DCI Minimalist Movement

[Medeabrass]

Wikipedia describes it as "music which displays some or all of the following features: repetition (often of short musical phrases, with minimal variations over long periods of time, ostinati) or stasis (often in the form of drones and long tones); emphasis on consonant harmony; a steady pulse; hypnotic effect; sometimes use of phase shifting where parts gradually move out of sync with each other."

Oh OK...sounds kinda like trance music. Would Gorecki fall into this genre? I think some of his stuff might be fun to do in DC...maybe as a warmup tune or something.

[Officer_Jenny]

hmmmmm....let's see.......

Repetition

Hypnotic Effect

Steady Pulse

Minimal Variations

GOT IT -- A Kumbaya Show !!!!! :P

on second thought...nevermind

Edited August 17, 2007 by Officer_Jenny

[bawker]

I think Bawker is hitting at what I was thinking. In a drum corps universe it is minimalistic in a sense. I never took a music history class so I don't know how the term minimalism technically applies to music. I guess I think about it as being exposed parts, exploring the lower dynamics, low brass doing an ostinato for the last half of the show, etc. Compared to the "meaty" tradition of drum corps music it was pretty "bare bones." I know that's not a very technical way of putting it but that's how I see it from my "blue collar" music perspective.

Anybody bored enough to try and explain the technical meaning of minimalism in music to me? I'd really like to know.

Wikipedia is a start (no music major here, but this kind of gives a good overview IMO):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalist_music

from the article:

Kyle Gann has identified 9 traits common in minimalist music, none of them present in all pertinent examples, but together defining the historical outlines of the style:

1.Static harmony (a tendency to stay on one chord, or to move back and forth among a small repertoire of chords);

2.Repetition of brief motives (the most widely recognized minimalist stereotype, though absent from Young's sine-tone installations, Tony Conrad's violin improvisations, Jon Gibson's permutational pieces, Phill Niblock's drone works, and other seminal examples of the style)

3.Algorithmic, linear, geometric, or gradual processes (such as pattern augmentation by 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4 and so on, systematic permutation of the type Jon Gibson used, or the phase-shifting or repeating loops of Reich's 1960s works)

4.A steady beat (often motoric, but sometimes simply restricted to a small repertoire of durations)

5.Static instrumentation (everyone playing all the time, an ensemble concept in which everyone participates equally)

6."Metamusic" (unplanned acoustic details that arise or are perceived as a side effect of strictly carried-out processes, as in Reich's Drumming and Octet)

7.Pure tuning, or just intonation (common in the early minimalism of Young, Conrad, Niblock, and Riley but abandoned in the more public Reich/Glass practice)

8.Influence of non-Western musics or cultures (Young, Riley, and Glass were inspired by Indian classical music, Reich studied African drumming)

9.Perhaps most important, audible structure

I would argue that #2 at least was present in the 93 book in many places...I don't have access to the brass book, but I know the repeated low brass motifs have to at least somewhat qualify.

[Medeabrass]

Wikipedia is a start (no music major here, but this kind of gives a good overview IMO):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalist_music

from the article:

I would argue that #2 at least was present in the 93 book in many places...I don't have access to the brass book, but I know the repeated low brass motifs have to at least somewhat qualify.

Do you think "Split Complimentaries" from Blast! would qualify as minimalistic?

[bawker]

Do you think "Split Complimentaries" from Blast! would qualify as minimalistic?

Probably not in the music major "techincal" sense, but ...listening to it...parts of it actually sound 'electronic' in its construction, and the repeated three note stuff in the baris...

Hell, I want to see it on the field now.

[PhantomPhanatic]

Some good composers to listen to: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and La Monte Young. John Adams uses some minimalist techniques, but not to the extremes these composers do.

Many 20th Century music history buffs will tell you that Steve Reich and Philip Glass are not "true" minimalist composers. But close to it.

[octavia9299]

There has been some discussion on here about whether star's 93 show was minimalist.

I guess not, if you go by the true definition of minimalism.

However, I think the reason people think that is because that program had a very cerebral, mature and distinct show concept (especially for the time) that was INCREDIBLY hard to pull off. And I think that's why so many people now love that corps that year: it was incredibly brave to try to be emotional on material that would not automatically touch hearts and minds, and we respect them for the inherent difficulty in that. Not only were the notes, drill, etc. a high level of difficulty, the emotional connectivity was too. and they did it.

[hornandsoccer]

BOA

I keep reading it here, but pardon my ignorance, what does it stand for?

Bands of America. Marching band competition circuit

[randomnoise]

Bands of America. Marching band competition circuit

Featuring some very interesting and influential show designs, some of which influence drum corps and vice versa. Narration is common, as is strong thematic design. Lot's of drum corps folks hate it. Some of the shows are amazing. Many others are not.

[Willie85]

Well, since it’s about more than just the music, here’s a broader definition from the art gallery crowd (quoted in the liner notes of my Philip Glass CD):

"Minimalism seeks the meaning of art in the immediate and personal experience of the viewer in the presence of a specific work. There is no reference to another previous experience (no representation), no implication of a higher level of experience (no metaphysics), no promise of a deeper intellectual experience (no metaphor)."

In that respect:

Cavaliers – Yes, dazzling and hypnotic, but light on meaning and metaphor.

SCV – No, every second of their shows imply a higher level of experience, doesn’t it?

Cadets – No, (almost) always a deeper intellectual experience.

Star ’93 – Err, maybe. Definitely an immediate and personal experience (one way or the other) for the viewers.