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In B-Flat (2009)

inbflat.net

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#21

Really lovely idea and brilliant execution. For people who don't get the reference, one of the defining pieces of the Minimalist movement in 20th century music[1] was "In C" by Terry Riley[2]. Minimalist pieces often (but don't always) include elements of non-determinsm like in this. [1] Minimalism here doesn't mean "not many notes" it means deliberately restricting the range of harmonic and rhythmic materials availa…

> Minimalism here doesn't mean "not many notes" it means deliberately restricting the range of harmonic and rhythmic materials available to the composer

This is not necessarily what minimalism means. Minimalism is just an abstraction for certain kinds of art, possibly with various incompatible techniques. For some artists (not just musicians, but also painters, poets etc) minimalism means "repetition"-ism i.e. art with excessive amount of repetition to the point that you'd normally expect it to be "boring" but it somehow uses it to its favor with rhythmic, harmonic, or formal techniques. Philip Glass is the pioneer of this idea in music, and I personally consider him one of the most creative and groundbreaking artists ever lived. His music is very tonal, "simple" and repetitive in his oeuvre (i.e. repetition not just in one work, but repetition among his body of works like minimalist painters Mondrian and Rothko) which makes him a very very controversial musician, some critics considering him a charlatan. To me, he's a Schoenbergian figure who is making a bombastic and over-the-top artistic statement by going against the current of his artistic tradition while remaining firmly in it. Similarly, Schoenberg was also considered a charlatan during his life, especially early on.

For those interested, I recommend this composition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKJoQ8BfQhw (full on spotify, sorry)

Oh also if you ever think "classical music doesn't have a cultural force anymore" please pay attention to contemporary film music that's not neo-romanticist. You'll see that there is tons of minimalist influence from Glass, Reich, Andriessen, Richter etc...

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#22

Really lovely idea and brilliant execution. For people who don't get the reference, one of the defining pieces of the Minimalist movement in 20th century music[1] was "In C" by Terry Riley[2]. Minimalist pieces often (but don't always) include elements of non-determinsm like in this. [1] Minimalism here doesn't mean "not many notes" it means deliberately restricting the range of harmonic and rhythmic materials availa…

> Minimalism here doesn't mean "not many notes" it means deliberately restricting the range of harmonic and rhythmic materials available to the composer This is not necessarily what minimalism means. Minimalism is just an abstraction for certain kinds of art, possibly with various incompatible techniques. For some artists (not just musicians, but also painters, poets etc) minimalism means "repetition"-ism i.e. art wi…

> Oh also if you ever think "classical music doesn't have a cultural force anymore" please pay attention to contemporary film music that's not neo-romanticist. You'll see that there is tons of minimalist influence from Glass, Reich, Andriessen, Richter etc...

And music from horror movies and battle scenes if you want to hear the contemporary influence of serialism and new complexity.

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#25
post #8

I remember showing this to a roommate's mom over a decade ago. She wondered aloud if it was like The Emperor's New Clothes or if we simply didn't understand music well enough to know why we shouldn't enjoy this. I still like it, whatever it says about me.

What suggests that you shouldn't like it?

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#26

Doesn't run on mobile, which is fine not everything has to. But could someone describe the page for those of us who can't right now?

It's a grid of Youtube videos, each of someone playing a musical instrument of various sorts (electric guitar, piano, clarinet, marimba, muted trumpet, voice, KAOSS synth pad, a Nintendo DS), making music in the key of B-flat major. The instructions are to start the videos at any time and in any order. By doing so, the audio of each overlays each other and since they are all in tune with each other, it all sounds lik…

Thanks for your insightful answer. I've long been a fan of In C and various performances so I'll certainly be looking forward to experiencing this tonight.

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#27
> In Bb doesn't run properly on mobile devices. Please use a laptop/desktop. If you'd like to try anyway please click OK.

But I am running this on a laptop.

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#28
I imagine that part of the selection process was ensuring the Bb videos were all in-tune. I'm imagine there were many videos rejected because they were out-of-tune.

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#29
post #28

I imagine that part of the selection process was ensuring the Bb videos were all in-tune. I'm imagine there were many videos rejected because they were out-of-tune.

Given modern trivial access to tuners, it's not that difficult to find in-tune performances...

Re: In B-Flat (2009)

#30

Really lovely idea and brilliant execution. For people who don't get the reference, one of the defining pieces of the Minimalist movement in 20th century music[1] was "In C" by Terry Riley[2]. Minimalist pieces often (but don't always) include elements of non-determinsm like in this. [1] Minimalism here doesn't mean "not many notes" it means deliberately restricting the range of harmonic and rhythmic materials availa…

>For people who don't get the reference, one of the defining pieces of the Minimalist movement in 20th century music[1] was "In C" by Terry Riley

So they missed the opportunity to call this "In B#".

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