “it [phasing] was a process of gradually passing through all the canonic relationships making an entire piece and not just a moment in time”.
Piano Phase served as an important stepping stone for Steve Reich. During this time, Steve Reich had only been able to apply his phasing technique to electronic instruments. In previous compositions, Reich utilized tape recorders to produce the actual phasing. The piece represents Steve Reich’s transition into working with acoustic instruments and his ability to continue applying techniques achieved with electronic instruments to acoustic instruments.