I would like to share with you this fragment of the piece “Canto Ostinato” composed between 1976 and 1979 by the composer Simeon Ten Holt, who passed away last year at the age of 89.
The minimalist piece is divided into sections for an unspecified number of pianos and has a variable length, or rather, it is at the discretion of the artist, to whom a certain amount of improvisation is also left.
The tonality is continuously manipulated, moving away from its state of predominance, passing from chromaticism to atonality.
In the video I am proposing (section 3-4), the piece is performed by the Dutch pianist Ivo Janssen.
beautiful. If, as you say, the length of the sections is variable, then this pianistic interpretation is probably not entirely faithful... it reminds one a bit of the idea of Riley's "In C"; it would be interesting to hear the effect with more pianos.
G
giovannip
Member
Reply 3 by giovannip
Posts
553
Hi Thallo, Holt indeed makes no secret of having been inspired by Riley. Being a minimalist piece and therefore often repetitive, it would probably be possible not to repeat those parts where the measures are identical; in fact, there are some recordings, one of these for 4 pianos dating back to 1988 that lasts about 2 hours and 40 minutes, another for 2 pianos lasting 1 hour and 20 minutes, and yet another version by Ivo Janssen lasting 1 hour and 7 minutes.
you wrote what is a "common" misunderstanding, namely the idea that identical measures should not be repeated.
Minimalism is all about that :-) if you remove repetitions from minimalism, you end up having a kind of "easy listening pop."
If the composition is from the '70s, and if it is inspired by Riley's In C, then the repetitions are a fundamental part, as is the full ensemble of instruments. Most likely the charm of the piece lies precisely in the way the ensemble relates to itself through random repetitions, unintended polyphonies, different execution rhythms etc. EXACTLY like in In C, which was a kind of small experiment in collective performance without a conductor
G
giovannip
Member
Reply 5 by giovannip
Posts
553
So, I have indeed written nonsense and I apologize, and I acknowledge your considerations which are certainly more reliable
Another piece to look at to understand a bit more about minimalism is Reich's Drumming, but something by Cage wouldn't hurt either. Riley sits right in between the two
Then it must also be said that, in general, Free Jazz feeds the diatonism of Riley and Reich... diatonism that had been lost in Europe in favor of chromaticism.
Even from this point of view, I would try to frame the piece proposed by Giovanni...
You could try listening to Ryoanji by John Cage, it refers to inanimate Zen gardens
In fact, one must remember that America is one [thing], but Los Angeles and New York are very different… and the influences received from a musical world based on circularity can be felt.
Very interesting are the musicological writings on minimalism by Ivanka Stoianova (see the journal Musique en Jeu no. 26)
An extremely important essay that brought minimalist music to Europe.
I also thought of one of the few Western composers (apart from Louis Andriessen and Nyman) attentive to these aspects, Ligeti. See the piece for 2 pianos: “Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (and F. Chopin in the background)
Furthermore, Louis Andriessen is an example of minimalism based on chromaticism
Speaking of Ligeti, does anyone know what he meant by “and F. Chopin in the background”?
Thank you Micamahler, I have been promising myself for years to seriously analyze that work by Ligeti... if you have any useful material or links, now is the time to share them
