10 - Minimalism 2

Minimalism - Philip Glass

Based on the subtle pieces of Philip Glass and the slow (if any) evolution of the sound. The guidelines were as follows:

• Use at least two rhythmic streams
• Fixed
• Used additive composition to produce polyrhythmic effects the fixed.
• Try and work out a coherent harmonic scheme

Research

This composition is based around Glass's earlier works such as Einstein on the Beach & Music in 12 parts. 

"The new musical style that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed “minimalism.” Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to speak of himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures.” Much of his early work was based on the extended reiteration of brief, elegant melodic fragments that wove in and out of an aural tapestry. Or, to put it another way, it immersed a listener in a sort of sonic weather that twists, turns, surrounds, develops" (Philip Glass, 2014)

Many of Glass's early works consisted of a very long and slow progression that the listener would have to intently listen out for, 

Choice of sound

I chose to begin my composition by using a limit of two sounds.

The first sound was a simple drone with a heavy amount of tremolo on it. I didn't want the sound to evolve too much so chose one that simply sustained. This would act as the "fixed" sound.

"Fixed" drone in Massive

I the spirit of Philip Glass I wanted to experiment with an odd time signature. I had chosen to use 11/8 as it is rarely heard and would take a long time for the listener to get used to, if at all. I used this time signature to create the line to be used in the second rhythmic stream. I created a simple 11-note tone row and had that loop throughout the entire piece.

Overview of Piece in Logic

Multi Tap Delay

To add an element of progression to the piece I decided to simply reuse the 11/8 section. Instead of simple duplicating it and modifying it I opted to use a multi-tap delay system that would add a whole new rhythm to the piece.

Delay unit within Logic

To make the progression slow and barely noticeable i automated the wet fader of the delay unit to increase slowly throughout the 6 minutes of the piece. This can be seen in the blue line below. The orange line represents the dry fader within the delay unit. Towards the end of the piece i begin to fade out the original part of the piece leaving only the delayed version audible.

Automation of wet & dry levels of delay

Tension in 11/8

References

Philip Glass. 2014. Philip Glass: Biography. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.philipglass.com/bio.php. [Accessed 29 May 2014].