Contextualising Minimalism – a study day with Stephen Montague

Minimalism Unwrapped; Stephen Montague, Christina McMaster, Chris Brannick; Kings Place
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on Jan 10 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Lecturing and performance in enjoyable and informative study day on minimalism

Part of the Minimalism Unwrapped series at Kings Place, this study day by composer Stephen Montague (1943-), along with Christina McMaster (piano) and Chris Brannick (percussion), was an interesting exposé of the music and culture of the New York minimalist movement of the 1950's and 60's. Using musical examples and a lot of humour, Montague took us on a whistle-stop tour of history – highlighting music which would become influential such as Gregorian chant, or reacted against such as Schoenberg's twelve tone music. He touched on more exotic influences such as Indian raga, Ghanaian drumming, and Javanese gamelan - and all before the first coffee break.

Following on from this was a discussion about what was happening in art and literature, and then to the nitty gritty of some of the different ideas that were being explored by people we now know as minimalists: the drones and alternative tuning of La Monte Young, repetition and processes of Terry Riley, phasing of Steve Reich, and arpeggiation of Philip Glass.