MUSIC 6270

Minimalism

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

Minimalism emerged in the early 1960s in a tight interdisciplinary configuration among music, sculpture, film, and dance. It has been understood as an investigation into, variously, the relationship between frequency and rhythm, apperception over expression, collaborative authorship or anonymity, the creative possibilities of magnetic tape, and reduced compositional materials. Music-specific descriptions might highlight drones, pulses, consonance, just intonation, and non-western metric systems. This upper-level seminar will touch on all of  these claims about minimalism, as well as the social and political conditions of its appearance. Artists will include La Monte Young, Simone Forti, Yvonne Rainer, Tony Conrad, Terry Riley, Terry Jennings, CC Hennix, Robert Morris, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Julius Eastman, and Eliane Radigue.

When Offered Fall.

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