6.6: Minimalism

Minimalism.

Although the minimalist was a popular movement that emerged after World War II, and was most popular in the 1960s and 70s. The painting to the right is a perfect example of minimalist aesthetic: it rejected the complexity of the expressionists and to some extent, the Avant-garde (though some may consider the minimalist approach itself to be an Avant-garde rejection of the past!)

The painting to the right is titled IKB 191 (1962) , which stands for "International Klein Blue," a specific shade of blue! The painter Yves Klein painted several monochromatic works using this shade of blue, which perfectly represents the aesthetic that the minimalists embraced.

Minimalism in architecture often embraced simple shapes; paintings would include minimal material, and writers would often use as little words as necessary.

(right): IKB 191 (1962) by Yves Klei. Public Domain.

The painting to the left is a great example of minimalism that isn't a single shade of color (let's face it---how many of us would spend thousands of dollars for a "blue on canvas" painting?) Piet Mondrain's Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue (1930) pictured to the right shows a painter who chooses only 3 colors and 1 shape, and tries to get as much out of that idea as possible.

The three colors, red, yellow, and blue, are the primary colors, which are used to create all secondary colors. White and black are both the presence and absence of light, and the shape of the "rectangle" is found everywhere: the color shapes are rectangular, and even the black lines are technically rectangles!

Piet Mondrain painted several of these types of paintings, each titled Composition for Red, Yellow, and Blue followed by the date in which he painted it. Each of them approach the concept differently. For instance, here, the red square is enormous, and the yellow is very small; others minimize all of the colors, and really highlight the white squares and black lines.

By Piet Mondrian - [1], Public Domain.

Minimalism in Music.

Like the paintings above, minimalist composers often choose a single idea and try to get as much music as they can out of it. Similar to the visual arts, musical minimalism was popular in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in New York. Composers like Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, and John Adams were known for their different approaches to minimalism. The characteristics of minimalist music include:

1. the music is usually very repetitive. Composers will often come up with a single idea, and repeat it over and over again

2. the music changes gradually. Of course, if the music was repetitive without any change, the music would be boring. So, composers often repeat things over and over, and slowly introduce change as the music progresses. The music might last longer than an hour, but is only comprised of a single idea!

3. the music is often very long. Because the music repeats, and changes gradually, the music is often a lot longer than you would expect a "minimal" piece to be.

4. the music often incorporates phasing. Phasing is a technique where 2 or more lines playing the same thing at the same time begin to go out of sync with one another. Imagine the windshield wipers on a bus --- they typically begin at the same time, but slowly get out of sync with each other. This is called phasing, and often occurs in minimalist music.

5. the music is often hypnotic. All of the above helps create an interesting hypnotic effect.

As you watch the video presentation for this page on minimalism, you'll come across a variety of different works by Steve Reich, all of which incorporate these types of techniques to some degree, although some of them are simply shorter works that simply explore a single technique.

That changes with his piece 2x5, which was written for 2 live 5-piece rock bands! The work, which is in 3 movements, incorporates all of these different techniques at the same time in a truly moving and energetic composition.

Photograph of Steve Reich (b. 1936) taken by Bernard Gotfryd. Public Domain.