Minimalists

Paperback. Pub Date: 2008 Pages: 240 in Publisher: Phaidon Press Minimalism is arguably the most popular style of music that the late-twentieth century produced. appealing to the widest possible audience - fans of rock. jazz and classical music. But the Minimalist aesthetic has not been lacking in controversy. To its detractors. it is maddeningly repetitive and single-minded. no better than pop music masquerading as art. To its adherents. it is ecstatic and viant. combining classical. popular and non-Western elements to create a style that restores the severed link between composer and audience.The two best-known Minimalist composers. Americans Steve Reich and Philip Glass. are world-famous figures. But they can only properly be understood in the context of their predecessors ( La Monte Young and Terry Riley) and their successors (John Adams. Meredith Monk and Europeans such...