About the Book
Rising out of the American art music movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, minimalism shook the foundations of the traditional constructs of classical music, becoming one of the most important and influential trends of the twentieth century. The emergence of minimalism sparked an active writing culture around the controversies, philosophies, and forms represented in the music’s style and performance, and its defenders faced a relentless struggle within the music establishment and beyond. Focusing on how facts about music are constructed, negotiated, and continually remodeled, We Have Always Been Minimalist retraces the story of these battles that—from pure fiction to proven truth—led to the triumph of minimalism. Christophe Levaux’s critical analysis of literature surrounding the origins and transformations of the stylistic movement offers radical insights and a unique new history.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. 1960: Before Minimalism
2. Taking Root in Modernity: New Music
3. Transcribing Music: New York Avant-Gardists and Monotonality
4. 1967: Giants?
5. Creating Genres: The Theatre of Mixed Means and Dream Music
6. Taking Sides over a New Medium: Electronic Music
7. The New York Hypnotic School: Founding a Movement
8. Untying the Bonds: Process Music
9. Transfiguring Experimental Music: Minimal Music
10. 1975: The Emergence of Minimalism
11. Fighting or Laying Down Arms: Music with Roots in the Aether and Simplicity
12. Persevering: Systems
13. Giving Up Ground; Retaking It: Minimal Music
14. Subscribing to an Idea: A New Current and Modern Music
15. Disrupting the Status Quo: American Minimal Music
16. Going beyond Modernity: Jameson and Lyotard
17. Opening the Borders: Popular Music
18. 1984: The Spread of Minimalism
19. Confirming an Established Fact: Perspectives of New Music
20. Furthering the Fight: New Sounds
21. 1994: The Arrival of Minimalism
22. In Conquest of the Twenty-First Century
Epilogue
Notes
References
Index
