Minimalism!

What a relief! Finally.

"content suggests form"
"complete control." Boulez and Babbit!
accepted results of processes, like Cage. But I think his point that Cage's processes can't be heard by the listener. I would also add that Cage was likely not thinking of what the result would sound like, while Reich clearly is. This surely has some influence on the accessibility of Reich's music. Process and the resultant music are one artistic being, the result being that Reich's music would probably be considered more musical.
Reich's music connects with me in part because he is considering the psychological and emotive byproducts of his composition. Cage, like Babbit, seems to display a cold indifference to how the sounds make someone feel.
Emotive content is also remarkable given the rigidity of its construction.

Piano Phase was a work that I never had much interest in. However, my recent survey of progressive American music gave it a new context and I now find the slow process really fascinating.
Reich's later music (and Glass's) has always captivated me. Something about the clean lines and objective clarity always always appealed to me aesthetically in a way that decadent late Romanticism has not. Perhaps these characteristics are just more in line with my personality, not often volatile and given to excess turbulence.

The most remarkable part of Eight Lines, a piece I have loved for some time, is its clear form. I don't know if chance operations were part of its construction, but every part, beginning, middle, and end, has a special emotional character whose non-narrative progression seems so perfectly natural and right. I think Gann hits on the power of Reich's music as physical, involving the body with regular rhythmic motion that is very appealing. Young's work is fine, but it doesn't appeal to me in a physical way where I feel involved, like Reich.


Very memorably, I went with a few friends this fall to hear the Syracuse contemporary music ensemble perform Music for 18 Musicians, long one of my favorites. Of course, I had never experienced a live performance, and I was excited for the opportunity.
It was a really interesting experience, both personally, and observing the audience. The work is 56 minutes. There was a good sized audience at the downtown art museum of diverse age representation. Surely, everyone there had some idea what they were in for, but their response was telling nonetheless. The music began, and after about thirty minutes, coughs and excessive chair shifting exposed a noticable frustration, but by the last twenty minutes, the composition's arc seemed to take its designed effect and people were lulled into a mesmerized trance. Although the audience was not visibly asleep, the music was undeniably powerful, allowing each listener to experience a wide variety of emotive states.