MINIMALCHRISTIAN SCHREI

CONTENT

Preface 4

Reduction 10

Repetition 24

Mathematical Logic 34

Object Orientation/Perspective 44

Meditative Effect 54

Literature 66

Index 70

PREFACE

and visually. This realisation can be received via the attached Audio CD as well as

through the artworks at the beginning of each chapter. All pieces of music have

been composed, arranged and produced by the author. The same is true of the

artworks which have been designed autonomously, in order to achieve the high-

est possible individual involvement with the material.

At this point it seems reasonable to cast an eye on a problem that arose in the

course of the research. Throughout the history of art and music style definitions

have faced the challenge to assign a highly varying mass of artworks to a specific

cultural movement. As for Minimalism the problem is even more significant since

it is still debatable in art criticism if paintings and objects represent the prin-

ciples of Minimalism likewise. Painting basically concentrates on the reduction

of monochromatic and serially structured pictures, while in spatial art the object

quality, the resulting spatial perspective and the critical relation between art and

exhibition site play a decisive role. The present paper focuses on objects, since

some significant characteristics of Minimalism, like object quality and perspec-

tive, apply only to them.

As noted above, a digression to some areas of Minimalism beyond Minimal Art

and Minimal Music will be made at this point. However, it will be confined to a

short definition and a description of the most renowned artists. Although the

presented works are generally to be seen in the context of their own movement

it seems reasonable to briefly discuss the Minimalist approaches of other musi-

cal and artistic styles, so as to establish cross connections to Minimal Art and

Minimal Music.

Initially this paper contemplates on similarities and differences between Minimal

Art and Minimal Music. It is against this background that the question arises

whether the perceptible divergences can, to a certain extent, be combined to

form new conceptual ideas. At this point I should like to mention the compre-

hensive realisation process which refers to each chapter with a piece of music

and a piece of art. In order to create the greatest possible differentiation, the

preface will deal with Minimalist tendencies in disciplines rather attributed to

Minimal Art like architecture, design and photography but also dance, film and

literature will be studied for Minimalist aspects.

Contentwise the structure of this paper follows the most important characteris-

tics of the two styles discussed. The first three chapters interlink the constitutive

aspects of Minimalism which play a decisive role both in art and music. The first

one discusses reduction as the basis of Minimalism, the second one deals with

repetition as the most important technique of reduction while the third chapter

describes the mathematical logical processes used to intensify the Minimalist ele-

ments. The discussed pieces of art and music increase in intensity and so does the

content of this paper. The fourth chapter is dedicated to object orientation and

perspective in Minimalism and tries to find analogies to similar concepts in mu-

sic. The last chapter finally investigates the meditative impact of Minimalism.

This paper does not claim to be an exhaustive representation of all artists of Min-

imal Art and Minimal Music up to the present day (2005). The author rather tries

to specify Minimalist manifestations in art and music on the basis of important

criteria and distinguished artists and discusses them in a common context, draws

connections between them and realises the thereby gained findings auditorily

4

PREFACE

overlaps with their proper works in conceptual art.

Dance

In the mid-1960s dancers get involved with the ideas of reduction, the most

influential artists being Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Simone Forti and Yvonne

Rainer. In 1966 the latter wrote an article about dance and reduction where

she defined the basic principles of Minimalist dance. Characteristically, concepts

such as development, climax and representation of characters are abandoned in

favour of the equivalence of all parts as well as a performance that is as neutral

as possible. The variations in rhythm, form and dynamics are replaced by repeti-

tions or discrete incidents.2

Film

In film there is no Minimalist movement of its own, rather individual approaches

of Minimalist aspects in films can be found. One early example is Hurlements en

faveur de Sade (1952) from Guy-Ernest Debord, where a black and a white screen

are shown alternately over a period of 80 minutes. During the white scenes texts

of laws, newspaper notices etc. are recited.3 However, Debord cannot be con-

sidered a Minimalist artist. He was closely connected with the Situationist Inter-

national, a radical group of artists who stuck to a strongly political programme

between 1957 and 1972. In Minimal Art, however, all forms of political commit-

ment were substituted by concentrating on aesthetics.

About 10 years later Andy Warhol’s film Empire (1963) shows the filming of the

Empire State Building in New York from the 44th floor of the Time Life Building

6

Architecture

Soon after the concepts of Minimal Art are established, they are taken up in

architecture. The critical attitude towards the traditional gallery room gives way

to an increased simplification of forms and to a concentration on only few ma-

terials in architecture. This style is still relevant as demonstrated by renowned

contemporary artists like the Swiss architect duo Herzog & de Meuron, the Eng-

lishman John Pawson and the Italian Claudio Silvestrin, who works in London.

Design

Towards the end of the 1950s Corporate Design calls for the creation of a uni-

form corporate identity for groups comprising the most diverse branches of in-

dustry. This results in the usage of geometric modular configurations and the ex-

act specifications of intervals and distances between the elements, making their

strong parallels to Minimal Art apparent. In the 1990s the Americans Kim John-

son Gross and Jeff Stone broaden the term Minimalism to include home design.

In their series of books Chic Simple they stick to the philosophy “Less is more“

and apply it, among others, to clothes, furniture and domestic appliances.1

Photography

At the end of the 1960s further Minimalist tendencies can be observed also in

conceptual photography where not only the serial sequence of pictures but also

the act of describing and the procedural nature like in conceptual art play a

vital role. Frequently, the representatives of conceptual photography such as Sol

LeWitt, Dan Graham, Douglas Huebler and Joseph Kosuth reveal parallels and

8 PREFACE

for a period of eight hours. He maintains the same camera position and angle

throughout the whole film. As the object itself does not change and there is no

sound track the lighting conditions are the only changing element in the film

but are also reduced to a minimum by the use of black and white as well as by

the fact that the image changes only slightly.

Similar to Debord, Warhol’s film stands out from the rest of his works as an

extraordinary piece of art which laid the basis for Pop Art. Although his artistic

movement evolved at the same time as Minimalism, it clearly distances itself

from the latter by elevating mass phenomena to works of art.

Literature

First Minimalist tendencies can be observed rather early, for example in Robert

Desnos’ L’Aumonyme (1923) which Marcel Duchamp’s pseudonym “Rrose Sélavy”

divides into twelve identical variations such as “Roseé, c’est la vie”. Similar ap-

proaches emerged in the mid-1950s in concrete poetry which reduces the mean-

ing of language to the phonetic level and aims at converging its visible form

with its structure.4 Similarly, Steve Reich as a representative of Minimal Music,

claims in his article Music as a Gradual Process (1968) that mainly the structure of

an opus should be perceived. In the 1970s and 1980s a new form of Minimalist

prose establishes in the USA. It is characterised by short words, sentences, para-

graphs or short stories as well as by a reduced range of vocabulary, limited syntax

or even minimal characters, expositions or scenes. The main representatives are

Raymond Carver, Donald and Frederick Barthelme and Ann Beattie.5

1 Nagel, Wolfgang: Reine Leere. Minimalismus: Ein Jahrhundert der Reduktion

geht zu Ende. In: Spiegel Spezial 5/1997, p. 96-98.2 Rainer, Yvonne: A Quasi Survey of Some ‚Minimalist’ Tendencies in the Quan-

titatively Minimal Dance Activity Midst the Plethora, or Analysis of Trio A. In:

Battcock 1968, p. 263-273.3 Strickland, Edward: Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington 1993, p. 11.4 Gomringer, Eugen (ed.): konkrete poesie. deutschsprachige autoren. Stuttgart

1972/1991, p. 120.5 Barth, John: A Few Words about Minimalism. In: New York Times Book Review,

Dezember 1986, p. 1ff.

REDUCTION

12

and intervals and the dynamics are reduced. Furthermore, artists avoid all forms

of complexity as far as rhythm, articulation and sound spectrum are concerned.

In the next scheme larger units are formed out of single parameters. For exam-

ple, a Minimalist composition may consist of one single tone or sound, include

especially long-lasting tones or pauses or connect single tones in the form of

root constellations such as broken triads, tone scales or circles. It is the composi-

tion method that enables connecting the above mentioned elements in the con-

text of the whole musical piece. These elements are then repeated with minimal

or without modifications at all. By the same token, slight changes such as addi-

tion, subtraction or shifts can be found in previously defined sequences, without

counteracting the Minimalist tendency of the composition. As for Minimal Music

in music theory, the considerations of the critic and composer Reinhold Urmetzer

are worth mentioning, who equals Minimal Music with those styles of music that

are not bound to serial, post-serial or atonal composition methods.2

Protagonists of the Minimalist Movement

Minimalism is considered mainly an American phenomenon, although its histori-

cal development is not limited to the USA. However, in art and music only Ameri-

cans are considered to be the most important representatives, mostly working in

New York. To be more precise, in Minimal Art mainly the five artists Carl Andre

(born in Massachusetts in 1935), Dan Flavin (born in Jamaica, NY, in 1933; died in

Riverhead, NY, in 1996), Donald Judd (born in Missouri in 1928; died in New York

in 1994), Sol LeWitt (born in Connecticut in 1928; died there in 2007) and Robert

Morris (born in Kansas City in 1931) are worth mentioning. The representatives

REDUCTION

The starting point of Minimalism and Minimal Music is reduction which forms

the basis of the techniques and aspects that will be presented in the following

chapters and makes the different variations of both Minimalist movements pos-

sible. First of all, a short overview of the main principles and the most famous

representatives of Object Art and Minimal Music will be provided, followed by

a historical outline. After that, the different positions of various artists will be

examined and compared with each other.

Definition of Minimalism

The majority of Minimalist artists work with simple geometric figures. Squares or

cubes are often used as they are considered ideal because of their identical side

lengths. The objects are related to the room in a natural way, situated parallel to

the walls and the grain. The material itself is hardly processed by the artist as it

is mostly automatically prefabricated and standardised.

So it already meets the minimum requirements for a sculpture, namely spatiality,

mass and material1, and only in a few cases the artist exceeds this minimum. An-

other essential aspect is the critical stance of Minimalists towards art in general

and towards traditional galleries in particular, which becomes visible for instance

by the unwieldy objects that seem totally oversized for small exhibition rooms.

Definition of Minimal Music

Similar to Minimal Art, reduction in music with Minimalist tendencies refers to

the material as well as to the structure of the composition. While in Minimal Art

the material is limited to geometric forms, in Minimal Music the number of tones

14

in 1953) and Alexander Rodtschenko (born in St. Petersburg in 1891; died in

Moscow in 1956) who wanted to integrate industrial production into an artistic

environment.

Further approaches, though not so much in an aesthetic but in a more concep-

tual way, were taken by Marcel Duchamp (born in Blainville-Creon in 1887; died

near Paris in 1968) who provoked a far-reaching scandal in the art world with

his Readymades already in 1914. In Duchamp’s view the definition of art should

include the selection of materials used. Following this definition, he simply ex-

hibits a urinal named Fountain in a museum. The reduction of his artistic work

reveals clear parallels to Minimal Art and especially Duchamp’s art criticism is

very closely tied to Minimalism. However, at a closer look slight differences can

be found. Duchamp tries to convert the existing conventions in the art world

into subjects of irony, whereas Minimal Art aims at revolutionising them.

The art historian Irving Sandler, too, describes it as an art that is exclusively cre-

ated to criticise art, without any other purpose.6 This intended possibility of Non-

Art holds also true for Pop Art, emerging at the same time as Minimalist ap-

proaches to art in around 1962. Yet, only from 1965 onwards attention is drawn

to Minimal Art in larger exhibitions in New York. While Pop Art elevates objects

of mass culture to objects of art, this concept is totally rejected in Minimal Art.

Contrary to contemplating previous movements that had an impact on Minimal

Art, it does not appear reasonable to go into detail concerning the history of

Minimal Art itself at this point, as conventional art chronologies do not live up

to the expectations of a differentiated discussion of this topic. In this context,

the art critic Peter Schjeldahl is worth mentioning who is of the opinion that the

REDUCTION

of Minimal Music are Philip Glass (born in Baltimore in 1937), Steve Reich (born

in New York in 1936), Terry Riley (born in California in 1935) and La Monte Young

(born in Idaho in 1935).

Nevertheless, the classification of their works was not suggested by themselves

but, as is often the case, by art and music critics. The term Minimal Art appears

for the first time in Richard Wollheim’s essay with this very title. As for Minimal

Music, however, it is unclear whether the concept was first used to name the

Minimalist movement by Michael Nyman (born in London in 1944) in 1968 or by

Tom Johnson (born in Colorado in 1939) in 1972.3

Some artists were opposed to subsuming the different approaches under the

concept of Minimalism. According to Steve Reich such a musical label does not

have a positive impact on musical thinking for it mostly determines who the art-

ist is and defines him. This is what a composer wants to avoid at all costs because

he wants to become part of something unknown.4

History of Minimal Art

Although in 1967 such an attentive critic as Lucy Lippart helplessly explained that

Minimalism was a virgin birth5 the idea of radical reduction as the basic principle

of minimal concepts did not emerge with Minimal Art but was already used by

Kasimir Malevich in Suprematism around 1912. Malevich’s Black Square on White

Ground (1913) exemplifies the reduction of elements to a basic quadratic form,

seeming to be detached from the picture itself.

There are also concrete analogies with Russian Constructivism in the early 1920s,

considering for instance Vladimir Tatlin (born in Moscow in 1885; died there

16

(born in Honfleur in 1866; died in Paris in 1925) make use of repetition as is clear-

ly reflected in his work Vexations (1893), which is to be repeated 840 times. Yet,

this form of repetition refers rather to the composition as a whole than to the

sound material. The world premiere of Satie’s work was performed in 1963 with

twelve pianists, among them the Experimentalist John Cage (born in Los Angeles

in 1912; died in New York in 1992), who, not only in music, had a great impact

on Minimalist tendencies on a conceptual level. In his work 4’ 33” (1952) which

is geared at the point of absolute zero with a length of 273 seconds, he reduces

the musical information to a minimum during the performance and declares the

noises produced by the audience as music that cannot be previously defined.

The pioneer of authentic Minimal Music at the beginning of the 1960s is La

Monte Young who meets Schoenberg during his studies and is strongly influ-

enced by the Twelve-Tone Theory. As far as Minimalist aspects are concerned,

especially Young’s detachment of musical elements from the time concept is es-

sential. Shortly afterwards Young gets in touch with Terry Riley in Berkeley, who

is concerned mainly with serial music up to that point and who composes his

first Minimalist piece of music called In C in 1964. At its premiere Steve Reich

is involved as well, who at that time experiments with material from speech

recordings in his work called It’s gonna rain (1965) and soon afterwards gets to

know Philip Glass.

After the climax of Minimal Music in the 1960s and 1970s previous radical ten-

dencies disappear to a large extent, also because of intercultural contacts. For

example, Young and Riley got intensively involved with raga music under the

guidance of the North Indian musician Pandit Pran Nath (born in India in 1918;

REDUCTION

history of Minimal Art cannot yet be written as it is still not finished.7 This remark

dating from the year 1984 is still true and confirmed by the fact that, above all,

formal criteria of Minimal Art are still applied in architecture and design. By con-

trast, Minimal Music has had a relatively low impact on comparable movements

in other fields.

History of Minimal Music

What in fine arts refers to the breaking of modern painting with its objects as

well as to Duchamp’s new perception of art, refers in music to the revolution-

ary Twelve-Tone Theory of Arnold Schoenberg (born in Vienna in 1874; died in

Los Angeles in 1951), a technique applied from 1922 onwards. According to the

philosopher Theodor W. Adorno (born in Frankfurt/Main in 1903; died in Visp

in Switzerland in 1969) Schoenberg’s works are in fact the first pieces in which

nothing could be changed. They are both protocol and construction. Nothing is

left in them of the conventions that guaranteed the liberty of the game.8

By expanding the sound spectrum and at the same time applying strict rules

Schoenberg creates the basis for developing all forms of Minimalist music. As

he includes atonal elements he adds to Minimal Music the possibility of slightly

changing musical material, which is very frequently used. However, he does not

create a style of music that is totally bound to atonality. Schoenberg is a critic

of redundancy which can be deducted already when the hero in his drama with

music Die Glückliche Hand (1913) says that everything could be done more eas-

ily.

But even before the turn of the century some individualists such as Erik Satie

18

interview with Judd and the art historian Glaser. On the other hand, a simple

implementation can be based on a complex concept, still preserving its Minimal-

ist approach.

Furthermore, there is a difference between material and structural Minimalism.

While the former reduces the objects and the sound material to a minimum, the

latter aims at reducing the aesthetic or musical structure. This structure is char-

acterised by implementing particularly simple principles of composing in a con-

sequent manner, which holds true for Minimal Art as well as for Minimal Music.

Yet, only in fine arts the artist’s personality takes a back seat in the context of his

or her work. This concept of repressing the artist’s personality is, however, aban-

doned to a large extent during the so-called second generation of artists such as

Bruce Nauman (born in Indiana in 1941), Richard Serra (born in San Francisco in

1939) and Eva Hesse (born in Hamburg in 1936; died in New York in 1970).

The rudimental method of reduction refers to the use of basic forms that cannot

be further simplified, where the possible minimum of forms is achieved. There-

fore, in Minimal Art frequently elements with equal side lengths are used. For in-

stance, from 1956 until his death Ad Reinhardt painted nothing but ‘Black Paint-

ings’. From 1960 onwards he designed them in a quadratic format of 152.4x152.4

cm, each with black shadings that can hardly be differentiated from each other.

He defines the format as ‘sizeless’ and describes it as being as high as a human

being and as wide as the spread arms of a human being (not tall, not small, size-

less).10

From the beginning of the 1950s a similar style can be observed in Yves Klein’s

monochromatic paintings. In order to conceal all the hints of the act of painting

REDUCTION

died in Berkeley, CA, in 1996), whose influence is strongly reflected in Riley’s

works Shri Camel (1976-78) and The Harp of New Albion (1984) among others.

Indian music, which is characterized by microtonal changes as well as additive

rhythms, raises great interest among Minimalist composers, as testifies Glass’s

connection with Ravi Shankar (born in Varansi, India, in 1920). However, Glass,

as opposed to Young, is not limited to Indian influences. Later on, for example,

he composes the soundtrack for the anti-globalisation film trilogy Koyaanisqatsi

(1983), Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002) in cooperation with the direc-

tor Godfrey Reggio.

Reich, on the other hand, becomes intensively involved with Ghanaian drum

music, which is especially evidenced in his work Drumming (1971). Later he starts

to study Hebrew written language and the traditions of synagogal psalms. In his

theatre piece The Cave (1993), a production with video and music effects that

was developed together with his wife Beryl Korot, he contrasts Jewish and Arab

views in Abraham’s times with today’s views. This reveals his interest for political

and religious topics.

Reductive approaches

Reduction can refer to the concept or to the execution or even to both. Mini-

malist concepts such as reduction or mathematical logical methods are based

on exactly defined reduction processes and can become rather complex when it

comes to implementing them. If the final result of the reduction of the concep-

tual basis is a Minimalist one, then ‘what you see is what you see.’9 This is how

the Minimalist artist Frank Stella (born in Massachusetts in 1936) puts it in an

20

way for the early days of Minimalism about which the art historian Irving Sandler

says that there was nothing that looked uglier, less related to art or more trans-

gressive at that time.13

REDUCTION

he applies each colour extremely evenly on the canvas (yellow, orange, red, gold,

or later a self-developed ultramarine called International Klein Blue or IKB).

Klein is one of the few artists whose works are appreciated not only in Minimal

Art but also in Minimal Music. He translates the radical approach of his mono-

chromatic paintings directly into his compositions such as Symphonie Mono-

ton-Silence (1947), consisting only of a sole, long-lasting major triad and, sub-

sequently, silence. Abandoning the concept of time lends a strongly meditative

element to his work. This element is often used in Minimal Music, especially in

La Monte Young’s works, and will be described in more detail in the last chapter.

Young defines this particular form of Minimalist music as something achieved by

a minimum of means. Harmony, rhythm, dynamics and instrumentation stay the

same or change only slightly during the whole performance. This determines the

prerequisite of minimalism i.e. the reduction of material which entails certain

methods such as repetition, being one of the most important ones.11

Applying the definition of the reduction of material to Minimal Art brings along

the considerations of Richard Serra, who rose to fame by the startling directness

of his iron slabs. His objects claim purity and absoluteness and by Serra’s concen-

tration on the basic characteristics of the material used they approximate the

minimum of means defined by Young. For example, in One Ton Prop (House of

Cards) (1968/69) he uses only metal slabs leaning against one other, while their

structure is determined only by gravitation.

The aesthetic decision of absolute reduction can be noted already in Schoen-

berg, claiming that music should not embellish but be true. He states that art is

not related to what one can do but what one must do.12 Thereby he paves the

22 REDUCTION

1 Lippert, Werner: 1965. Fragmente einer Reise durch die Kunst. 1975. In: Kunst-

halle Bielefeld (ed.), Concept Art, Minimal Art, Arte Povera, Land Art. Marzona

Collection. Bielefeld 1990, p. 29.2 Urmetzer, Reinhold: Abschied von der Kopfmusik. In: NZ 12/1984, p. 18.3 Schaefer, John: New Sounds. A Listener’s Guide to New Music. New York 1987,

p. 64.4 Lovisa, Fabian R.: minimal-music. Darmstadt 1996, p. 15.5 Stemmrich, Gregor (ed.): Minimal Art. Eine kritische Retrospektive. Dresden/

Basel 1995, p. 559.6 Gibson, Eric: Was Minimalist art a political movement? In: The New Criterion,

Vol. 5, No. 9, May 1987, p. 63.7 Schjeldahl, Peter: Minimalism. In: Art of Our Time: The Saatchi Collection, Vol. 1.

New York 1984, p. 17.8 Adorno, Theodor W.: Philosophie der neuen Musik. Frankfurt am Main 1976,

p. 46.9 Glaser, Bruce: Questions to Stella and Judd. In: Art News, Vol. 65, No. 5, Septem-

ber 1966, p. 58.10 Heere, Heribert: Ad Reinhardt und die Tradition der Moderne. Frankfurt am

Main 1986, p. 44.11 Schwarz, K. Robert: Minimalists. London 1996, p. 9.12 Schoenberg, Arnold: Probleme des Kunstunterrichts. In: Musikalisches Taschen-

buch 1911, Vol. 2., Vienna 1911.13 Gibson, Eric: Was Minimalist art a political movement? In: The New Criterion,

Vol. 5, No. 9, May 1987, p. 63.

REPETITION

26 REPETITION

more.2 The truth or non-thruth of a material is not decided on its isolated ap-

pearance but on its position within the prevailing standards of aesthetics.

In order to escape this historical dilemma, Minimal Art uses materials which are

deliberately contrary to the idea of art in the 1960s and earlier. Industrially pro-

duced materials and everyday objects like Dan Flavin’s fluorescent tubes defy the

traditional artistic materials and result in an understanding of art typical of Mini-

malism, which Flavin describes as follows: we are moving towards a complete

absence of art – a common sense of psychologically indifferent decoration – we

simply enjoy contemplating, something everybody is able to do.3

Minimal Music in turn extensively eliminates atonality from its repertoire and

implements forms by applying repetition not only to the composition as a whole

but also to the material itself.

It is undoubtedly remarkable that Minimalist tendencies in art and music de-

velop around the same time in the USA, without clinging to historical material.

The German composer Dieter Schnebel (born in Lahr/Baden in 1930) thinks that

it is not by chance that this creative spirit comes from America: Once, and in its

essence, at the same time New World and Wild West, America encouraged an

orientation towards the future, without having to demolish existing structures,

and it fostered a pioneering spirit that was not afraid to take on experiments.4

Repetitive approaches

In music there are only few compositions that consist of merely perseverative

repetitions. The composers rather express themselves by gradual changes of

certain individual notes or entire figures. Minimal Art produces several pieces

Repetition is one of the most important techniques of reduction and is applied

in art and music likewise. It mainly depends on the material, which will subse-

quently be discussed in further detail.

Material

The philosopher and musicologist Theodor W. Adorno describes material as

something which is a self-sedimented spirit, predetermined by society, in the

minds of people.1 Although he is referring to musical material, this also holds

true for the notion of the term in visual art. Based on this theory, the artist can

only choose from a limited range of materials as dealing intensively with the

material inevitably leads to a discussion with society. If an artist consciously tries

to abandon this repressive paradigm he or she might only partly succeed since

historical patterns will immediately be recalled.

Schoenberg’s early atonal music does not meet with approval because, among

others, the radicality of the used dissonances is completely unknown at this

point in time and thus the music seems dissociated from its historical context.

Adorno adds that the disharmony openly reflects the state of the audience at

that time which is why the music is rejected as intolerable. As a result a composer

can never make use of all the note combinations, just like a painter and a sculp-

tor must accept the limitations of colours, shapes and materials determined by

their historical development. Adorno exemplifies the shabbiness and abrasion

of the diminished seventh chord or certain chromatic passing notes in the Palm

Court Music of the 19th century as musical taboos. According to him, these tones

were not only outmoded but utterly wrong and did not fulfill their function any

28 REPETITION

the sense of Popular music, but rather creates a visual rhythm or specific mo-

tion models. This becomes especially apparent in Donald Judd’s Stacks (1966,

1968, 1970) which are composed of modular boxes with identical distances be-

tween the individual elements. In order to achieve the most exact repetition of

all boxes, Judd, as in many other cases, resorts to the industrial production of

the objects. This does not only create precise indistinguishable copies, but also

makes it possible to see the artwork as what it really is, without distraction of

their individual developing process.

He shares this view with Frank Stella’s approach of “What you see is what you

see“7, which primarily refers to the relationship with a reduction of the con-

ceptual background. If the principle of repetition is to be maintained and the

Minimalist concept is to be replaced by a more complex one, the artists and musi-

cians generally employ mathematical logical processes, which will be discussed in

detail in the following chapter.

Repetition and chance

Repetition creates patterns either according to an exactly defined plan or by

chance. The first way usually means employing mathematical logical processes

and takes place in an environment of which the artist is fully aware, while the

final result of the second way, a random process, is not directly predictable.

Morton Feldman (born in New York in 1926; died in Buffalo, NY, in 1987) rep-

resents a prominent example; he tells the four pianists playing his composition

Piece for Four Pianos (1957) to each play the same piano movement in an indi-

vidually chosen tempo. As expected, this individualisation leads to a delicately

which use repetitions whose components do not change. Initially the repetitive

moment is the most striking feature of Minimalist music. Later on, this musical

style also employs other techniques, which is also stated by the composer of the

first serial piece Nummer 2, Karel Goeyvaerts (born in Antwerpen in 1923; died

there in 1993).5

At the beginning of their Minimalist-oriented period many Minimalist compos-

ers work with highly repetitive patterns, like Philip Glass, who concentrates ba-

sically on repetition and static harmony for the electrically amplified violin in

his composition Strung Out (1967). While Glass tends to vary the repetitions,

Steve Reich employs this musical technique for his audiotape compositions and

his piece Piano Phase (1967) in a continually unaltered way.

The Englishman Michael Nyman and the founder of the Scratch Orchestra, Cor-

nelius Cardew (born in Gloucester in 1939, died in London in 1981), are the most

important European representatives of Minimalism. In his compositions Nyman

primarily uses historic models and exposes them to never-ending repetitive pro-

cedures which vary only insignificantly.6 For his soundtrack for director Peter

Greenaway and particularly for Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993) Nyman gained

recognition beyond the small circle of connoisseurs of Minimalist music. Nyman

and Glass are united in that they both employ a tendential fusion of Popular

with Serious music, considerably influenced by the repetitive moment. While in

classical E-music the stringing together of the same notes is still disdained as un-

creative monotony, this technique has already established itself as a legitimate

composition mechanism in Pop music.

In Minimalism repetition does not mean an approximation to inartificiality in

30

By the end of the 1970s at the latest, the term Minimalist is used more frequently

as a swearword than as an art term. However, in the following decade Minimal-

ism and particularly Minimal Art, which is highly contrastive to painting in the

1980s, is primarily perceived as reductive and confined to rules. Nevertheless,

retrospectively it is the expressionism that is to a large extent held responsible

for the cultural setbacks during the Reagan era, while Minimalism in the 1960s,

despite its restrictivity, allows for various cultural flows to develop.10

By restricting the material and the possibility of its modification, the criticised

repetition inevitably leads to a Minimalist principle, even if some artists regard

repetition as an independent movement. The composer Louis Andriessen (born

in Utrecht in 1939) argues that for him the repetitive moment is always more

important than the so-called Minimalism.11

In the 1970s the repetitive school turns against the serial composition doctrine

and against Process Art, which is initiated by Robert Morris and basically concen-

trates on the development of the artwork or piece of music itself. The seriality,

based on Schoenberg’s theory, rationalises the sensitivity towards a too early

a repetition of the same note, unless it is repeated immediately.12 This clearly

shows the objection to direct repetition.

Among the visual artists it is particularly Carl Andre who is said to have cre-

ated monotonous works. Endlessly repeating formats like his brick arrangements

Equivalent VIII (1966) exert a considerable obtrusiveness which is described as

perseverant, motionless, meaningless and provoking.13 Andre rejects the criti-

cism arguing that he sees his whole work as a representation of just these char-

acteristics which lead from monotony to a higher self-contained unit.

REPETITION

performanced composition and to an unpredictable result. Thus, Feldman chal-

lenges one of the fundaments of musical theory, namely the exact notation of a

composition. Something similar happens in Minimal Art when the foundations

of the traditional artistic establishment – the gallery as an exhibition site – are

critically questioned.

Another analogy between Feldman and Minimalism can be seen in the clear

withdrawal of the artist from his own artwork. What is the usage of industrially

produced materials in Minimal Art is Feldman’s instruction to the four pianists

to imperturbably play their own tempo in Minimal Music. By doing so he leaves

the finalisation of the composition to the performers and thus attaches great

importance to them.

Steve Reich commonly repeats longer tone units too, played by diverse instru-

ments and for different periods of time. This results in a phase shift, extended to

the timely component, which can, among others, be observed in his composition

Four Organs (1967). The German Minimalist Erhard Grosskopf (born in Berlin in

1934) addresses the interesting development of the randomly developing tonal-

ity. He says, there can even be triads, but they do not fulfil a function, as they are

just ‘visiting’ during the performance.8

The criticism of monotony

Repetition is seen as one of the central characteristics of Minimalism but at the

same time it is defamed as monotony or a consequence of a lack of originality.

Minimalists are commonly accused of only seeking to disguise the centripetal

force in music that inclines towards monotony.9

32 REPETITION

1 Adorno, Theodor W.: Philosophie der neuen Musik. Frankfurt am Main 1976,

p. 39.2 Ibid., p. 40.3 Lippard, Lucy: 10 Structurists in 20 Paragraphs. In: Minimal Art, Kat. Haags Ge-

meentemuseum. Den Haag 1968, p. 25-31. German translation by Birghild Wilke

in: Minimal Art, Kat. Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 1969, p. 16.4 Schnebel, Dieter: Denkbare Musik. Schriften 1952-1972. Cologne 1972, p. 144.5 Karel Goeyvaerts 1980 im Gespräch mit Wim Mertens. In: Fahres, Michael (ed.):

European Minimal Music Project. Projektbericht. Utrecht 1982, unpublished.6 Motte-Haber, Helga de la (ed.): Geschichte der Musik im 20. Jahrhundert: 1975-

2000. Laaber 2000, p. 33.7 Glaser, Bruce: Questions to Stella and Judd. In: Art News, Vol. 65, No. 5, Septem-

ber 1966, p. 58.8 Lovisa, Fabian R.: minimal-music. Darmstadt 1996, p. 210.9 Dibelius, Ulrich: Moderne Musik II 1965-1985. Munich 1988, p. 380.

10 Buchloh, Benjamin H.D.: Figures of Authority, Ciphers of Regression. In: October,

No. 16, Spring 1981, p. 39-68.11 Lovisa, ibid., p. 15.12 Adorno, ibid., p. 65.13 Stemmrich, Gregor (ed.): Minimal Art. Eine kritische Retrospektive. Dresden/Ba-

sel 1995, p. 581.

MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

36

plies with the criteria of Minimalism.

Mathematical logical approaches

Since composing his work Nine Bells (1979) the music critic and later composer

Tom Johnson, who was the first apart from Michael Nyman to coin the term

Minimal Music, remains committed to his own style of Minimalist Music which is

guided by mathematical logical phenomena. The best example of his rationally

predicable compositions is the religious, serious oratorio Bonhoeffer-Oratorium

(1988-92).

In his work The Chord Catalogue (1986) Johnson creates a close relation between

chords and tone scales and he writes down all the 8178 possible chords of one

octave in chromatic tone scales. He follows a previously exactly defined process

which determines the whole composition without further interventions from

the artist. The use of certain processes is a typical feature of mathematical logical

methods. They foster the reduction of the artistic ego, an element already widely

applied in Minimal Art rather long before. Hanne Darbovens (born in Munich in

1941) deals with mathematics not so much on a conceptual but on a meta-level

and reduces her artistic material to numbers. Her painting 4868 (1969) consists

solely of the four numbers mentioned in the title. They are repeated according

to their numerical value in rows with a length of 104 characters. Since 1980 she

applies the mathematical structure of her paintings to her musical pieces where

she assigns a specific tone pitch to each visual element.

The writer and art collector Donald Karsham defines Minimalist artworks as

mostly being arranged mathematically in space, in their own seriality of inter-

MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Mathematical logical techniques resemble repetition. In the context of these

techniques additional and logically deductible considerations are made concern-

ing the grade and the frequency of repetition instead of serially arranging the

existing elements without modifying them. While repetition is closely connected

to the material, the mathematical logical method focuses more on the structure

of the work.

Techniques

The three most famous methods of mathematical logic in Minimal Art and Mini-

mal Music are addition, subtraction and substitution. They are applied either

jointly to smaller units or to the work as a whole. Musical addition means add-

ing one tone to the composition. For example, if a third is added to an existing

fifth, a decision has to be taken between a major and a minor key. Thus, the

importance as well as the effect changes significantly. Vice versa this applies also

to subtraction which is frequently used as a kind of mirrored reflection after an

addition, like in Steve Reich’s Drumming (1971).

Musical substitution is not limited to replacing notes but is also applied for paus-

es. Similarly, in Minimal Art the technique of substitution refers to single ele-

ments and empty spaces. The same holds true for adding and subtracting as well.

All of these methods can change the objects or its characteristics in fine arts,

and, in music, the tone or the length of a tone. The techniques used, however,

should bring along only slight changes in order to maintain the Minimalist form

even when applying complex techniques. After all, the prerequisite of Minimal-

ist work is that at least either the concept or the resulting implementation com-

38

LeWitt’s works often seem like the visual solution of a simple mathematical ques-

tion. The concept is for him the essential component of his artistic work, which

is reflected by the fact that he does not make any modifications during the pro-

duction process as he wants to emphasise the disproportion of the object and

the idea.

Donald Judd is considered to be the most famous representative of Minimal

Art and the master of conveying the tension between visuality and material.

He agrees with Sol LeWitt who says that irrational thoughts should be followed

strictly and logically.2 Judd’s specific objects are invented rationally as confirmed

by the use of mathematical series to determine the exact distance between the

single elements of an object. Robert Morris, too, uses this technique but the

effects of his objects are often irrational. The reason for that is that it seems

impossible to grasp the different perspectives as a clear entity as e.g. with Mir-

rored Cube (1963).

Criticising the lack of emotions

When arranged the single elements lose some of their individuality and become

interchangeable. Thus, the individualising form of the work is shifted from the

concept to the implementation. The majority of Minimalist Artists, however, ab-

stains from demonstrating their own emotions. Instead, they create mathemati-

cal logical entities in order to ban their artistic ego as much as possible from

their works.

Sigmund Freud (born in Freiberg in 1856; died in London in 1939) also deals with

the relationship between the artwork and its creator, stating in one of his late

MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

vals.1 Sol LeWitt is one of the most renowned representatives of this technique.

With his serially structured paintings, cubic objects, grids and, above all, with his

strongly conceptual approach he has gained international recognition.

In his pencil walldrawings (1969) sized 190x190 cm Sol LeWitt works with verti-

cal, horizontal and diagonal lines, all placed very closely next to each other. The

whole series is composed of 15 quadratic drawings and is divided into groups of

three that are again arranged within themselves. When adding the first element

to the second the result one gets is the last drawing of each row. Surprisingly

though, LeWitt breaks his own rules by creating a hardly identifiable divergence

in the combinations of his drawings.

Usually artists distance themselves from the artistic act when applying math-

ematical logical methods, and they imperturbably finish a certain process. Sol

LeWitt, by contrast, intervenes deliberately in the process of addition of his wall-

drawings. In doing so he responds to the criticism that holds the artists’ with-

drawal from their works responsible for the lack of emotions that Minimalist

works evoke.

The cube takes a central role in LeWitt’s whole oeuvre. His series Variations of

Incomplete Open Cubes (1974) consists of a schematic drawing showing all the

different permutations of a cube, describing a cubical form with three to eleven

straight lines. LeWitt translates the drafts of this series also into the third dimen-

sion. The resulting objects made from enamelled aluminium automatically bring

the recipients to complete the cubic form in their minds. Later on, LeWitt applies

the idea of the puristic geometry of a cube also to photography. In his work Cube

(1988) he exposes the same cube in more than 500 different light situations.

40

and therefore the differences in feelings are totally abstract and do not refer to

differences in the work itself.7

In general the relationship between expression and construction, between pa-

thos and logos8 seems to be one of the central problems of music in the 20th cen-

tury. At the end of the 20th century an increasing number of composers become

opposed to rigorously concentrating on the form and structure of music. Instead

of that they prefer an emotional representation of their ideas that goes beyond

material reality. Nevertheless, even at the climax of Minimalism there are some

artists who feel related to the roots of Minimalist ideas but produce emotional

works as well. The most intensive discussions about emotions as part of the artis-

tic work take place, above all, during the second generation of Minimal Art.

In 1968 e.g. Bruce Nauman shows fiberglass objects that take the form of loaves

in his promising debut exhibition in New York. They reveal Minimalist elements

but are combined with disturbing overtones of organic life.9 The same holds true

for his body casts, neon tubing as well as for the use of rarely applied materials

such as styrofoam, felt and grease in his work Collection of Various Materials

Separated by Layers of Grease with Holes the Size of My Waist and Wrists (1966).

His apparently organic forms and materials instigate a debate in Minimal Art

concerning the emotional value, a debate unheard-of at that time.

Another artist that ranks among the second generation of Minimalists is Eva

Hesse. Her works glow with a strong feeling of intimacy or well a feeling of self-

confident sexuality like in Ingeminate (1965). She attaches great importance to

the production process and therefore makes visible all the decisions and actions

during this process. Thereby she concedes herself a lot of space in the context of

MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

writings that the force of creation does not always obey the artist’s will. He says

that the work gets the way it can get and confronts the author in an unruly and

even unfamiliar manner.3 Freud implies a previously given distance between the

work and the artist. This distance deliberately reaches its limit in Minimalism.

Emotions are a much discussed problem in artistic and musical works. Already in

the early 20th century intellectualism blames the so called new music to origi-

nate in the head and not in the heart or the ear.4 While this criticism refers

mainly to serial composition techniques and to atonal music, objections in Mini-

malist art predominantly refer to mathematical logic, repetitive elements and

restricted forms.

In music already the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (born in Stutt-

gart in 1770; died in Berlin in 1831) criticised the increasing lack of emotions of

the instrumental virtuosos of his days. He says that, as a consequence, the com-

poser can concentrate fully on the musical structure of his work and the witty

elements of its structure. He complains that musical production could become

something lacking thoughts and emotions and therefore not requiring a deeper

consciousness of knowledge or mind.5

The lack of emotions, however, can also be traced back to the expectations of

consumers who apparently are not as concerned with the conceptual back-

ground as with the returned benefit in terms of delight as Adorno says.6 Hegel

examines in more detail the recipients’ perception which differs substantially

from the object i.e. the proper work. According to Hegel the reason for this is

that feelings belong to the region of mind that is unascertained and dull. He

says that a feeling is hidden in the most abstract form of individual subjectivity

42

1 Karshan, Donald: After Malevich. Unpublished manuscript 1977.2 Stemmrich, Gregor (ed.): Minimal Art. Eine kritische Retrospektive. Dresden/Ba-

sel 1995, p. 576.3 Freud, Sigmund: Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 16. London 1950, p. 211.4 Adorno, Theodor W.: Philosophie der neuen Musik. Frankfurt am Main 1976,

p. 20.5 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe durch den Verein

von Freunden des Verewigten, Bd. 10: Vorlesungen über die Aesthetik. Berlin

1842/43, p. 42f.6 Adorno, ibid., p. 20.7 Hegel, ibid., p. 43.8 Motte-Haber, Helga de la (ed.): Geschichte der Musik im 20. Jahrhundert: 1975-

2000. Laaber 2000, p. 97.9 Stemmrich, ibid., p. 585.

10 Ibid., p. 574.

MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

her artistic work. So Hesse broadens the artistic result by the emotional compo-

nent and like Nauman she clearly delimits the scope of her work compared to

the work of the first generation of Minimalist Artists.

Although these artists meet the claims for more emotions in their artworks at

the end of the 1960s they cannot prevent the public from abandoning Minimal

Art. One of the reasons for this is certainly the sinister and partly menacing ef-

fect of Minimalist works.

Dan Flavin’s oeuvre ranks among the few works that succeed to create a balance

between the inexorable nature of geometry and oddly sentimental feelings. His

work The Diagonal of May 25, 1963 (1963) consists solely of a fluorescent light.

Nonetheless, it already joins all the essential aspects of Flavin’s future works such

as the look of Non-Art of the unprocessed commercial light, the art-historical

nostalgy of diagonals (the definite metaphor of Constructivism) and the urban,

diary-like glamour of the title.10

OBJECT ORIENTATION/PERSPECTIVE

46

Donald Judd criticises that the rectangular canvas and its limited space do not

offer enough space and possibilities for the desired simplicity. In comparison to

colours on just one and the same level, space seems to be much more interesting

and powerful to him. With this explanation he predicts a soon end for paintings

in general, which he considers as remnants of earlier European times. This push-

ing for absolute reduction is also limited within space. According to the curator

George Stolz Minimalism has always tended to destroy itself because of its own

perfectionism. He remarks that immaculate simplicity of a white cube fixed on a

white wall can neither be more immaculate nor simpler.1 Morris and Judd even

turn their backs to sculptures which are, like paintings, constructed step by step

by means of addition and composition.2 Therefore both of them support the

idea of the inseparability of a work of art. Since an object can just be composed

of a minimum of separate parts in order to be minimal, in the ideal case the form

itself becomes the object.

Function of three-dimensionality

According to Morris’ essay Notes on Sculpture (1966) the internal relation of

former works does no longer exist in the work of art itself but develops a func-

tion of space, light and range of vision. This new orientation towards reception

can be traced back to the personal withdrawal from their own work by several

Minimalist Artists.

Since the recipient is now located in the same space as the work one gets the op-

portunity to create their own relation to the work. By taking different positions

in the room and by the changing lighting conditions new aspects of perception

OBJECT ORIENTATION/PERSPECTIVE

Obviously object orientation and perspective are terms coming from Minimal

Art. Nevertheless, some comparative considerations can be made about these

concepts and Minimal Music. This chapter will deal with Object Art in the first

place, but Minimalist tendencies in painting and the ambiguous proportion to

objects in Minimal Art will also be taken into account.

Painting and object

Painting and Object Art form part of Minimal Art from the beginning onwards.

From a quantitative point of view the latter is dominant and better known to

the public. Critics have always been arguing with artists, or vice versa, about

which art movement represents Minimal Art. The fact that Object Art develops

out of the paintings of Frank Stella does not seem to play a major role for this

discussion. Jo Baer (born in Seattle in 1929), Robert Mangold (born in North

Tonawanda, NY, in 1937), Brice Marden (born in Bronxville, NY, in 1938) and Ag-

nes Martin (born in Maklin, Canada, in 1912; died in Taos, New Mexico, in 2004)

are painters that form part of this art movement. However, they do not further

develop the Minimalist idea but implement their influences to the medium they

are working with. While this group explores monochromatic painting by a re-

ductive approach and seriality, Object Art is busy with factors like material, form

and space. Due to the dislike of Object Art of all forms of paintings, the art of

painting and its right to exist are questioned. In comparison to The Bricks of

Carl Andre a picture can not lay claim to Non-Art, which excludes the criticism

referring to the established area of art and its exhibition halls that is typical of

Minimal Art.

48

materials and forms that are often very large and heavy is of singular importance

to Object Artists. In art history and particularly during the period of Minimal Art

all synonyms for power, like authoritarian, strong or dominating are bywords for

a successful work of art. Qualities like soft or flexible, though, are seldom taken

seriously. With the second generation of Minimal Art and the discovery of new

materials and forms this interpretation is forced onto the sidelines.

An artwork is considered as vigorous if it is perceived as a whole, with all the ele-

ments integrated into the same entity. Instead of forming a unit out of the most

diverse individual elements afterwards, Minimalist Object Artists avoid unequal

parts within their artworks from the very beginning by emanating from absolute

forms like cubes.

One example of this unconditioned form of reduction in space as well as of

clearly claiming authority is e.g. the cube Die (1962) from Tony Smith (born in

New Jersey in 1912; died in New York in 1980). This object’s side lengths are six

feet long each, which corresponds to about 180 cm, the dice being an ultimate

obstacle because of its magnitude. Even the title fits in with the characteristic of

unity that embraces the whole work because the length of six feet refers to the

term ‘six feet under’ meaning the state of a buried person.

Smith’s definition of the specific size of this cube is worth mentioning, to which

he refers in more detail in the question-and-answer game described as follows.

Being asked why he did not make his work bigger so as to surmount the viewer,

he replies that he did not create a monument. When he is posed the question

why he did not make his work smaller so as to be able to see over it he re-

sponds that he did not create an object.4 That draws the attention to Smith’s

OBJECT ORIENTATION/PERSPECTIVE

evolve. If the recipient moves while looking at the work a dynamic feeling of

size develops. If one views a large-scale object an involuntary distance between

recipient and work is caused because of the pragmatic desire to perceive the

entirety of the work. These physical and psychic distances are to be seen in Carl

Andre’s works. The wooden object Shape and Structure (1965), which was exhib-

ited during the first group show of Minimal Art, was so massive that the gallery

floor ran the risk of caving in, and therefore the object had to be removed. The

artist’s comment was that he wanted to take up the whole space, hold it back

and not just fill it.3

Richard Serra also produces imposing objects that are usually positioned in pub-

lic spaces in order to cause a surprising effect on the people passing by. Since this

is not possible in an empty, white showroom he dissociates himself from Mini-

malists like Judd and their concept of space. He follows a similar approach of the

space concept as Andre and, furthermore, abandons the traditional showrooms

of galleries and confronts the public with partly monumental objects. Thus, con-

flicts are inevitable.

His most famous piece of art of this type is the sculpture Tilted Arc (1981) which

was exhibited on the Federal Plaza of New York. The slightly bent wall made of

steel was over three metres high and provocatively placed on the plaza to be-

come an obstacle to the people passing by. Serra is interested in creating a com-

pletely new situation and forces the public to tackle this situation in daily life

far away from the galleries. The public’s response to the sculpture was largely

negative and people campaigned vociferously for the removal of the object,

which they achieved in 1989. The application of authority transmitted by the

50

which he applies this technique throughout the whole piece is It’s gonna rain

(1965). Therein he plays several tape loops of a lay sermon, the content of which

is confined to the phrase mentioned in the title, with several tape recorders at

the same time. Since the speed of reproduction differs slightly from recorder to

recorder, the original theme is perceived from a new perspective because of the

interfering tracks.

This effect becomes particularly obvious in Reich’s work Piano Phase (1967)

where the original pattern is relatively complex, consisting of simultaneously

played triadic and shifting figures. By the gradual shift of these figures new in-

tervals can be perceived which do not form part of the original pattern. This ef-

fect corresponds to the viewers moving around an artwork in Minimal Art who,

as a consequence, gain a new perspective of it.

On a superficial basis the differences between art and music persist since the

change of perspectives in music has to be determined previously by a strict con-

cept and cannot be influenced by the listener, whereas in art the spectator is

awarded the individual right to choose any viewing position he likes.

At a closer look, however, particularly Reich’s compositions reveal psycho-acous-

tic by-products such as e.g. the shifts between unisons and overlapping sounds

or the microtonal changes of intervals. The composer does not cause these shifts

deliberately, rather they are perceived only in the context of all the single voices.

To a large extent, the effect depends on the interpretation by the musician as

well as on the reception by the audience.5 That is to say, how acoustic phenom-

ena are finally perceived by the listener is influenced strongly by individual con-

centration. As in Minimal Art, up to a certain extent the recipients are granted

OBJECT ORIENTATION/PERSPECTIVE

individual classification of the size of three-dimensional artworks, situating his

work between the public character of a monument and the intimacy of a smaller

object.

Richard Serra reveals a particularly strong will of power which takes shape not

only in his scandalous work at the Federal Plaza in New York but becomes ap-

parent also one decade before in his series Prop Sculptures (1969-1987). In this

series, aside from the most works’ immense size there is the constant danger

that the single iron slabs which are simply leaned against one another could fall

apart. In fact, the slabs are kept together solely by gravitation and their own

weight, which even causes some injuries of the workers in charge of assembling

and disassembling the installation.

Furthermore, not only a certain size but also the directness of a work can trans-

mit a feeling of vigour. Robert Morris’ construction Untitled (1966), which is

about 80 cm high, has the structure of a wire netting that evokes associations

with a cage or a prison and claims absolute authority in spite of its relatively

small size.

Analogies with music

Although there are no direct parallels of Object Art and perspective with Mini-

mal Music some similar approaches can be noted. While the spatiality of Minimal

Art allows for new perspectives on non-changing elements, the technique of

phasing brings along a similar change in the reception of Minimal Music.

From 1963 onwards Steve Reich as the first Minimalist composer deals inten-

sively with phasing models in tape music. The title of the first composition in

52 OBJECT ORIENTATION/PERSPECTIVE

control when it comes to perceiving the fine details of a composition.

The most radical example of phasing while at the same time reducing the origi-

nal material in Minimal Music is represented by the work Poème symphonique

(1962) by György Ligeti (born in Transylvania, Romania, in 1923). The composer is,

however, not considered as one of the classical representatives of Minimal Music.

100 metronomes keep ticking at different speeds, which results in identifying an

acoustic whole instead of highly complex polyphonic sounds. This, in turn, results

in what the Minimalists Judd and Morris claim, namely in replacing the artwork

consisting of many components by an artwork considered an entity.

1 Stolz, George: Clues from the Known: Sol LeWitt and Photography. In: Sol Le-

Witt: Fotografía. Madrid 2003.2 Stemmrich, Gregor (ed.): Minimal Art. Eine kritische Retrospektive. Dresden/Ba-

sel 1995, p. 337.3 Tuchman, Phyllis: An Interview with Carl Andre. In: Artforum, June 1970, p. 61.4 Morris, Robert: Notes on Sculpture, Part 2. In: Artforum, Vol. 5, No. 2, October

1966, p. 20.5 Reich, Steve: Writings about Music. New York 1974, p. 10.

MEDITATIVE EFFECT

56 MEDITATIVE EFFECT

given priority to a way of thinking that includes past and future perspectives.

The conceptual artists of Minimal Art try to reach a similar aim when putting

the visitor and the object in a gallery or in a public space at one and the same

level so that the presence of a work of art can be perceived intensively. As an

example for this approach the work One Ton Prop (House of Cards) (1968/69) by

Serra shall be mentioned. The very fragile structure consists of iron plates that

are leaned against one another. In the face of the imminent danger of collapsing

the recipient is urged to perceive the work right at the current time and place.3

There are also some analogies between the meditative aspect of Minimal Music

and Optical Art that experienced an impetus in the middle of the 1960s in New

York. Both currents have the reception of psychic phenomena and their remark-

able precision in common. The latter is striking in the extensive investigation of

frequency realised by Young. The optical illusion of Optical Art corresponds not

only to Young’s experiments with overtones but also to the psycho-acoustic side-

effects that are heard in the Reich’s phasing.

Morton Feldman (born in New York in 1926, died in Buffalo, NY, in 1987) reveals

another access to the meditative quality of a piece of music. From 1977 onwards

he exclusively works with repetitions and changes of sound patterns and com-

bines this form of composing with an often exhausting length and a very low

volume. These qualities can e.g. be found in his work String Quartet II (1983).

Feldman does not only take the artists but also the audience to their limits of

concentration with a performance that lasts more than five hours.

In the first place, objectivity and perspective are related with plastic arts but,

nevertheless, interesting parallels with Minimal Music can be observed. Although

the meditative effect is almost exclusively provided by Minimal Music, possible

links to other fields of art will be shown to complete the sophisticated picture of

Minimal Art and Minimal Music depicted in the preface.

The time factor

One of the most important prerequisites to reach the meditative effect is to dis-

sociate the temporal reference from the composition. The logical and strict time

structure is given up and replaced by an extreme lengthening of the tones. This

technique leads to a performance of nearly epic breadth and can be observed

especially in the works of La Monte Young and Steve Reich. The former used

to work with endless seaming tones and overtones until the 1990s. Reich, by

contrast, opts for phasing to give a meditative quality to his repetitive music,

but he moves away from the strict, Minimalist principle right at the beginning

of the 1970s. Young and Reich have one thing in common: both of them strive

to omit all subjective decisions while composing.1 Several Minimal Artists, too,

make use of the experience that a process works completely autonomously after

finishing its concept. This has also been shown by Sol LeWitt in his mathematical

logical works.

Another basic quality of the meditative effect is to do away with the classical

music form, i.e. to leave the unambiguous structures of the composition and

just concentrate on the tone hic et nunc.2 In a certain way Minimal Music fol-

lows the philosophical approach that the perception in the present has to be

58 MEDITATIVE EFFECT

times it is considered a commercial success, because only very few compositions

of modern music can record a similar success.

Philip Glass is another internationally renowned composer. He mostly owes his

success to his later artistic period during which he no longer applied the very

strict concept of Minimalism but worked particularly in the field of film music.

During his early period when applying the strict rules of Minimal Music to his

works he takes a stand towards the criticism that nothing was happening in his

music. Glass is conscious of the fact that, from a classical point of view, nothing

or nearly nothing seems to be happening. That is the reason why he calls on the

audience to turn away from the formal structure of a piece of music and to dedi-

cate themselves to the results of the gradual development of the composition

process.5 He also frees himself, as does La Monte Young, from the conventional

context of the concept of time. This can be observed in Music in Twelve Parts

(1971-1974) where repetitive elements as well as the whole length of the com-

position transmit this concept. Not only because of the performance length of

more than four hours but also because of being his last Minimalist composition

this is Glass’ most important work. In his following composition Another Look

At Harmony (1970-1975), Glass turns towards more harmony and a denser tech-

nique of composition. Tom Johnson tries to give another definition for Minimal

Music in his essay What is Minimalism really about (1977). In this article he gives

a description of the different tendencies of describing this kind of music and

makes an attempt to present music less dramatically. Contrary to other music

critics Johnson confines himself to describing in a neutral way the so-called Non-

Dramatic, the result of the lacking formal structure in a piece of music, just as an

It seems as if nothing happens

Minimal Music, often referred to as meditative music, is frequently confronted

with critical voices saying that nothing were happening, mainly if the repetitions

do not vary or the tones are sustained for quite a long time – qualities that are

characteristic of Young’s compositions. On the one hand the effect of this com-

positional technique can express a meditative feeling with reference to time, on

the other hand this incessant repetition of the elements creates a cloud of sound

that seems to completely possess the audience.

It has been criticised that this kind of music was long-winded, not expressive and

even nerve-racking.4 However, the composer Wim Mertens (born in Belgium in

1952) argues that Minimal Music neither wants to be expressive nor follows the

classical striving for the end of a piece of music. Nevertheless, exceptions can be

found within the row of Minimalist Composers. On the one hand these excep-

tions apply the technique of Minimalism but on the other hand they tend to use

a very expressive approach to music. The compositions of Henryk Mikolaj Górecki

(born in Poland in 1933) between the 1950s and 1960s are designed according to

the concept of seriality. At the end of the 1960s he turns towards the concepts

of simplification and reduction. Modal elements that are joined by simple triads,

though often interpreted as very naïve, enable Górecki to find an emotional

access to Minimalism. This feature is typical of his late compositions. It can be

said that Górecki opposes a lot of expressivity to the criticism that there was

nothing happening during the pieces of Minimal Music. Therefore his works are

sometimes referred to as the Holy Minimalism. His most famous composition of

this type is Symphony No. 3 (1976). Since it has been sold more than two million

60 MEDITATIVE EFFECT

the feeling of this kind of peace enables us to see that we can not have the

whole universe in our minds.10

Far away from American Minimalists some composers from Eastern Europe deal

with religious themes that are nearly always closely related to Christian motifs.

The Polish composer Górecki introduces religious traditions from his homeland

in his late works Old Polish Music (1969). This kind of music also occupies a cen-

tral role in his third symphony. The first movement is based on fragments of

folk music from the collection of the Polish father Wladyslaw Swietokrzyski. In

this song Mary begs the dying Christ to share his sorrow and pain with her. In

the next moment an 18-year-old girl carves a text into the wall of the cell in

the prison of Zakopane. Despite the few instruments that are applied and the

short length the piece lasts about eight minutes only, and the second movement

generates an oppressive atmosphere which alternates between hope and agony.

The piece ends with the lament of a mother that mourns over her son who died

during World War One. Arvo Pärt (born in Estonia in 1935) is another composer

from Eastern Europe who shows great interest in religiosity. He tries to elegantly

join reduction and repetition with transcendental experiences. There are sig-

nificant parallels to other Minimalist Artists and Composers who want to hide

their individuality as far as possible from their works. Pärt curbs his creativity to

come closer to the revelation of the cosmic secrets as a timeless and unchanging

reality.11

In the piece Für Aline (1976) he makes use of the ‘tintinnabuli style’, a new style

which was coined by himself. The name comes from Latin and means ‘little bell’.

One voice that moves by step and develops the principal melody is typical of this

important feature of Minimal Music.6

The spiritual background

In the early 1960s the Minimalists La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich

composed a series of music that is considered an early form of meditative music

which shows a great range of spiritual qualities. The longest and most intense

treatment of the spiritual way of thinking can be found in Young’s composi-

tions. His strong relation to the Far Eastern culture and philosophy is reflected

already in the establishment of an office for meditation as well as in his interest

in the Japanese haiku. The simple overtone frequencies are very important in the

compositions of Young. During his studies with the Indian guru Pandit Pran Nath

which he started in 1970 he got conscious of the fact that these frequencies are

based on universal principles of the oscillations of the universe.7 His tutor also

showed him that minimal changes of the frequency can have a direct impact on

humans. Experimenting with this background knowledge he wants to mediate

a primarily spiritual experience, “If people just aren’t carried away to heaven,

I’m failing.”8

Minimal Art is led by similar ambitions but wants to reach its aims by other

means. The recipient should perceive his relation to the Minimalist object and

the present to finally become conscious of his own relation to the universe. Ac-

cording to Morris it is the function of the object to provoke this feeling of re-

spect.9

Carl Andre draws a good comparison to that by describing the peace that ema-

nates from places like Stonehenge or from Japanese gardens. According to him

62 MEDITATIVE EFFECT

1 Reich, Steve: Music as a Gradual Process (1968). In: Reich, Steve: Writings about

Music. New York 1974, p. 9.2 Danuser, Hermann: Die Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. In: Neues Handbuch der

Musikwissenschaft, Vol. 7. Laaber 1984, p. 393.3 Krauss, Rosalinde: Sense and Sensibility. Reflections on Post ’60s Sculpture. In:

Artforum, Vol. 7, No. 3, November 1973, p. 51f.4 Lovisa, Fabian R.: minimal-music. Darmstadt 1996, p. 12.5 Mertens, Wim: American Minimal Music. La Monte Young. Terry Riley. Steve

Reich. Philip Glass. New York 1983, p. 79.6 Johnson, Tom: The Voice of New Music. New York City 1972-1982. A Collection of

articles originally published in The Village Voice. Eindhoven 1989, p. 296.7 Gligo, Nikša: Ich sprach mit La Monte Young und Marian Zazeela. In: Melos 40,

1973, p. 338.8 Kostelanetz, Richard: The Theatre of Mixed Means. New York 1968, p. 218.9 Stemmrich, Gregor (ed.): Minimal Art. Eine kritische Retrospektive. Dresden/

Basel 1995, p. 552.10 Serota, Nicholas: Carl Andre: Sculpture 1959-1978. London 1978, p. 19.11 Motte-Haber, Helga de la (ed.): Geschichte der Musik im 20. Jahrhundert: 1975-

2000. Laaber 2000, p. 269.

style. A texture of major or minor triads is then laid over this principal melody by

which the triads sound either more strongly or create a dissonance. Most of his

contents are based on religious texts. So he reproduces e.g. the whole St. John

Passion in this style and names the work Passio (1982).

In conclusion it shall be said that the meditative tendency of Minimal Music must

not be mixed up with the genre of Meditation Music, which strongly tends to be

popular music. Even if Philip Glass and Michael Nyman tend to compose popular

music in their late artistic periods the difference in the conceptual and composi-

tional approaches between Minimal Music and its counterparts in popular music

still exists.

64

66 LITERATURE

Heere, Heribert: Ad Reinhardt und die Tradition der Moderne. Frankfurt am

Main 1986.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe durch den Verein

von Freunden des Verewigten, Vol. 10: Vorlesungen über die Aesthetik. Berlin

1842/43.

Johnson, Tom: The Voice of New Music. New York City 1972-1982. A Collection of

articles originally published in The Village Voice. Eindhoven 1989.

Karshan, Donald: After Malevich. Unpublished manuscript 1977.

Kostelanetz, Richard: The Theatre of Mixed Means. New York 1968.

Krauss, Rosalinde: Sense and Sensibility. Reflections on Post ’60s Sculpture. In:

Artforum, Vol. 7, No. 3, November 1973.

Linke, Ulrich: Minimal Music. Dimensionen eines Begriffs. Essen 1997.

Lippard, Lucy: 10 Structurists in 20 Paragraphs. In: Minimal Art, Kat. Haags Ge-

meentemuseum, Den Haag 1968. German translation by Birghild Wilke in: Mini-

mal Art, Kat. Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 1969.

Lippert, Werner: 1965. Fragmente einer Reise durch die Kunst. 1975. In: Kunst-

halle Bielefeld (ed.), Concept Art, Minimal Art, Arte Povera, Land Art. Marzona

Collection. Bielefeld 1990.

Adorno, Theodor W.: Philosophie der neuen Musik. Frankfurt am Main 1976.

Barth, John: A Few Words about Minimalism. In: New York Times Book Review,

Dezember 1986.

Danuser, Hermann: Die Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. In: Neues Handbuch der Mu-

sikwissenschaft, Vol. 7. Laaber 1984.

Dibelius, Ulrich: Moderne Musik II 1965-1985. Munich 1988.

Fahres, Michael (ed.): European Minimal Music Project. Projektbericht. Utrecht

1982, unpublished.

Freud, Sigmund: Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 16. London 1950.

Gibson, Eric: Was Minimalist art a political movement? In: The New Criterion,

Vol. 5, No. 9, May 1987.

Glaser, Bruce: Questions to Stella and Judd. In: Art News, Vol. 65, No. 5, Septem-

ber 1966.

Gligo, Nikša: Ich sprach mit La Monte Young und Marian Zazeela. In: Melos 40,

1973.

Gomringer, Eugen (ed.): konkrete poesie. deutschsprachige autoren. Stuttgart

1972/1991.

68 LITERATURE

Schjeldahl, Peter: Minimalism. In: Art of Our Time: The Saatchi Collection, Vol. 1.

New York 1984.

Schnebel, Dieter: Denkbare Musik. Schriften 1952-1972. Cologne 1972.

Schoenberg, Arnold: Probleme des Kunstunterrichts. In: Musikalisches Taschen-

buch 1911, Vol. 2., Vienna 1911.

Schwarz, K. Robert: Minimalists. London 1996.

Serota, Nicholas: Carl Andre: Sculpture 1959-1978. London 1978.

Stemmrich, Gregor (ed.): Minimal Art. Eine kritische Retrospektive. Dresden/

Basel 1995.

Stolz, George: Clues from the Known: Sol LeWitt and Photography. In: Sol Le-

Witt: Fotografía. Madrid 2003.

Strickland, Edward: Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington 1993.

Tuchman, Phyllis: An Interview with Carl Andre. In: Artforum, June 1970.

Urmetzer, Reinhold: Abschied von der Kopfmusik. In: NZ 12/1984.

Lovisa, Fabian R.: minimal-music. Darmstadt 1996.

Mertens, Wim: American Minimal Music. La Monte Young. Terry Riley. Steve

Reich. Philip Glass. New York 1983.

Morris, Robert: Notes on Sculpture, Part 2. In: Artforum, Vol. 5, No. 2, October

1966.

Motte-Haber, Helga de la (ed.): Geschichte der Musik im 20. Jahrhundert: 1975-

2000. Laaber 2000.

Nagel, Wolfgang: Reine Leere. Minimalismus: Ein Jahrhundert der Reduktion

geht zu Ende. In: Spiegel Spezial 5/1997.

Rainer, Yvonne: A Quasi Survey of Some ’Minimalist’ Tendencies in the Quan-

titatively Minimal Dance Activity Midst the Plethora, or Analysis of Trio A. In:

Battcock 1968.

Reich, Steve: Music as a Gradual Process (1968). In: Reich, Steve: Writings about

Music. New York 1974.

Reich, Steve: Writings about Music. New York 1974.

Schaefer, John: New Sounds. A Listener’s Guide to New Music. New York 1987.

70 INDEX

Klein, Yves 19f

Korot, Beryl 18

Kosuth, Joseph 6

LeWitt, Sol 6, 13, 38f, 56

Ligeti, György 52

Malevich, Kasimir 14

Mangold, Robert 46

Marden, Brice 46

Martin, Agnes 46

Mertens, Wim 58

Morris, Robert 13, 31, 39, 47, 50ff, 60

Nath, Pandit Pran 17, 60

Nauman, Bruce 19, 41f

Nyman, Michael 14, 28, 37

Pärt, Arvo 61

Pawson, John 6

Rainer, Yvonne 7

Reggio, Godfrey 18

Reich, Steve 8, 14, 17f, 28ff, 50f, 56ff

Reinhardt, Ad 19

Riley, Terry 14, 17f, 60

Rodtschenko, Alexander 15

Satie, Erik 16f

Schnebel, Dieter 27

Schoenberg, Arnold 16f, 26, 31

Serra, Richard 19f, 48, 50, 57

Shankar, Ravi 18

Silvestrin, Claudio 6

Smith, Tony 49

Stella, Frank 18, 29, 46

Stone, Jeff 6

Tatlin, Vladimir 14

Warhol, Andy 7f

Young, La Monte 14. 17f, 20, 56ff

Adorno, Theodor W. 16, 26, 40

Andre, Carl 13, 31, 46, 48, 60

Andriessen, Louis 31

Baer, Jo 46

Barthelme, Donald 8

Barthelme, Frederick 8

Beattie, Ann 8

Brown, Trisha 7

Cage, John 17

Campion, Jane 28

Cardew, Cornelius 28

Carver, Raymond 8

Childs, Lucinda 7

Darbovens, Hanne 37

Debord, Guy-Ernest 7f

Desnos, Robert 8

Duchamp, Marcel 8, 15f

Feldman, Morton 29f, 57

Flavin, Dan 13, 27, 42

Forti, Simone 7

Freud, Sigmund 39f

Glass, Philip 14, 18f, 28, 59, 62

Goeyvaerts, Karel 28

Górecki, Henryk Mikolaj 58, 61

Graham, Dan 6

Greenaway, Peter 28

Gross, Kim Johnson 6

Grosskopf, Erhard 30

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 40

Hesse, Eva 19, 41f

Huebler, Douglas 6

Johnson, Kim 6

Johnson, Tom 14, 37, 59

Judd, Donald 13, 19, 29, 41, 47f, 52

72

MINIMAL

Printed copies: 500 Units

Printed through: Fuchs Druck GmbH, Germany

English translation (2007): Andrea Schmidt, Julia Harrer, Anita Ertl

Music composed, arranged and produced by Christian Schrei.

Diploma thesis at the Institute of Information Design, University of Applied

Sciences Joanneum Graz, Austria. © 2005 Christian Schrei. All rights reserved.

Dedicated to Jörg Schlick. Thanks to Ao.Univ.Prof. Mag.phil. Dr.phil. Harald

Haslmayr, Ao.Univ.Prof. Mag.phil. Bernhard Lang, Ao.Univ.Prof. Mag.art Georg

Friedrich Haas and Christine Frisinghelli.