1970: Minimalism in Music

While Steve Reich had already been using minimalist procedures with tape loops, the performance of Phil Glass' Music With Changing Parts in Donald Judd's SoHo studio circa 1970 was perhaps the first time minimalism in both art forms had been experienced side-by-side.

Apparently the term "minimal music" was derived by Michael Nyman in 1970. [more...]

Donald Judd, Untitled (Stack), 1967

"Minimalism in painting and sculpture was an important feature of artistic life in the New York of the 1960s and had a considerable effect, not only on other painters and sculptors, but also on composers of the generation which includes Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Philip Glass, indeed, worked for a time as assistant to Richard Serra and has collaborated often with Sol LeWitt, and it was in Donald Judd's studio in downtown Manhattan that Glass's Music with Changing Parts was given a notable performance. During the late 1960s, after Reich had returned to New York from San Francisco and Glass had come back from Paris, the two composers would often come together to discuss music and play in each other's ensembles, but in time they went their separate ways."[more...]