Techniques | Minimalism | Modern Era | Opera

Minimalism is a musical style of composition that began in the 1960s, seeking to convey musical ideas with few elements. It often involves musical patterns that repeat while their effect is manipulated through changes in duration, speed and volume. These alterations can create patterns that join together, overlap or phase. For its part, a pattern may consist of a rhythm, notes, chords, harmony, or samples that are looped and expanded through dynamics, layering and the adding or subtracting of additional elements. Often these elements consist of arpeggios and scales.

Originally an American movement, minimalism began as a reaction to the complex and dense structures and sounds used by European composers. With ideas derived from foreign sources such as African drumming and Javanese gamelan, the repetition of musical cells keeps revealing new details. While its application in the world of electronic music has endless possibilities, forms of minimalism exist within numerous genres, from classical to rock. The foremost opera composers of this style are Philip Glass (Einstein on the Beach) and John Adams (Nixon in China), although this compositional style has influenced the work of many more recent composers too.

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