For the Pecha Kucha at the MA workshop in Barnsley, I had this music playing:
while the images merged into each other. I also narrated the story of how the music came to be written, Gavin Bryars chance recording in 1971 of down and outs, his discovery of this snatch of singing, and how he thought of looping it to accompany on the piano, and then instruments.
I also wanted to take the opportunity to further research minimalism, or rather, find ways to clearly explain or describe it, as I am fascinated with the format in my moving image work.
Minimalist music is usually characterised by repetition and reiteration of themes, rather than more traditional exposition or development, where the theme is extended and drawn to harmonic and melodic conclusions. Usually the repeated theme changes slightly over time - in this case not.
Other well known minimalist composers are Steve Reich and Philip Glass, although to define minimalist music through each of their practice would require a different definition each time, as their methods are very different.
Gavin Bryars, English, born 1943. Experimental and jazz musician/composer. Also known for piece The Sinking of the Titanic which imagines the last music of the band continuing to play into the depths of water. coined the term minimalist music.
Minimalist music grew from experimental practices born of composers like Stockhausen and Cage deconstructing the traditional scales and structures of Western music in the first half of the twentieth century. As well as challenging the basis of harmony and musical formats, they experimented with sounds and new technologies of recording.
Unlike minimalism in art, where particular aspects of eg painting are examined in terms of line or colour, minimalist music mainly refers to the techniques of building the structure of the piece through varieties of repetition and building the work upon the evolution of the theme.
I have mentioned my own experience of playing this piece earlier in this blog:
We received short feedback on our Pecha Kuchas:
haunting
repetition
moving
collaborative
crescendo
variation
collective
history
mournful
melancholy
human
quiet
contemplative
immersive
frank b photographs - still life
emotive
plaintive
provenance - importance of, value of, need of
sadness
despair
run-down
pictures accompanying sound
repetition engrosses
emotional minimalism
emotional impact of repetitive
simplicity or simple repetition
narrative not necessary
poignant
human
very hard to fund words but very touching
other
normal
respect
The hymn itself Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet is anonymous, as is the tramp whose voice was recorded. Also unknown is anything about his history.
26th February 2013
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