A Minimal Trip: explanatory notes

'My foray into the underground also led me to the (not exactly new) conclusion that, whilst our current concert halls may be suitable for the classics, they are not suited to certain forms of new music that benefit from a more theatrical setting. [...] From the performance by Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik at the ICA, I also deduced a formula for a successful ‘minimal music’ happening. A simple idea, a straightforward structure, intellectual control, theatrical presence and intensity in the performance.’
– Michael Nyman (The Spectator, 11 October 1968)

In the above review, the British music critic and composer Michael Nyman first applied the term ‘minimal music’ in 1968 to a musical movement that had emerged in the early 1960s in lofts, art galleries and clubs in New York and San Francisco. Initially, the performances mainly resonated with enthusiasts of the minimal art movement in the visual arts and contemporary dance – a connection that Nyman had rightly noted.

This new musical form emerged as a counter-movement to serialism and other systematic movements, described by Philip Glass (1937) as ‘a wasteland, dominated by maniacs, who were trying to get everyone to write this mad, eerie music.’ Leading figures such as Glass, La Monte Young (1935), Terry Riley (1935) and Steve Reich (1936) stripped music back to its essence and sought direct communication between composer, performer and listener. Although the term ‘minimal music’ continues to encompass a wide variety of forms, techniques and intentions to this day, it can be traced back to a few common basic elements: simple musical building blocks and patterns spread over a relatively long duration, the use of repetition and subtle variations, and a tonal language. Always the same, yet always slightly different.