Minimalism isn't pretty

From: The Village Voice | Date: April 28, 1998| Author: | Copyright information

By the time minimalism emerged as a public phenomenon in 1973, it was squeaky clean and spruced up for company. And as the audience for minimalism grew, it became known as a music of pretty harmonies, hard-edged melodies, and motoric rh,rns, made by the tightly knit ensembles of two highly visible figures, Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

Before its emergence, however, minimalism was a nameless, cantankerous Downtown movement of many composers and musicians. It was not so much audience-accessible and "classical" (as it would be from 1973 on), but often gritty, demanding, writhing, rebellious, ...

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