The Minimalist Aesthetic in the Plastic Arts and in Music

Bernard, Jonathan W.

doi:10.2307/833043

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…If Fink were not so focused on what is for him minimalism's defining feature-repetition-he might have pushed the point even further. Bernard (1993) sets up a familiar parallel between minimal art's reaction against abstract expressionism and minimal music's reaction against serialism and aleatoricism, and in exemplifying his analytical method (1995) he offers parallels with the visual art of Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Robert Morris and Agnes Martin, among others. But in many dimensions other than the formal, minimal music has as much in common with abstract expressionism as it does with minimal art: most of it is vigorous and virtuosic, actively performative (even improvisatory), and concerned with expressing clearly the creative/constructive process.…”

Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 94%

Minimal Challenges: Process Music and the Uses of Formalist Analysis

Quinn¹

2006

Contemporary Music Review

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Critiques of formalist modes of musical analysis resemble critiques of certain types of minimal music. One ironic, if not downright paradoxical aspect of this parallel is that the sharpest attacks on minimal music have come from writers sympathetic to formalism. A reconciliation of sorts has been reached by formalist admirers of minimalism, for whom the music is a staging ground for reflexive methodological critique.Since this volume focuses on theorists' responses to what we perceive as the challenges of contemporary music, I hope I will be forgiven for beginning with a personal anecdote. A dozen years ago, in my first semester of graduate study, I enrolled in Jonathan Kramer's proseminar in music theory at Columbia. The final paper for the class was meant to engage somehow with current issues in the field. At the time, the mathematical modeling of similarity among melodic contours was something of a hot topic in the corner of the field usually known as 'set theory', which I was studying at the same time in a seminar at CUNY. Seeking to apply these cutting-edge analytical tools to music that not only functioned as an appropriate testing ground, but also meant something to me, I set about looking at the slow instrumental music that opens and closes the central movement of Steve Reich's The Desert Music. This music, which is interrupted by a faster choral section that forms the keystone of Reich's arch design for the piece, consists of a series of identically structured double canons (six in two), each of which unfolds over a single harmony. Taken together, these harmonies form a progression that is also the basis of the fast music in the middle, but this was beside the point of my analytical endeavor, which was limited to the contour of the higher of the two dux melodies of each canon.What I heard in the music was easy enough to put into words: the upper melodies, despite the changes of harmony and a rhythmic process involving what John Roeder

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Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 94%

Minimal Challenges: Process Music and the Uses of Formalist Analysis

Quinn¹

2006

Contemporary Music Review

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“…arch-like phrasing of traditional classical music (Bernard, 1993). Minimalism in poetry usually refers to a literary genre characterized by extreme brevity or directness of expression, but it would be more effective in this context to highlight techniques of repetition or pattern formation in literature.…”

Section: General Music Today 26(1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In minimalist paintings and sculptures, geometric patterns typically replace organic forms, expressive gestures, and representational subject matter (e.g., people, animals, flowers). Similarly, much minimalist music contains extensive repetition of short motives or harmonically static textures instead of the thematic development and arch-like phrasing of traditional classical music (Bernard, 1993). Minimalism in poetry usually refers to a literary genre characterized by extreme brevity or directness of expression, but it would be more effective in this context to highlight techniques of repetition or pattern formation in literature.…”

Section: Minimalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons That Bear Repeating and Repeating That Bears Lessons

Smigel

McDonald

2012

General Music Today

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This theory-to-practice article focuses on interdisciplinary classroom activities based on principles of minimalism in modern music, art, and poetry. A lesson sequence was designed for an inner-city Grades 4 and 5 general classroom of English language learners, where the unit was taught, assessed, and documented by the authors. Included in the article is a detailed teaching script for use by classroom teachers, music teachers, and related arts specialists for Grades 4–8. Readers are guided through lesson materials, instructions, interactive hands-on activities, and assessments for young students with little or no background in music or other arts.

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“…Bernard notes the tendency of Minimalist art for the content not to reside in the art object itself, but rather ‘in its physical setting or in viewer’s responses’ (Baker 1988, quoted in Bernard 1993: 117). In this scenario the real-time experiences of the viewer become important; the art object becomes something temporal in nature, something that evolves over time.…”

Section: Ecological Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complexity as Process: Complexity-inspired approaches to composition

Davis

2010

Org. Sound

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This article examines the use of Complexity Theory as an inspiration for the creation of new musical works, and highlights problems and possible solutions associated with its application as a compositional tool. In particular it explores how the philosophy behind Complexity Theory affects notions of process-based composition, indeterminacy in music and the performer/listener/environment relationship, culminating in providing a basis for the understanding of music creation as an active process within a context. The author presents one of his own sound installations, Cross-Pollination, as an example of a composition inspired and best understood from the philosophical position as described in Complexity Theory.

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The Minimalist Aesthetic in the Plastic Arts and in Music

Cited by 21 publications

References 3 publications

Minimal Challenges: Process Music and the Uses of Formalist Analysis

Minimal Challenges: Process Music and the Uses of Formalist Analysis

Lessons That Bear Repeating and Repeating That Bears Lessons

Complexity as Process: Complexity-inspired approaches to composition

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