So glad you included “Glassworks.” I totally agree. It was my own first Glass record and I still think the best.

Thanks for the clarification, Steve. Yes, there’s little of La Monte’s in print, and all of it is ridiculously expensive. But in all honesty, The Well-Tuned Piano can be downloaded online for free if one searches carefully, since it is often posted as an out-of-print album. And of course there’s always eBay.
Still, this was more of a compendium I’d expect from The Philadelphia Inquirer, not the NYT. No insult intended, but I wanted to express that I was a bit disappointed. I’ll of course excuse you for not including the recording of my own piece “mf” but it would have been great to see a representation of independent labels along with the sony’s and the columbia’s among the works on your list. Without small indie labels, I never would have heard this stuff in the 70’s and my musical upbringing, as well as my own works, would have been the poorer for it.

David, obviously I appreciate where you were coming from, just as I honestly appreciated Kyle’s comments. But even more importantly, I’m happy that the ire prompted both of you to cite specific recordings that were overlooked and ought to be better known. I wasn’t kidding when I posted on Kyle’s blog that I’d gone straight to Amazon to find out if someone might have that Palestine CD on hand.

Hi Steve. The music covered in the piece is great, no question. I completely agree, though, that it would’ve been interesting to see a few “other” composers included like Lucier (which would’ve been brilliant), Johnson, et al. I think the LA Minimalist Jukebox festival went further than expected in featuring under recognized people (at least in the Almost Mainstream) like Terry Jennings, but there are so many good composers that are at best footnoted in typical survey-style discussions of this music. Jon Gibson, David Behrman (getting some props at Tanglewood it seems), Maryanne Amacher, Barbara Benary, and of course our man Niblock. I don’t have a copy here to point to it directly, but I remember Rockwell doing a shout out to a number of these people at one point in his book, but we need more than that! This group of people proffer a wide-range stylistically, and yet they seem inspired by a unified zeitgeist. A ripe subject for exposition I think.

I know this is dumb, but my first Glass disc was also “The Photographer” and my second Glass disc was also “Glassworks”.
Even though I am a stranger, I hope you are not offended if I extend to you and yours all best wishes in conjunction with your recent wedding celebration. I wish you both great happiness!

I too thought the NYT lists were too limited and am glad to see more discussion going on here and at Kyle’s blog.
While it’s good to see Kyle getting some props for his book on new music in downtown NY, it seems appropriate to offer a pointer to the collected Village Voice columns of his predecessor Tom Johnson who was really there closer to the beginning of the various forms of musical minimalisms.
Originally published by Apollo Huis in Endhoven, Johnson’s “The Voice of New Music” is now available free here:
http://www.editions75.com/English/booksenglish.html
Any of you who think Gann’s book was a revelation (& I don’t at all mean to seem like I’m disparaging it), will want to read what was going on in the 1970s before Kyle moved to NYC.
& a belated congratulations to Steve & the good doctor.

Wow, this is such a great exchange, both here and at Kyle’s blog. I’m not sure where to post. Perhaps both places. But here’s my 2 cents.
I believe it is important to remember that what is known today as minimal music was in fact the “second wave” of the genre. When Tom Johnson first coined the term “minimal music” in 1972, he was reviewing a concert by Stuart Marshall, Mary Lucier, and Alvin Lucier. Work that can now also be describe as “performance art.” (See http://www.editions75.com/Articles/Minimalism%20in%20music.pdf) It seems almost forgotten that minimalist music was in large part a result of the Fluxus movement. Reich’s early “Pendulum Music” and Glass’s early “1+1” (for amplified table) are well placed in context of LaMonte Young’s “draw a straight line and follow it,” and Terry Riley feeding hay to a piano, not to mention his early tape experiments. Then later, after Reich and Glass moved on to more populist realms, the Fluxus/minimalist connection can be seen clearly in Phil Corner’s series of gamelan works, James Tenney’s Postcard Pieces, and, even now, in Phill Niblock’s sound worlds. I’m sure those of us who were around in the early ’70 (I was in high school) can remember what a revelation it was to listen to a perfect fifth played in a pulsing rhythm or as an evening length drone. After all those years of atonal and arhythmic music, a perfect fifth was heresy. The musical simplicity was subversive and sublime; it was indeed Flux-work. Concerts of minimalist music were Events (yes, with a capital E). Reich presented a hugh ensemble, first called Music for 21 Musicians (later scaled down to 18). Phil Corner presented “Imagined Music,” no sound, no performance, just suggestions. There was a 2 hour dinner break in the middle of the premiere of Glass’s Music in 12 Parts. I believe it has been almost forgotten that musical minimalism was not really about concert music as we know it today, but about perception, sound, and ritual.
But, despite all of everyone’s issues, it’s great the NYT was willing to even present such a piece. The comments on Steve and Kyle’s blogs have been wonderful. Thanks for the forum, guys!

Anne! Welcome to the fray! And thanks again, everyone, for the stimulating dialogue and the kind wishes.
Herb, fantastic that you mentioned where Tom Johnson’s book can be found. I skimmed that a bit a few weeks ago, and am very much looking forward to spending some genuine quality time with it.
Miguel, you raise some excellent points about the very early days of minimalism and the break with the Fluxus bunch. I very much envy you the early firsthand experience you enjoyed.
Chris, a ripe lode for further exploration indeed. I’m especially curious about whether Charles Curtis documented any of the Waking States concerts he played around town in December 2005. I only caught the concert of Lucier’s music, but missed others devoted to Young and Zazeela, Feldman, Radigue and Jennings. Curtis’s Feldman and Lucier recordings are exceptional.

Yeah, why didn’t anyone think of Andriessen? That could have added another four or five Nonesuch titles to the list.
I’m just sayin’.

Not to split hairs, but an authority no less than Kyle has indicated that Andriessen isn’t a minimalist composer. Personally, I could care less about labels, but in the interests of factual completeness and being anal, I’ll mention it.
Yes, TWTP is very much downloadable online. I’ll also absolutely second Richard Friedman’s comments about downloadable music. The CD is circling the drain in a big way, and the Web is a great equalizer. Rather than bitching and moaning about the corporate conspiracy among the big labels, people would do better to a) support more independent labels and b) download free or inexpensive MP3 and AAC files from your friendly neighborhood composer or independent label.
Many of us give away our music for free in the interests of having more people listen to it and hopefully perform it. I only think this trend will continue.

Great discussion! Ever since ‘In C’ appeared, there’s been a fascinating interplay between minimalism as concept — the creation of extended, monolithic structures from a purposely limited amount of material — and minimalism as style (or “pattern music” as we used to call it). The concept and the style both remain influential, but it’s been a long time since they’ve been synonymous…
“Music for 18” is a desert island piece for me, but I’d also like to mention a few idiosyncratic favorites: Cage, “In a Landscape;” Riley/Cale, “Church of Anthrax;” Johnson, “Nine Bells;” Behrman, “Leapday Night.”