Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first book which deals with the school of American repetitive music, also know as minimal music. The early work of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass is discussed in the context of traditional Western music. Minimal music thus emerges as the latest stage in a development leading from Schoenberg, Webern, Stockhausen and Cage. In considering the philosophical thinking of Deleuze and Lyotard, the representatives of the so-called French ' libidinal philosophy', and of Adorno, the author examines the degree to which the 'ecstatic dimension' is present in this music or is even consciously introduced to it.
Trade Review'...Merten's book ...is both analytical and polemical, distant and personal, limited to the music itself and yet posiitoning that music in a wider aesthetic/ideological context than is customary' - Michael Nyman
Table of ContentsPreface by Michael Nyman, Part One: American Minimal Music: 1.1 La Monte Young, 1.2 Terry Riley, 1.3 Steve Reich, 1.4 Philip Glass, 1.5 Basic Concepts of Minimal Music, Part Two: The Historical Developments of Basic Concepts: 2.1 Arnold Schoenberg, 2.2 Webern and Post-serialism, 2.3 Stockhausen, 2.4 John Cage, Part Three: Ideology: 3.1 T W Adorno, 3.2 Libidinal Philosophy, Bibliography, Acknowledgements
