Minimalism and the Death of the Romantic Impulse in Music: An Essay
Had anybody told me 12 years ago that I had the makings of a minimalist composer, I would have laughed -- I possessed a fashionable academic disdain for Steve Reich and his merry band. Music based largely on process was of little interest to me anyway, so I told myself. Harmony (or specifically, the vertical element of music) of course was (as it always has been) of paramount importance to me, but at that time I was not associating (or realizing) the significance of process to music which emphasizes the vertical element.
When "inspiration," that much-lauded and completely misunderstood element, comes from the sound of the vertical component, process becomes tremendously significant in the actual laying out of a piece. Not only must you consider line (horizontal factors), but how they interact with the verticality, how they create the harmonies.
What has minimalism accomplished that is finally putting to rest the tendancy in post-classical period music towards musical hyperbole (otherwise known as the Romantic Impulse or the move from abstraction to "storytelling" or dramatism in music)? The tremendous emphasis on process: a "process" started by Riley, Reich and Glass -- but wheras Riley and Glass are mostly concerned with horizontal/melodic linear type processes (and harmony largely be damned), Reich worked into his pieces a tremendous sense of the vertical: in his own words, "modal harmonies (and their aggregations, my note) involving modal dissonance cover errors in the performance of the music better than simple triadic harmonies." So, a question arises: how much does this choice of harmonic structure and harmony come from this practical performance problem, and how much from an aesthetic need? To my ears, when I first heard it in 1986, Reich's music was extremely thrilling in a harmonic sense, yet quite dull musically. I might say almost "obesessively static" with respect to that harmonic structure, which drags the rest of the music down into overt process, and we lose the musicality. John Adams, a more traditionally trained composer than Reich, brought some of his training to the "problem of minimalism", and began to bring some of the traditional ideas of form, contrast; and structural ideas in (imitation leading to such things as fugue; more clearly marked and developed thematic motives, etc.), and is creating a body of work which develops these ideas. However, it may be exactly Reich's lack of musical training, coupled with his overt and obsessive exploitation of certain harmonic and process resources, which lead him to do the rather disdainful-of-traditional-musical things he did -- part of the reason why they are unmusical, part of the reason why they are blessedly free of certain traditional musical conventions, and are necessary studies in "musical freedom."
Adams, however, like Reich, did not grow up when rock was a mature art form: this happened around 1967, with the advent of dear old "Sgt. Pepper's." The pop music of their youth(s) was a rather unformed mix of the dying Tin Pan Alley tradition, and the first simplistic murmurings of rock/rhythm and blues. Therefore, some of the music which most influenced Reich, Adams and the others came into being when they were already adults. I believe that it influenced them, all right: gave them ideas, which they turned into something resembling "art music." But, I believe there is a certain basic needfulness missing from their music, precisely because they did not grow up with more sophisticated forms of art-pop. It was for members of that next generation, the generation that came of age after "Sgt. Pepper's," progressive rock, art-pop and such, to create "minimalistic" music out of a basic aesthetic need to do so, not just as a fascinating new technique. Michael Torke, of course, is the most significant member of that generation to do this, and he goes one important step beyond Adams, and beyond all the older minimalists: he makes "minimalism" a technique as integral and "needful" to his own aesthetic as was the advent of equal temperment to the works of Bach. In an early work like "The Yellow Pages," one can observe still the strong influence of Reich and Adams: interest in the harmonic aspect of the music, and an almost overt interest in process, which makes the music a little dull. But in an (almost) revolutionary work like "Ecstatic Orange," as well as works like "Slate,""Bright Blue Music," and "Vanada," the need to make MUSIC out of MINIMALISM becomes paramount. Here, the textures revel in the stuff of music history -- so many varied and interesting textures abound. And yes, the textures of romantic music exist as well as classical and baroque, but with this significant difference: it is the concern for process, harmonically as well as melodically, which tempers these older textures (especially the traditional so-called "Romantic" textures) and brings the abstract elements of music back to the forefront: a reveling in the "sound" set up by the tensions inherent in harmony, especially complex harmony, which eviscerates the emphasis that "Romantic" music puts on "dramaturgy" over "harmonic sound."
Even more significant: in the last few years Torke has been gravitating to the more even-handed textures of the Classical and Baroque periods, as if in an either conscious or instinctive knowledge of the way in which these textures reflect the "sound" in music. The recent works have become some of the most even-handed and "musical" music written since the time of Mozart, i.e. , the most freed of Romantic hyperbole. Even the neo-classicists of the first part of the century could not dispose of that "dreaded Romanticism" in their music, because they were not reaching back to the elements of harmony and motive; they did not have a "stripping tool" which allowed them to experience fully the unadulterated power of harmony, especially complex harmony. Reich's music was that "stripping tool," in a sense; crude, but highly necessary. Art-pop, with its instinctive use of minimalistic textures, was the other key ingredient: it brought, however crudely, that instinctive need to utilize minimalist textures in order to best express itself. Reich's process showed the way technically; art-pop showed the way aesthetically and instinctively.
In my own music, which is really not recognizably "minimalistic" in texture, I have been instinctively carrying out the ideas of "harmonic and thematic process," which the foregoing influences in my life (I am essentially of the same generation as Torke) have made so necessary to my life that I have gotten into numerous arguments with composition teachers and folks in general weaned on the "Romantic Spirit," about my works. While I would never bill myself as a "minimalist," I certainly share their ideas about process in countless subtle ways. And it is minimalism, as strictured as it is in its present, early incarnation, which has allowed me to develop many of my own ideas about harmony and motive in music without having to feel constrained by the "Romantic Impulse" handed down to me by so many, teachers as well as critics.