Description
Book SynopsisMinimalism stands as the key representative of 1960s radicalism in art music histories - but always as a failed project. In
The Names of Minimalism, Patrick Nickleson holds in buzzing tension collaborative composers in the period of their collaboration, as well as the musicological policing of authorship in the wake of their eventual disputes.
Trade Review“
The Names of Minimalism contributes to the effort of producing the historiography of minimal music while introducing and exploring the specific (and crucial) topic of authorship in the field. Nickleson addresses these important questions methodically and with care.” —Christophe Levaux, author of
We Have Always Been Minimalist: The Construction and Triumph of a Musical Style“This book presents a total reimagining of minimalism’s early history. Rather than narrating this history through musical style or composer biography, Nickleson examines minimalism's history through its politics of authorship, pedagogy, propriety, and egalitarianism. This book makes a significant contribution to scholarship on minimalism and, more broadly, has the potential to reorient any scholarly mind doing historical work.” —Kerry O’Brien, co-editor of
On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement“Patrick Nickleson’s
The Names of Minimalism offers a potent critique of the means and methods by which minimalism has been canonized in conventional music histories. Drawing on the writings of Jacques RanciÈre and Kristin Ross, Nickleson deftly and trenchantly interrogates the lineage that runs—whether via collaboration or contention—from La Monte Young and Tony Conrad to Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca in order to recover the aesthetic and political challenges that early minimalism proffered at its most radical junctures.” —Branden W. Joseph, Columbia University
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction. “La Monte Young Does Not Understand ‘His’ Work.”
- Chapter 1. Policing Process
- Chapter 2. Writing Minimalism: The Theatre of Eternal Music and the Historiography of Drones
- Chapter 3. The Lessons of Minimalism: The Big Four and the Pedagogic Myth
- Chapter 4. Indistinct Minimalisms: Punk, No Wave, and the Death of Minimalism
- Conclusion. The Names of Minimalism
- Works Cited
