The tremendous influx of European refugee musicians during World War II gave American music an increasingly European cast. Once again, American composers had to break away, and to do so now required bold strokes.

Starting out from a 12-tone standpoint, La Monte Young rediscovered sound simply by tremendously slowing down his music until it was nothing but drones. From this point, minimalism developed as an active bicoastal movement. By the mid-1970s, the "Fabulous Four" of minimalism had established themselves: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass (John Adams, in his early work, would be the "Fifth Minimalist"). And for mainstream audiences, Reich and Glass would become the stars of late 20th century music.

Although partly inspired by "creative misreading" of Eastern philosophies, the resulting movement, Minimalism, was a uniquely American product, one that would become the most important musical movement of the late 20th century. In important ways it was a violent swing of the pendulum away from the preceding era. By the late 1950's, music had become so full of complexity and relentless diversity that simple repetition sounded like a breath of fresh air, and seemed like the only avenue that hadn't been explored.

Steve Reich
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Pierre Boulez
Luciano Berio
Milton Babbitt
Mario Davidovsky
La Monte Young
Terry Riley
Yoko Ono

Show Audio
Listen to the program (59:00s)

Music heard in the radio show:

STEVE REICH: "Come Out" (Nonesuch 79451-2)

STEVE REICH: "Piano Phase" (Nonesuch 79451-2)

STEVE REICH: "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ" (Nonesuch 79451-2)

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN: "Gruppen for Three Orchestras" (Berlin Philharmonic/Abbado/DGG 447 761-2)

ARNOLD Schönberg: "Moses and Aaron" (Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Opera, Berlin/Scherchen/Opera D'Oro OPD 1321)

LAMONTE YOUNG: Five Small Pieces for String Quartet (Arditti String Quartet/Montaigne MO 782139)

LAMONTE YOUNG: Composition 1960 # 7 (Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern/Musikszene MGB CTS-M 76)

LAMONTE YOUNG: "Five Dreams of China" (Theatre of Eternal Music Brass Ensemble/Gramavision R2 79467)

LAMONTE YOUNG: Theatre of Eternal Music: "Day of Niagara"

STEVE REICH: "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ" (Nonesuch 79451-2)

HAROLD BUDD: "Madrigals of the Rose Angel" (Obscure Records OBS 10)

TERRY RILEY: "Rainbow in Curved Air" (CBS MK 7315)

TERRY RILEY: "In C" (CBS MK 7178)

STEVE REICH: "It's Gonna Rain" (1st version) (Nonesuch 79451-2)

STEVE REICH: "Drumming" (Nonesuch 79451-2)

PHILIP GLASS: "Music in Fifths" (ElektraNonesuch 9 79326-2)

PHILIP GLASS: "Einstein on the Beach" (Elektra Nonesuch 9 79323-2)

STEVE REICH: "Music for 18 Musicians" (ECM 422 821 417-2)

STEVE REICH: "Three Movements" (Nonesuch 79451-2)

PHILIP GLASS: "Akhnaten" (Stuttgart State Opera/Davies/CBS/M2K 42457)

JOHN ADAMS: "Shaker Loops" (Orchestra of St. Luke's/Adams/Nonesuch 79360-2)

MICHAEL GORDON: "Yo Shakespeare" (Argo/443 214-2)

From CD Reich Remixed (Nonesuch 79522-2)