Adrian George andHonorHarger from ArtScience Museum Goh SzeYingfrom NationalGallery Singapore, and Curated byEugeneTan, Russell Storer, Silke Schmickland Organised byNationalGallery Singapore andArtScience Museum 16 November 2018–14April2019 Minimalism: Space. Light.Object. Published to accompany theexhibition: ISBN 978-981-11-9458-0 Published byArtScience Museum,Singapore 2018@ArtScience Museum Designed andprinted byBlackMongrels Edited byNinaErnst andAdrianGeorge Written byWesley Goatley andHonorHarger Sound RoomReader Minimalism: Space. Light.Object.

art thatcame to defineMinimalismin1960s. artform thatemerged alongside thevisual compositions ofMinimalist music,asonic music andsoundart.Itpresents over 40 reveals how Minimalismmanifested within profundity ofsimplicity,theSoundRoom how visualartists soughtto express the and NationalGallery Singapore emphasise Whilst thegalleries ofArtScience Museum history of20thcentury art. became aradical turningpointinthe the exhibition shows how Minimalism sculpture, paintingandinstallation, Through over 150artworks, spanning 16 November 2018to 14April2019. and NationalGallery Singapore, from minimal art,heldatArtScience Museum South East Asia’s first majorsurvey of exhibition, The SoundRoomisakey partofthe AN INTRODUCTION TO Minimalism: Space. Light. Object. SOUND ROOM , 1 ’Sande K(2010), “ practice ofthissonicart form. seen, revealing deeperlayers to the development ofMinimalist music can be of eachwork are sites where theongoing or thegeographical andpolitical contexts written scores, performance instructions, performer, listener, andsound.Manyofthe of therelationships between composer, and often philosophical understanding aesthetic practices, butalsoaconceptual The term describesnotonly asetof punk andtechno to ambientandgrime”. that we now listen to andholddear,from the onethatmadepossible virtually all most important ideaofthelast century, by musiccriticKiran Sandeas“thesingle been profoundly influential.Itwasdescribed As invisualart,Minimalismmusichas musical experimenters. evolving with anew generation of legacy isnotonly livingon,butisactively predated them,andthosethatshow their the emerging experimental practices that canonical works ofMinimalism,butalso part ofthecentury. Itpresents notonly the Minimalism whichemerged inthelatter of the1960sand1970s,to anew wave of counterparts inthe‘HighMinimalist’ period Glass, whoworked alongside theirvisualart such asTerry Riley, Steve ReichandPhilip century music,to Minimalist innovators the avant-garde modernisers ofearly 20th development ofMinimalist music,from The SoundRoomchartsthecourse ofthe classical musicandBalinesesoundscapes. music, andAsiantraditions suchasIndian deconstructed works ofearly modernist even silence ispartofmusic,aswell asthe experiments ofJohnCage,whoshowed that phrases. Ittraces itsroots to theradical gliding drones, andtherepetition ofmusical transformation, syncopated rhythmicloops, characterised bysteady pulses,gradual and mind-altering, Minimalist musicis austere andterse, atothertimesexpansive its own unexpected complexity. Sometimes simplicity can bebeautiful,andcan reveal musical materials suggesting that It ismusicmadewithlimited orminimal of sound,andtheabsence ofsound. canons to reveal theessence oflistening, back from musical opulence andexcess the ideathatthere isvirtueindrawing Minimalism withinmusicisbasedon A Brief of History Minimalism viewed online9November 2018. ”, FACT, 1 February 2010,

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5 PROGRAMME ONE:

The Sound Room begins with DURING programme one, During Minimalism, In C 1964 0:42:01 an aural exploration of the key tropes of Minimalist music in the 1960s, MINIMALISM including the extended cyclical drones LA MONTE YOUNG of La Monte Young and , Minimalist music emerged in The Well-Tuned Piano 1964 0:59:18 and the repetitive pulsing rhythms parallel to the visual art that has of Steve Reich and Terry Riley. become associated with Minimalism TONY CONRAD Their work was made in reaction in New York in New York during the Four Violins 1964 0:32:30 to other music styles, such as the 1960s. If Donald Judd, Frank Stella of and and Robert Morris can be thought , which had of as the key proponents of ‘High PAULINE OLIVEROS made avant-garde music complex Minimalism’ in visual art, then their Bye Bye Butterfly 1965 0:08:09 and difficult to listen to. By contrast, The Sound Room also includes musical equivalents are Terry Riley, the Minimalists stripped music down composers who have often been Steve Reich, and La Monte Young. to its core essential elements, overlooked in traditional musical STEVE REICH focusing on its pure aural power, histories, including women such The first programme of the Sound Piano Phase 1967 0:20:37 rather than anything it might represent. as Èliane Radigue, Johanna Beyer, Room presents the work of a Daphne Oram, Else Marie Pade group of composers who helped Programme two, Before Minimalism, and Maryanne Amacher, who made define Minimalist music in the PHILIP GLASS investigates the genre’s precursors, pioneering and unique works which West. It also includes the work of Two Pages 1968 0:18:01 showing how paradigm-shifting early groundbreaking female composers amplified our understanding of Einstein On the Beach: 1976 0:03:52 works like Yves Klein’s Monotone who were overlooked for many years Minimalism, but went largely Knee Play 1 Symphony (1949) - an orchestral piece unappreciated during their own within the canon of , incorporating a 22-minute silence - time. Acting as a counterpoint to the such as Maryanne Amacher, took the process of paring back to American composers of the High Èliane Radigue and Pauline JO KONDO an extreme, removing even the basic Minimalist period are musicians who Oliveros, and non-Western Sight Rhythmics 1975 0:13:10 requirement of music - sound itself. draw upon more diverse cultural innovators, including Jo Kondo The introduction of the idea that traditions, including Colin McPhee, and Hiroshi Yoshimura. silence could be a constituent of Jo Kondo, and Hiroshi Yoshimura. JOHN ADAMS musical composition was amongst In moving beyond its conventional Phrygian Gates 1977 0:29:39 many radical innovations made by definitions, we aim to present an the “ultra-modernist” composers expanded concept of Minimalist of first part of the 20th century, music across the three programmes, ARVO PÄRT who transformed the way that we to add new conceptual and poetic Spiegel im Spiegel 1978 0:09:24 listen, and inspired a new approach layers to the acoustic experience. to Minimalist music-making. Minimalism went further than being CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE The Sound Room culminates in a musical movement. It shook the Excerpt from Evolution of 1978 0:06:43 programme three, After Minimalism, foundations of our understanding a Sonority in Strumming examining how a new generation of music, and redefined what sound and Arpeggio Style for of musicians, such as Ryoji Ikeda, art can be. The Sound Room offers Bosendorfer Piano Thomas Köner and alva noto have visitors a unique communal listening used technology to redefine environment; the opportunity to Minimalism for a digital age, sit in a calm space dedicated to a HIROSHI YOSHIMURA creating works of extreme sparsity contemplative sensory experience, Dream 1982 0:05:35 and hypnotic depth. and become immersed in a musical Dance PM 0:06:32 form that shapes perceptions of time and space. ÉLIANE RADIGUE As conductor, Charles Hazlewood Jetsun Mila, Pt. 1 1987 0:44:25 advises, “you have to drop your usual way of listening, lose your expectations and surrender to an eternal now.”2 MARYANNE AMACHER Chorale 1 1999 0:05:54

2Hazlewood C (2018), “Adventures in Motion and Pitches: How Minimalism Shook up Classical Music”, The Guardian, 2 March 2018, viewed online 9 November 2018. SOUND ROOM 6 7

In C Four Violins 1964 1964

American composer and performer Tony Conrad was an American Terry Riley is considered one of the musician, composer, and founders of the Minimalist music experimental filmmaker. Born in movement. Born in 1935, Riley studied 1940, Conrad initially pursued a music in California, alongside fellow career in mathematics and computer minimalist pioneer, La Monte Young. programming, before moving to After moving to New York, Riley began New York, to pursue avant-garde creating compositions that employed music. As a performer with the

TERRY RILEY TERRY RILEY the structured interlocking, repetitive legendary ensemble, the Theatre of patterns which became his hallmark. Eternal Music, Conrad was at the TONY CONRAD TONY centre of the New York Minimalist Riley’s rhythmic Minimalism was highly music scene in the 1960s, which influenced by his long study with Indian he later described as, “something classical musician, Prandit Pran Nath, just beyond music, a violent feeling a master of the Kirana gharana The Well-Tuned Piano of soaring unstoppably, powered by Bye Bye Butterfly singing style. With many Western immense angular machinery.”3 1964-73-81 – Present 1967 musicians citing Riley as an influence, Pran Nath’s teaching has indirectly Conrad’s amplified violin introduced impacted the music of many other La Monte Young is an American the sustained drone into minimal Pauline Oliveros was an American performers, such as The Who, musician and artist often considered music. His cyclical, long-form musical theorist, composer, and Mike Oldfield, and many more. to be amongst the first Minimalist minimalist music, exemplified by author. Born in 1932, Oliveros composers. Born in 1935, Young works such as Four Violins (1964), has was not only a key figure in the One of the defining works of Minimalist became known for his important a trance-like effect on the listener, development of music, Riley’s masterpiece, In C, work in Minimalist , as he draws upon the full range of as an artform, but in pushing the exhibits a tension in its playfulness. or ‘dream music’ as he calls it. his violin, to occupy the senses with boundaries of what it means to The score is written entirely in the In New York in the 1960s, he formed immersive soundscapes. listen. In 1962, she co-founded the key of C, but within each movement the experimental music collective, San Francisco Tape Music Center, there are purposefully loose guidelines (also known Equally well-known within the which also included, at various to give space for its performers to as The Dream Syndicate), alongside worlds of experimental music and times, Minimalist composers such innovate within. Marian Zazeela, Tony Conrad, John film, Conrad was one of the first as Terry Riley and Steve Reich. Cale, Angus MacLise, and others, minimalists to fully enmesh visual During this time, she developed

LA MONTE YOUNG whose performances helped define and sonic arts within one practice. the ‘Expanded Instrument System’, the particular kind of psychedelic His mesmeric minimal film, an electronic signal processing Minimalist drone music which has The Flicker (1966) is considered to be OLIVEROS PAULINE instrument she designed for her been so closely associated with landmark in structural filmmaking. performances and recordings. Young ever since. Conrad’s music and film create an almost synesthetic relationship Oliveros’ influential concept of His improvisational, long-form between sound and visual art, ‘deep listening’ framed listening as minimal masterpiece, The Well-Tuned pushing at the boundaries of an active, meditative, and political Piano (1964) is described by Young as both mediums. act, and one that actually generates being ‘unfinished’ and ever-evolving. music through the reflexive practice Its distinctive sound originates in of listening in group improvisation the tuning of the piano being played, performance. Her compositions which is tuned using a ‘just intonation’ encourage a focused, attentive approach. This is a mathematically- approach to her often-minimal oriented method of tuning the arrangements. Her range of instrument, creating a different instruments included acoustic perception of harmonics than those instruments, hand-built electronic produced through traditional ‘equal devices, field recordings, and later temperament’ tuning. While it may the sonic capacities of the online sound ‘out of tune’ at first, those who virtual spaces. listen to the entirety of this five-hour recording often find their listening transformed. They perceive it as deeply harmonious by the end, with traditionally-tuned music initially sounding ‘out of tune’ to their ears afterwards.

MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . 3Conrad T (1997), “Early Minimalism Volume 1”, , 1997. SOUND ROOM 8 9

Piano Phase 1967

Steve Reich is an American composer who pioneered Minimalist music in the mid 1960s. Born in 1936, Reich developed a musical style defined by a minimum of musical means, using repetition, propulsive rhythms, tape loops and distinctive harmonic structures to create compositions that

STEVE REICH have become canonical to Minimalism. His work has also had a profound impact on contemporary sound, leading music critic Andrew Clements to note that Reich is one of “a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction Two Pages Einstein on the Beach: Knee Play 1 Sight Rhythmics of musical history”.4 1968 1976 1975 Reich’s mesmerising work, Piano Phase, seems to shift with each listen; notes American composer, Philip Glass This piece, composed by Glass for his Japanese composer, Jo Kondo, come in and out of focus as the ear is regarded as one of the most influential operaEinstein on the Beach, developed an avant-garde tries to synchronise with the drifting influential musicians of the late 20th demonstrates Glass’ attention to approach to music in parallel pianos. This work is the result of Reich’s century. Born in Baltimore in 1937, narrative and audience experience in to the evolution of Minimalism experiments with ‘phasing’, a technique Glass is most closely associated his work. It is one of a series of pieces in the West. Born in 1947 in

where two identical performances or with New York, where he rose to that were composed for set changes JO KONDO Japan, Kondo studied classical recordings slowly shift into and out of prominence in the late 1960s. during the opera, treating this technical composition, before spending temporal unison with each other. His cyclical approach to composition, element of the performance as an a year in New York in 1978, which was influenced by his work opportunity to present a new sonic where he became acquainted

Reich’s work with phasing began with PHILIP GLASS with Indian musician, Ravi Shankar, texture to the audience. with the work of many recorded music, using simultaneous would come to revolutionise Minimalist musicians. control of two tape machines to create Minimalist music. Glass’ Minimalist music has achieved his compositions. Piano Phase was substantial popularity worldwide. Kondo developed a theory he his first work that phased two live His exhilarating 1968 work, He has ascribed some of his more referred to as ‘sen no ongaku’, instruments in this way, a performance Two Pages, showcases many of the mainstream success to the popularity of often translated as “linear music”. that requires incredible concentration techniques which came to exemplify Progressive Rock in Europe and the US His linear music aimed to disrupt and skill from its performers. his approach to Minimalism. in the 1960s and 1970s, which he sees a melodic syntax with a focus One such technique is the use of as having established an appreciation for on individual sounds and distinct arpeggios performed without vibrato, experimental techniques and long-form and repetitive groupings. producing an almost motoric form of compositions in popular music. In Sight Rhythmics, one of the repetition. This served to sublimate central examples of linear music, the individual expression of the Kondo allows fragments of performer, escaping the traditional melodies to develop only to attention on virtuosity, to focus upon intercept these with unexpected the sonic form of the composition patterns of sounds, encouraging itself. This has the effect of creating an active mode of listening from a sonic landscape evocative of the his listeners. Kondo’s work glassy-smooth work of Minimalist synthesizes Japanese aesthetic sculptors such as Donald Judd, sensibility with western Minimalist akin to a search for a ‘pure’ form harmonic structure, creating a of musical sculpture. unique hybrid sound.

4Clements, A. (2005), quoted in “In Praise of ... Steve Reich”, The Guardian Editorial, 8 August 2011, MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . viewed online 9 November 2018. SOUND ROOM 10 11

Phrygian Gates Excerpt from Evolution of a Sonority 1977 in Strumming and Arpeggio Style for Bosendorfer Piano 1978 John Adams is an American composer who began creating Minimalist music in the 1970s, Charlemagne Palestine is an and became known in later years influential experimental American for his pioneering Minimalist operas, musician. Born in 1947, Palestine’s such as Nixon in China. Born in early musical experience was of 1947, Adams, like other Minimalists, singing sacred music in synagogues. including Philip Glass and He was a bell ringer at St Thomas Terry Riley, used a metronomic Church in New York in the 1960s, JOHN ADAMS pulse that demarcated and which began his life-long fascination controlled his music. with church bells and organs as instruments for his sonorous, often His Minimalist piece, Phrygian Gates, ecstatic, compositions. Palestine’s is based on a repetitive structure. well-known work, Strumming Music It acts as a reflection on the Spiegel im Spiegel for Piano, Harpsichord and String Dream capacities and limitations of both Ensemble (1974) is regarded as a 1978 Dance PM the human and the electronic. benchmark piece for Minimalist In contrast to traditional piano composition. Whilst Palestine uses 1982 performance, the score of the work Whilst Minimalism is often a deliberately restricted range of instructs that no hand should be considered a primarily American materials and a repetitive technique, Japanese artist and composer, played ‘dominantly’, and that each musical tradition, there were he has repeatedly eschewed the Hiroshi Yoshimura is considered a key should be played with equal many composers working term Minimalism, arguing the pioneer of , a form of intensity. In its performance, this with Minimalist ideas in other opulent fullness of his music sparse music, which was influenced produces a work that provokes the countries. The so-called ‘Holy- would more accurately be by the development of Minimalism CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE PALESTINE CHARLEMAGNE

tensions between human physicality PÄRT ARVO Minimalists of Eastern Europe’ described as “maximalism”. in the 1960s and 70s. Born in 1940, and mechanical precision. are represented in the Sound Yoshimura perceived his pared Room by Arvo Pärt. Palestine’s intense, ritualistic music back compositions as a collection centres around layered overtones, of sounds and silences. He referred Pärt is an Estonian composer and electronic drones, which build to his musical process as seeking a of classical and religious and change gradually, gently prime number, perhaps to describe music, composed in a distinctly harmonizing. He also makes use their almost mathematical purity. Minimalist style. His signature of a technique called ‘strumming’, ‘Tintinnabuli’ style of Minimalism where dense hypnotic rhythms are In 1972, whilst composers such is also a form of mystical thought created by percussive repetition. as Philip Glass and Charlemagne for the composer. Influenced by His performances are often Palestine, were creating some of Gregorian chants, Pärt sees the shamanistic, and overtly spiritual in HIROSHI YOSHIMURA their most significant Minimalist technique as his own metaphor nature. He has released over 20 solo works, Yoshimura started the for a personal search for unity in records, and has collaborated with computer music group, Anonyme in his life, work, and music. The work artists as diverse as Pan Sonic, Japan, which ushered in an entirely Spiegel im Spiegel translates to Tony Conrad, David Coulter and electronic form of music-making. English as “mirrors in mirrors”, Michael Gira. His slightly later record, Music for a reference to infinity mirrors Nine Postcard, from which Dream which reflect an image using and Dance PM are both taken, took parallel plane mirrors to give the as its starting point the abstracted sense of an infinitely occurring view from nine windows, and evoke reflection. It’s a particularly a series of peaceful contemplations apt name for this Minimal of nature. composition, which seems to move both towards and away from itself in its circular movements.

MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . SOUND ROOM 12 13 PROGRAMME TWO: Jetsun Mila, Pt.1 ERIK SATIE 1987 BEFORE Vexations 1893 0:07:42

For almost fifty years, French MINIMALISM composer, Éliane Radigue has ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG been a pioneer of starkly Minimalist The second programme of the Three Piano Pieces, 1909 0:04:10 electronic music. She studied Sound Room explores composers Op. 11: I. Mässige ‘musique concrète’ in Paris under whose work can be seen as Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11: 0:08:05 the tutelage of and influencing Minimalism, or in II. Mässige achtel Pierre Henry before moving to New some cases, a precursor to it. York in 1970. Within the Minimalist Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11: 0:02:48 III. Bewegt movement characterised by The programme shows how figures Steve Reich, Phillip Glass and others, such as Erik Satie, George Antheil, Radigue distinguished herself with Pierre Schaeffer, and John Cage laid ANTON WEBERN compositions that comprised of the conceptual and experimental Children’s Piece for Piano 1924 0:01:46 pure electronic drones, that slowly ÉLIANE RADIGUE groundwork for Minimalism, (Kinderstuck) unfolded over long intervals. introducing many of the techniques Her meditative, long-form electronic Chorale 1 and aesthetic ideas which would compositions are influenced by her 1999 be utilised by later musicians in GEORGE ANTHEIL practice of Tibetan Buddhism. the 1960s and 70s. It also focuses Ballet Mechanique 1924 0:09:10 Much of this practice has involved on the pioneering contributions of the deep exploration of a single Maryanne Amacher was an American lesser-known musicians who are instrument, the ARP 2500 composer and sound installation now being reconsidered as vital BÉLA BARTÓK 1926 0:05:37 modular synthesizer. artist. Born in 1938, Amacher studied early exponents of experimental Out of Doors Sz. 81: IV. composition in the US, Austria, and Minimalist sound, such as Night Music, Lento Radigue has enjoyed a recent the UK, before making her first major Johanna Beyer, Daphne Oram, surge of interest alongside work in 1967. A contemporary of the and Else Marie Pade. composers such as Daphne Oram Minimalist pioneers of the 1960s, she COLIN MCPHEE and , whose often collaborated with avant-garde Tabuh-Tabuhan: I. Ostinatos 1936 0:07:06 pioneering work has for many composers such as John Cage. decades been overlooked in a field dominated by men. With this In contrast to her Minimalist JOHANNA M. BEYER dominance being challenged by a peers, Amacher was known for her Music of the Spheres 1936 0:06:00 new generation of critical musical radical exploration of ‘otoacoustic thinkers, Radigue is being rightly emissions’, a type of psychoacoustic recognized as both a pioneer of phenomenon. In this phenomenon, a JOHN CAGE Minimalist music, and a master of sound is produced by the resonances Sonatas and Interludes for 1948 / 0:01:36 her craft. Whilst, she is represented of the listener’s inner ear in response Prepared Piano – Sonata V 2011 in the Sound Room with a later work, to two pure-tone frequencies played

MARYANNE AMACHER MARYANNE Sonatas and Interludes for 0:02:03 Jetsun Mila, Pt. 1 (1987), her sparse at high intensity. This ‘third sound’ Prepared Piano – Sonata VII compositions of 1970s are now is produced entirely within the ear Sonatas and Interludes for 0:02:57 considered essential works in itself. Through this effect, Amacher Prepared Piano – Sonata XII the Minimalist music tradition. used the listener’s own physiology to add a new sound to the ensemble in her composition; sounds that YVES KLEIN 1949 0:02:50 reflect the condition of the ear itself, Monotone Symphony and may well be utterly unique to each listener. Her work was always best experienced as site-specific PIERRE HENRY & architectural sound installation, PIERRE SCHEAFFER where she was able to create Dramatic Cantata – 1952 0:15:36 complete immersion for the listener The Veil of Orpheus in a controlled environment.

Represented in the Sound Room with ELSE MARIE PADE a later composition, Chorale 1 from Syv Cirkler (Seven Circles) 1958 0:07:06 1999, Amacher’s work is a crucial contribution to the expanded field of Minimalist music. DAPHNE ORAM Four Aspects 1960 0:08:15

MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . SOUND ROOM 14 15

Vexations Children’s Piece for Piano 1893 (Kinderstuck) 1924 Erik Satie was a French composer and pianist. Born in 1866, he was a Anton Webern was an Austrian key figure in the Parisian avant-garde composer, whose highly of the early 20th century. Whilst compressed serial musical best known for his melodic and structures are considered by melancholy piano pieces, such as some to be the root of musical

ERIK SATIE Trois Gymnopédies (1888), he was in Minimalism. Born in 1883, and a fact a musical maverick, whose work student of Schönberg, Webern’s went on to influence Minimalism, work represents perhaps one of much later. His tendency towards the most thorough contemporary extreme simplicity is apparent in interrogations of Schönberg’s his progressive work, Vexations. ‘Twelve tone’ compositional Never performed during Satie’s WEBERN ANTON technique. The abstraction lifetime, Vexations remained relatively from traditional relationships obscure, until the score was found in Three Piano Pieces, Op 11 of rhythm, scale and harmony Ballet Mechanique 1963 by John Cage, one of the most 1909 opened up a radical new artistic 1924 influential figures in 20th century language for Webern, where experimental music. Cage noted that conceptual rigor collided the simple but haunting refrain had Arnold Schönberg was an Austrian- with new forms of space and George Antheil was an avant-garde an instruction on the manuscript born American composer theorist, temporality. Such a challenge to American composer. Born in 1900, for it to be performed “840 times teacher and artist. Born in Vienna the ‘norm’ was not without its Antheil moved to Paris in 1923, in succession”, which resulted in in 1874, Schönberg’s radical ideas social and political ramifications. where he was acquainted with the organisation of an 18-hour long on musical organisation profoundly After Germany annexed his native some of the giants of modernist performance of it by many luminaries influenced modern composition. Austria, his music was banned by art, including Pablo Picasso, of experimental music. Vexations Schönberg’s work in ‘Twelve tone the Nazi Party, who attempted to Salvador Dali, literary figures was both a provocation for these music’ arguably underpins much dismiss it as a ‘Jewish-Bolshevik such as Ezra Pound, James Joyce, performers, and a clue that they of what was to come in Minimalist degenerate art’. He went on and fellow composers, Erik Satie. may have been predated by one of music. In this revolutionary new to exert a strong influence on His work during this period was the most radical figures in early approach to composition, the basic the Serialist composers of the considered radical, employing 20th century music. unit of the scale was not the chord, later part of the 20th century, many curious sound sources but the individual note. This allowed such as Pierre Boulez and and unusual instruments.

for a completely new approach Karlheinz Stockhausen, and GEORGE ANTHEIL His concerts in the 1920s often to arrangement and harmony, on the Minimalists of the 1960s. led to uproar, which contributed producing new tonal relationships to his international notoriety. and sonic textures. It also opened the door for further challenges to His magnum opus during this ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG traditional composition in a classical period was, Ballet Mechanique. music culture that was, like many Though it sounds remarkably other cultural forms at this time, modern today, through its use rapidly changing in the wake of the of sirens, car engines, airplane Industrial Revolution. Three Piano propellers and metronomic Pieces is an early example of his dissonance, it was nothing short ‘Twelve tone music’. of revolutionary when it was first performed in 1926. The use of mechanical elements was an integral part of Antheil’s response to the early 20th century he was living through, a time when many societies were rapidly adjusting to the increasingly mechanized soundscape of the world around them. By including them almost as ‘readymades’ within his compositions, Antheil was exploring the artistic potential of these new industrial and mechanised aesthetics, rather than isolating himself and his practice from them.

MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . SOUND ROOM 16 17

Out of Doors Sz. 81: IV. Music of the Spheres Night Music, Lento 1936 1926 Johanna Beyer was a German Hungarian composer, pianist musician who composed important and musicologist, Béla Bartók is early work for electronic instruments. considered one of the most important Born in Germany in 1888, she moved figures in 20th century music. to New York in 1923. She was part Born in 1881, Bartók composed at of the ‘ultra-modernist’ circle of the intersection between the old and musicians, alongside composers such the new. Even while he continued as John Cage, who performed several to challenge traditional Western of her works in the 1930s.

BÉLA BARTÓK harmonic systems, he drew significant inspiration from folk and traditional Her 1938 piece, Music of the Spheres, music of his native Hungary. In 1938 is one of the first compositions ever he wrote that, “all efforts ought to be written for electronic instruments. directed at the present time to the Its opening ‘lion’s roar’ immediately search for what we will call ‘inspired Tabuh-Tabuhan: I. Ostinatos marked it out as a truly prescient Sonatas and Interludes for simplicity’”.5 The ‘inspired simplicity’ modernist composition. Beyer’s Prepared Piano - Sonata V, VII, XII 1936 JOHANNA M. BEYER employment of the subtle glissandi of his own progressive piano pieces, 1946 - 8 his use of unusual scales and made possible by electronic chromatic patterns endeared him Colin McPhee was a Canadian instruments demonstrated her to a generation of Minimalist composer and musicologist. Born in thoughtful reflection on the technical American composer and artist composers who came later, 1900, he studied with the avant-garde capacities and artistic potential of John Cage revolutionised modern particularly Steve Reich. composer, Edgard Varèse, before these new instruments. music. Born in 1912, Cage joining the ‘ultra-modernists’ group challenged the very definition An avowed anti-fascist, Bartók’s of composers in the 1920s, who were During her life, Beyer was acutely of what music is, introducing interested in what would become aware of the lack of acceptance unconventional instruments,

in-depth research into his national JOHN CAGE and cultural heritage was, unlike known much later as ‘world music’. of her and other women into the electronics and a playfully profound others, not an attempt to unearth male-dominated field of experimental approach to improvisation, which a racially ‘pure’ national art. It instead McPhee’s work is an example of composition, an injustice still remains provocative and inspiring to both challenged and respected how engaging with wider contexts experienced by women in electronic this day. Deeply influenced by Asian the past while synthesising it into COLIN MCPHEE of musical and cultural thought can music today, 80 years later. philosophies, his work explored the something wholly new. His research create whole new movements in harmony that exists in nature, as eventually became fundamental to art. During his time living in Bali in well as elements of chance. Cage’s the development of ethnomusicology, Indonesia in the 1930s, he studied, impact on minimalist music cannot the scholarly discipline of contextually interviewed and recorded Balinese be understated. His 1952 piece 4’33”, studying the cultural, historical, and people, and their culture. His work an entirely ‘silent’ composition, social aspects of music from around acted as an introduction for many changed the way that music was the world. to Balinese culture, particularly understood, and ushered in radical gamelan, a predominantly percussive new approaches to composition. traditional music style. His key piece from this period, Tabuh-Tabuhan, His Sonatas and Interludes for is based on his explorations of Prepared Piano were composed for this musical form. Gamelan had the ‘prepared piano’. Cage placed a tremendous influence on a host objects such as bolts, nuts, and tin of Western composers, including foil within the body of the piano to several Minimalist composers of manipulate and expand the range of the 1960s. It presented them with sounds it could produce. The works a rich new musical form and an were performed by Singaporean alternative way of thinking to the musician, Margaret Leng Tan, historically entrenched practices whose interpretation of these works of Western music. draws upon her own explorations with the prepared piano, where her mechanical interventions on the instrument interrogate both its history and its potential future.

5Bartók B (1938), quoted in Cooper D (1996), “Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra”, MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . Cambridge University Press, p. 14. SOUND ROOM 18 19

Monotone Symphony Syv Cirkler (Seven Circles) 1949 1958

Yves Klein was a French conceptual Else Marie Pade pioneered artist and composer with a wide- electronic music in Denmark. ranging practice. Born in France Internationally, she belonged in 1928, he is best known for his to a wave of women composers, visual artworks in an iridescent including Delia Derbyshire and shade of blue, which he patented Daphne Oram, who made major and called International Klein contributions to experimental, YVES KLEIN Blue (IKB). He used his distinctive Minimalist composition. blue paint to create his famous ‘monochrome’ works, which have Pade was born in 1924. As a child, been described as an attempt to she would create pictures in her “unlock the endless void of space.”6 mind from listening to sounds from outside her window - a practice Prior to the ‘monochrome’ that would play a major role in the ELSE MARIE PADE works, Klein composed Monotone Dramatic Cantata - Veil of Orpheus distinctive aesthetic of her later Four Aspects Symphony, a musical work work. A student of Pierre Schaeffer 1952 1960 suggestive of what was to come in the 1950s, Pade also worked for both performance art and with Karlheinz Stockhausen and experimental music in the 20th Henry and Schaeffer were French Pierre Boulez, before spending Daphne Oram was an English century. In it, a single chord is experimental composers and most of her career composing experimental composer and a held for twenty minutes, followed formative personalities in what music soundscapes for radio. groundbreaking musical technologist. by a twenty-minute silence. Schaeffer termed ‘musique concrète’. Born in 1925, she is known for Both sections challenged the This form of music exploited the During World War II, Pade was a ‘Oramics’, a method of composition, conception of what music was, emergence of the tape machine as member of the Danish Resistance, which involved hand-drawing shapes and could be, toying with a completely new tool in composition. and was held in a German prison and patterns onto 35mm film, which conventions of musical structure The ‘inifinite’ looping of tape allowed camp, where she devised a music was passed through photocells, and order that dominated the for a form of close-listening to notation system which she carved converting the light into an audio Western canon. At the end of recorded sound never before possible, onto the prison walls. After the signal. This was an early example

a performance of Monotone leading to ‘musique concrète’’s war, she began to create her own ORAM DAPHNE of electronically synthesising sound, Symphony in 1960 where Klein exploration of sounds distinct from electronic compositions. Her 1958 producing musical textures without himself was the conductor, he their source: captured, looped, masterpiece, Syv Cirkler, employs employing a traditional musician purportedly only said one thing: re-placed and re-arranged. This form two of the core characteristics of or instrument – creating a sound “The Myth is in the Art”. of ‘acousmatic listening’ became a Minimalism, repetition and cycles. from ‘nowhere’. considerable influence on the rapidly It sonically depicts the movements expanding field of sound art and of the stars through a pulsing array Her conceptual thinking behind this Minimalist music, emphasising, as it of undulating tones and quivering work was articulated in her multiple does, the deep sensorial appreciation drones. She notes, “I could imagine tracts on the physics and philosophy of sound and its manipulation. that the stars and the moon and the of sound, including what she saw as sky uttered sounds and turned those the essentially ‘mystical’ nature of into electronic music”.7 her compositional practice, and of sound itself. PIERRE HENRY & SCHAEFFER

6Klein Y (1958), quoted in “Yves Klein And James Turrell Dialogue At Lévy Gorvy”, 7Pada EM (2013) Interview with Else Marie Pade by Anne Hilda Neset, MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . Art is Alive, 5 June 2018, viewed online 9 November 2018. The Wire Issue 354, August 2013. SOUND ROOM 20 21 PROGRAMME THREE: Permafrost THOMAS KÖNER AFTER 1993 Permafrost 1993 0:10:09

MINIMALISM Thomas Köner is a German TETSU INOUE artist and musicians whose The final programme in the Sound Low of Vibration 1994 0:11:11 work combines visual and Room explores the new wave of auditory experiences. Minimalism that emerged in the RYOJI IKEDA late 20th century, and continues His piece, Permafrost may Headphonics 0/0 1996 0:03:13 to develop as a major aesthetic well be one of the evolutionary movement within contemporary Headphonics 0/1 0:03:12 apexes of the ‘drone’, one of the most important tropes within experimental music. Headphonics 1/0 0:04:17 contemporary Minimalism ‘Digital Minimalist’ musicians music. The term ‘drone’ evokes both the cyclical and meditative such as Ryoji Ikeda, alva noto and HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP 1997 0:17:31 THOMAS KÖNER Tetsu Inoue incorporate glitches, Talking Rain properties of compositions such digital reverb and compression as Permafrost, whose minimalism artefacts into their compositions, creates a soundscape that Low of Vibration provokes the listener’s other creating a new kind of computational ALVA NOTO 2001 0:10:09 1994 ‘musique concrète’. Like the Module 3 senses. This suggests the tactile minimal techno which emerged from effect of cold wind on skin, or the underground clubs of Detroit the white-out of a blizzard. Japanese musician, Tetsu Inoue is in the 1990s, Digital Minimalism Glacial both in its movement a key practitioner of a new genre often emphasises rhythm and Solitude 2002 0:04:54 and in the atmosphere it evokes, of Minimalist music that began repetition, instead of melody and Permafrost presses upon the ears. evolving in the 1990s, as digital linear progression. Other artists, It implicates the listener in its sound technology became more such as Hildegard Westerkamp UNSUK CHIN movements through the skill of widely available. His approach and Jana Winderen explore new Piano Etude No.5 (Toccata) 2003 0:02:47 Köner’s refined production, and to music, referred to as “Digital Minimalist ideas though recording the tension he weaves into Minimalism”, is ambient in nature, the composition. employing slowly shifting haze of and production techniques alongside TETSU INOUE FM3 field recordings, overlaying the electronic sound, gliding drones, Ma 2005 0:04:06 natural world with the digital and softly repetitive beats to lull imaginary. Meanwhile, a new Zheng 0:04:17 the listener into a meditative generation of composers are Sheng 0:03:45 frame of mind. embracing the cyclical drone so B1 0:04:06 important for the High Minimalist The work, Low of Vibration, comes period, with artists with as Yang 0:04:02 from Inoue’s first solo , Thomas Köner and FM3 creating Ambiant Otaku released in 1994. pulsating, hypnotic soundtracks Inoue’s characteristic warm FRANCISCO LÓPEZ that are entirely distinctive. and ethereal style permeates Untitled #225 2009 0:09:43 a shimmering composition, comprised of fragile fragments of melodies, which repeat and loop, in JANA WINDEREN a classic Minimalist way. In Inoue’s Isolation/Measurement 2010 0:11:41 pieces, the line between music and sound collage dissolves, as the work reveals exquisite details, CATERINA BARBIERI which are deceptively complex in Scratches on the 2017 0:05:56 structure and form. Readable Surface

ADELINE WONG 2018 0:06:00 Herringbone

MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . SOUND ROOM 22 23

Headphonics 0/0 Module 3 Headphonics 0/1 2001 Headphonics 1/0 1996 alva noto is the alias of , a German artist who is a major figure in both electronic Ryoji Ikeda is a Japanese electronic music and visual art. Alongside composer and visual artist who peers such as Ryoji Ikeda, currently lives in Paris. Considered Tetsu Inoue and Thomas Köner,

one of the most important exponents NOTO ALVA alva noto is one of a generation of a new form of Minimalism that

RYOJI IKEDA IKEDA RYOJI of musicians who employed appeared as digital music took hold digital technology to create a in the 1990s, Ikeda’s work skirts the new Minimalist aesthetic in paradoxes of the micro and macro the 1990s and 2000s. As critic scale. As both a composer and an Philip Sherburne has noted, installation artist, his work often the music of alva noto has an evokes a grand scale built from austere purity, whilst his spartan infinitesimally small grains of sound. Talking Rain sculptures and installations suggest Solitude Ikeda’s sonic aesthetics conjure up Donald Judd’s clinical influence. both austere computation and the 1997 2002 intimate rhythms of the human body. His work, Module 3, part of the Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer, larger Transform suite, opens Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese In these works from the album +/- radio artist, teacher and sound alva noto’s world of digital sonic musician, and Oscar-winning he employs headphones as his ecologist born in Germany and aesthetics to the listener, creating composer of film scores. Sakamoto’s canvas, playing with this contained based in Canada. Westerkamp’s an evocative and spacious work that incredible breadth of compositional space to create a form of hypnotic work pushes at the liminal space pushes the boundary between the skill is evident in the fact that immersion, gradually submerging between electro-acoustic composition audio serendipities of the subtle his work stretches across both the listener in a dispersed field of and field recordings, between the hiss of vinyl playback and the the realm of traditional classical minimal sonic elements. real and the hyper-real. Her work rhythmic skipping of a CD. music and the fringes of electronic constitutes a different kind of arts. His early experiments with approach to Minimalism, where the synthesiser keyboards and drum environment becomes an active machines creates a minimal sound component of the composition. that was wholly his own. His later In compositions such as Talking Rain, collaborations with German musician, the fine line between the composer’s Carsten Nicolai on such as hand and chance become blurry, (2002), (2005) and Glass provoking reflection on the musicality (2018) are considered key works of RYUICHI SAKAMOTO of the sounds which make up our contemporary Minimalist music. environment. Westerkamp is an active researcher and campaigner at the The piece, Solitude was part of intersection of sonic preservation and Sakamoto’s soundtrack for the ecology, and is a founder of the World film,Tony Takitani. Based on a short Forum on Acoustic Ecology. Both story by Haruki Murakami, the film her writing and music challenge the explored the nature of social and HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP HILDEGARD relationships between noise, nature, emotional isolation. Solitude, a sparse and listening - promoting a synthesis minimal and melodic work, was its where all three are in balance. central theme.

MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . SOUND ROOM 24 25

Piano Etude No. 5 (Toccata) Untitled #225 2003 2009

Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, Francisco López is a Spanish Korea, has worked and studied sound artist and composer extensively internationally and now working at the intersection of lives and works in Berlin, Germany. many strands of sonic arts, She cites multiple influences to her including sound installation, practice, including pre-minimalist noise and avant-garde composers, Béla Bartók and experimentation. He is a key Anton Webern but also perhaps exemplar of a particular type of

UNSUK CHIN UNSUK CHIN less obviously, visual artist contemporary Minimalist music Olafur Eliasson, who appears which emerged in the 1990s, elsewhere in this exhibition, and was often characterised by and Samuel Beckett. the use of microsound.

Her contemporary Minimalist Untitled #225 combines the music is complex to perform and Ma FRANCISCO LÓPEZ dark soundscapes of his work Isolation/Measurement perhaps even more difficult to with processed sounds that are Zheng define. Unsuk describes her music tantalisingly close to everyday 2010 as non-tonal and sees a role for it FM3 Sheng noises, creating something akin as white space in a hectic modern B1 to a hyperreal field recording of Jana Winderen is a musician who world. It is, she says, “a source an alien landscape. This is all Yang lives and works in Oslo, Norway. of contemplation [which is] direly the more impressive given his She creates immersive multi- needed in our times of information Buddha Machine minimal sonic palette, which channel recordings, installations overkill and consumerism – it is 2005 uses tones at both extreme and concerts. Winderen hunts a health product whose effect is ranges of the audible sonic for sounds hidden from us, profound, even though it can’t be spectrum to create an FM3 is the name of musical duo, either by geography or by the easily measured”.8 immersive audio presence. Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian. limits of our senses, and draws Based in Beijing, they are considered them together into compositions pioneers of Digital Minimalism in which act as records of these China. Their approach to music far-off or imperceptible realms. draws on many ideas within the Like Hildegard Westerkamp,

Minimalist tradition, including WINDEREN JANA Winderen’s approach to looping and repetition, and sparse, Minimalism stems from drawn-out drones. a fascination with natural environments and ecosystems, FM3’s meditative music combines much like the visual arts tradition Chinese classical music with modern of Land Art. digital techniques. They are best known for their musical works composed for For the recordings that are devices they call, Buddha Machines. combined in Isolation/Measurement, Each Buddha Machine is a small she travelled to several Nordic plastic box with a speaker and seas to explore glaciers, fjords minimal controls, roughly the size and cracks in the earth to capture of a cigarette packet. The Buddha their most intimate sounds. Machine plays short minimal musical She extensively employed compositions in a continuous loop, hydrophonic microphones that can creating an object that is both the record underwater, bringing the container of its compositions and sounds of marine life mating and the method of their playback. hunting into this rich and dense The Buddha Machine was inspired sonic evocation of the cold fringes by similar devices used as part of of the world. Buddhist meditative practices in China, India, and elsewhere. These portable playback devices for recorded chants and traditional compositions can be brought to meditation sites, no matter how distant or isolated it may be.

8Chin U (2015), Classical music – Just Give Children The Chance To Love It, MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . The Guardian, 21 October 2015, viewed online 9 November 2018. SOUND ROOM 26

Scratches on the Readable Surface THE EXHIBITION 2017 Minimalism: Space. Light. Object. Minimalism: Space. Light. Object. creates Caterina Barbieri is an Italian (16 November 2018 – 19 April 2019) is dialogue between these scientific notions composer based in Berlin. a major exhibition that unfolds across and the Zen Buddhist ideas of the void. Her practice of Minimalist the galleries of ArtScience Museum and We have delved deeper into Asian composition is driven by her National Gallery Singapore. Featuring 150 philosophy, exploring to Minimalism investigations into machine artworks, the exhibition includes canonical as seen in Zen, Chinese Maximalism learning and object-oriented names in Minimalism, as well as key and contemporary abstraction, philosophies, extending these contemporary figures in visual art with works by Tan Ping, Wang Jian, logics into an exploration of and music. Zhou HongBin, as well as Song Dong, modular synthesizers such as CharWai Tsai and Morgan Wong. the vintage Buchla 200, which The term “Minimalism” was first used she has composed extensively for. to describe the minimum requirements Anish Kapoor and Olafur Eliasson take needed for something to be considered a different position on Minimalism, Like many Minimalist composers a work of art. The artists who were to emphasizing intangible elements such from previous generations, become grouped as “Minimalists” in turn as light and pure colour within their encouraged viewers to respond only to what who are presented in the Sound Herringbone installations. Their stunning environments Room, Barbieri’s music is both a was in front of them, an idea beautifully articulate somatic experiences that emerge 2018 CATERINA BARBIERI CATERINA response and a challenge to the encapsulated by painter Frank Stella, who from the Post-Minimalist dematerialization cultural and technological contexts said of his paintings, “What you see is what of the art object. she finds herself living through. Adeline Wong is a Malaysian you see.” In Minimalism, the medium of Her compositions engage with this composer based in Singapore. the artwork, its form and how it is situated Singaporean artist Jeremy Sharma takes through the capacity of sound to Her contemporary classical music, within the gallery, become the focus. this notion of dematerialization one step transform our perception of space, which includes many Minimalist further and, with the spoken word only, and transform ourselves as the elements, is bold, with textural Within Minimalism: Space. Light. Object. seeks to describe the physical experience listeners within it. energy and kaleidoscopic colours. at ArtScience Museum, these qualities of colour using sound. Music and sound Her recent work is marked by the are exemplified in significant works by form a major part of the exhibition, use and concentration as little Carmen Hererra, Donald Judd and with 40 artists, musicians, artists and material as possible. From 2016- Richard Long. composers presented in the Sound Room, 2018, she conceived of a series which acts as an auditory counterpoint of five connected pieces, in which Playing to our strength as a museum of to the visual explorations of Minimalism ADELINE WONG the musical materials used in art and science, we have also chosen to presented within the galleries. the ending of a piece are utilised present artworks which meditate on the in the beginning of a new one, notions of the cosmological void, Experienced together, the artworks and thus giving the works an organic, emptiness and nothingness — principles compositions in Minimalism: Space. Light. circular quality. Interweaves (2016) which resonate with both Minimalism Object. at ArtScience Museum reflect was the first of this series, and science. The vacuum and the void are on the profound simplicity and stillness followed by Nexus (2017), and central features of physics, which have inherent in Eastern interpretations of most recently Herringbone (2018), helped shape our understanding of reality. Minimalism, whilst also seeking to which is comprised of a texture The vast emptiness that permeates the embody the angular starkness that made of persistent repeated notes. universe, and the structure of atoms, has Minimalism such a vital force following The sudden shifts of dynamics, long given both scientists and philosophers its emergence in the 1960s. registers and textures from the pause for thought. Whilst quantum keyboard gives the impression of mechanics teaches us that empty space The exhibition seeks to express the idea, a high-speed school of herring in nature is never truly empty - undulating often attributed to Albert Einstein that, suddenly changing course. as it is with vacuum fluctuations, gamma “everything should be made as simple as rays, and invisible quantum fields - it is possible, but not simpler.” extraordinary to ponder the sheer sparsity of the cosmos. Artist, Frederick de Wilde, Minimalism: Space. Light. Object. is addresses the cosmological void through organised by National Gallery Singapore the use of a material considered the and ArtScience Museum. blackest black in the world. When gazing at his artwork, created from carbon nanotubes Curated by Eugene Tan, Russell Storer, that are able to capture all light at all Silke Schmickl and Goh Sze Ying from frequencies, viewers are literally looking National Gallery Singapore, and into nothing, a void space, and the closest Adrian George from ArtScience Museum. approximation of emptiness that is possible to experience.

MINIMALISM: SPACE . LIGHT . OBJECT . minimalism.sg | #minimalismsg National Gallery Singapore, 1 St Andrew’s Road, Singapore 178957 | ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Ave, Singapore 018974