Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble – Terry Riley: In C

I probably need to start delving deeper into older music because mostly, I’ve been posting about ‘newer’ music that most people already know about and thus, the lack of traffic and comments – lame, I know. I hope to start that up…soon.

Anyway, I came across this terrific performance of Terry Riley’s minimalist classic, In C, by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble. It was performed back in November and is now being released in joint work with the Wordless Music series. The goal of this series is to showcase just how similar contemporary and classical music and to prove that there are not much differences between the two. Their site lists various recordings, concerts and efforts where they’ve pushed the envelope and been very successful.

You can hear some of the music here; it’s a classical piece that features NYC producer/composer Dennis DeSantis as a DJ. The music consists of 53 short phrases (known as cells) that may be repeated and played as much as the instrumentalist likes. While each musician has complete control over what they play, they are encouraged to bring forth their ideas at different rates and times, while traditionally there is always one musician acting as ‘the pulse,’ or more rudimentary, as the tempo. While the piece begins on a C major chord, it is mostly heterophonic in demeanor as it is characterized by the variation of a single melodic line. That line, coming in the form of a few eighths notes, always shifts from tone to tone, instrument to instrument but it always exists as the main idea – though the polyphony might be taken to a new level simply because of the dissimilar ideas DeSantis brings to the table. It’s a fantastic piece and heralded as the first, significant, minimalist piece when it was initially introduced in 1965. – Bryan