Definition
Minimalism is a movement that emerged in the United States in the 1960s (La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass) based on reduced materials, constant pulse, static or slow harmony, and gradual, audible processes. Steve Reich, in his essay “Music as a Gradual Process” (1968), asks that the compositional process be perceptible to the listener as it happens.
The main techniques
- Repetition: a short module repeated many times; change becomes an event.
- Phasing: two performers play the same pattern; one speeds up slightly until it is one note ahead, then settles. All the possible rhythmic relationships between the pattern and itself are traversed. It was born with magnetic tape (It's Gonna Rain, 1965; Come Out, 1966) and brought to instruments in Piano Phase (1967).
- Additive process: a module grows by adding one note at a time (1, 1-2, 1-2-3…) and then shrinks. This is the typical technique of Philip Glass (Music in Fifths, Music in Twelve Parts, Einstein on the Beach, 1976).
- Substituting rests with notes (beat building): you start from a pattern of rests and replace one rest with a stroke at a time (Reich, Drumming, 1970–71).
- Free modules: Terry Riley's In C (1964): 53 fragments that each performer repeats freely before moving on to the next, over a pulse of repeated Cs.
- Fixed shift (canon at the distance of an eighth note): Clapping Music (Reich, 1972): one performer repeats a pattern of 12 eighth notes, the other shifts it by one eighth note every 8–12 repetitions, until they return to unison.
- Drone: very long, motionless sounds (La Monte Young).
Minimalist harmony
- Static chords or an alternation of 2–4 chords for whole minutes.
- Modal or diatonic harmony with few dissonances.
- Slow harmonic changes that become “enormous events” precisely because they are rare (Reich, Music for 18 Musicians, 1976: a cycle of 11 chords on which the sections are built).
Practical example of an additive process in A minor
Base module of 4 eighth notes: A C E C.
- Phase 1: A C E C (×8)
- Phase 2: A C E C E (5 eighth notes, ×8)
- Phase 3: A C E C E G (6 eighth notes, ×8)
- then the reduction.
The meter changes continuously (4/8, 5/8, 6/8) while the pulse stays.
Example of phasing in the DAW
Two piano tracks with the same 12-sixteenth-note pattern at 120 BPM. The second track at 120.5 BPM (or shifted by one sixteenth note every 16 repetitions). In FL Studio you can get the shift by writing successive patterns offset by one step, or by using two patterns of different lengths (12 and 13 steps) that resynchronize after 156 steps (the least common multiple).
Influence on pop, electronic music, and film
- Techno and ambient share repetition and gradual process (filters that open over minutes).
- Brian Eno used loops of different lengths (Music for Airports, 1978) to obtain ever-new combinations.
- The scores of Philip Glass (Koyaanisqatsi, 1982; The Hours, 2002), Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and some works by Hans Zimmer (Interstellar, 2014) use minimalist ostinatos.
- John Adams (Short Ride in a Fast Machine, 1986) combines minimalism with the symphony orchestra.
Common mistakes
- Repeating without a process: minimalism is not “a loop that never changes,” it is very slow, controlled change.
- Too many simultaneous changes: if rhythm, harmony, and timbre change together, the process isn't heard.
- Timbres that are too rich: repetition reveals everything, so you need clean, coherent sounds.
Practical exercise
Write a module of 8 sixteenth notes in C major pentatonic (C D E G A). Create two tracks: one repeats the module, the other shifts it by one sixteenth note every 4 bars. Add a third track that builds the same module through an additive process, one note every 4 bars. Let it play for 3 minutes and listen to the resulting patterns.
Related topics
Pedal point and ostinato, Polyrhythm, hemiola, and polymeter, Modal harmony and modal loops, Video game music.