CHAPTER 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?

Minimalism: Young, Riley, Reich, Glass; Their European Emulators

Chapter:

CHAPTER 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?

Source:

MUSIC IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

Richard Taruskin

Removal of context was an important point in the magic of music.¹

—Brian Eno (1981)

Believe it or not, I have no real interest in music from Haydn to Wagner.²

—Steve Reich (1987)

The first identifiable group of composers in the literate tradition whose music not only exemplified but throve on the blurring of sociostylistic categories discussed in the previous chapter were the ones associated with a nebulous stylistic or esthetic category known as minimalism. The term, as usual, was applied to the music ex post facto, and its relevance to the object it purports to describe is debatable. Of the alternatives that have been proposed over the years, “pattern and process music” might be the most neutrally descriptive. But as one of its protagonists, Steve Reich (b. 1936), has observed, “Debussy resented ‘Impressionism.’ Schoenberg preferred ‘pantonal’ to ‘atonal’ or ‘twelve-tone’ or ‘Expressionist.’ Too bad for them.”³

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-chapter-008.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Late Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 27 Apr. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-chapter-008.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 A Harmonious Avant-Garde?." In Music in the Late Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 27 Apr. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-chapter-008.xml