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Post-minimalist or similar composers?

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I've been listening to a lot of John Adams lately and getting really into his style. I know a couple other minimalist/post-minimalist composers (Reich, Glass, Riley, Luther Adams) but I would like to hear a lot more. Does anyone have some good suggestions for some current composers in this vein?

max richter, michael gordon, well, go to last.fm and you can find lots of minimalist by typing tagg for it

  • 4 weeks later...

I don't like regular minimalism but I really like John Adams. I never have liked Nixon in China but all of his orchestra works are great (i.e, Violin Concerto, Shaker Loops, Short Ride in a Fast Machine etc..). This is going to sound odd but many of the minimalists were strongly influenced by Ravel. His music is entirely different but you can hear how he influenced them. I strongly recomend him.

For John Adams check out The Dharma at Big Sur. It's a phenominal piece, that really shows the subtleties of the orchestra, not to mention to amazingness that is the electric violin - when you hear it drop below the register of the traditional violin, I dare you not to get chills.

As for Glass, the fourth symphony is really great. It's a hefty listen, but well worth it. For some "lighter" stuff from him, the Glassworks and Glasspieces are nice too.

Minimalism is really a cool genre, and definitely one that I've grown more interested in over the last couple years. Looks like you've gotten some good suggestions already, though :)

I really like some of Micheal Nyman's stuff - apparently he was the first musicologist to describe a piece as 'minimalistic'.

I was listening to the radio while driving to work and they played a piece by Michael Torke. Pretty minimalist/post minimalist apparently which he wrote for the Olympic Games. The problem with all this is that it often sounds like it has one foot nailed to the floor. Like it is trying to go somewhere but can't make the chord change so it just keeps hopping around frantically trying to get somewhere.

Somebody mentioned Ravel. I second that, have a listen to both Daphnis and Chloe suites!

Another that no-one has mentioned is Don Davis, specifically his score to the Matrix. There's some very cool minimalistish moments within.

These composers aren't necassarily post-minimalist, but Ravel obviously inspired a lot of minimalist works, and Davis certainly was inspired by minimalism.

  • 1 month later...

In what way do you think Ravel was an inspiration to minimalists? I'd love to know more about this idea.

My orchestra played Shaker Loops a couple of year's ago. Great opening but when I hear it now I think it gets lost along the way. The materials were very expensive to hire. When CDs first came out it was one of the first ones I bought.

I've played a couple of works by Jeffrey Harrington, a post-minimalist composer.

I also like Aaron Jay Kernis who studied with John Adams. His 1980's stuff sounds a lot like Adams. His later music still shows influence of John Adams, but is more neo-romantic so think Adams + Mahler + Shostakovich or something like that. Its very well orchestrated and full of bright colors and energy.

I was first strucked by minimalism not long ago. Many things by Glass and Reich, and specially Adams, of course. It's like, oh, there's still hope!!

Anyways, the most interesting post-minimalist things I've come across are the so called sacred: Gorecki, and specially Arvo P

There's a cool album, "Music in the Shape of a Square," which is late minimalism, I think...

Then there's Music on a Long Thin Wire, I think that's by Lucier, if you want superminimalism of a sort

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