Piece Description

Most artists are content to play the notes, but there's a handful of composers and musicians who work at the level of sound itself, turning meaning, finding nuance, charting new hitherto unheard directions in music through a contemplation of the meaning of sound itself. In a series of five non-narrative features, four composers and one music movement grapple with sound from its spiritual to its theoretical dimensions. The artists include John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Brian Eno, Keith Jarrett and in a Minimalist Meditation, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, LaMonte Young and John Adams. In episode 3, we hear a Minimalist Meditation. Cyclical music has ancient roots and many modern manifestations. The trance music of Moroccan Sufis and the meditations of Tibet are born in repeating cycles. In the 1960s, ancient mantra met modern music in the form of minimalism. Four of the early pioneers of this music were Lamonte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Along with one of their disciples, John Adams we'll hear their often conflicting and critical thoughts in sound with a Minimalist Meditation.