Totalism is a style of art music that arose in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

. It paralleled

postminimalism Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. ...

but involved a younger generation of creators, born in the 1950s. This term, invented by writer and composer Kyle Gann, has not been adopted by contemporary musicology and generally still refers only to Gann’s use of it in his writings.

Early 1980s

In the early 1980s, many young composers began writing music within the static confines of

, but using greater rhythmic complexity, often with two or more simultaneous tempos (or implied tempos) audible at once. The style acquired a name around 1990, when it became evident to composers working in New York City that a number of them, including John Luther Adams, Glenn Branca,

Rhys Chatham Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar or ...

, Kyle Gann, Michael Gordon, Arthur Jarvinen,

Bernadette Speach Bernadette Speach (born January 1, 1948) is an American avant-garde composer and pianist. Known for her minimalist approach, she often synthesizes improvisation and through-composed material. Biography Born in Syracuse, New York, Speach earned her ...

Ben Neill Ben Neill (b. November 14, 1957) is an American composer, trumpeter, producer, and educator. He is the inventor of the "Mutantrumpet", a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. Early life, family and education Neill was born in Winston-Salem, North ...

, Larry Polansky,

Mikel Rouse Mikel Rouse (born Michael Rouse; January 26, 1957 in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States) is an American composer. He has been associated with a Downtown New York City movement known as totalism, and is best known for his operas, including '' ...

, Evan Ziporyn, were employing similar types of global tempo structures in their music. Others include Eve Beglarian, Allison Cameron, Nick Didkovsky, David First, Phil Kline, and

Lois V. Vierk Lois V. Vierk (born August 4, 1951 in Hammond, Indiana) is a post-minimalist composer who lives in New York City. She received a B.A. degree in piano and ethnomusicology from UCLA in 1974. She then attended Cal Arts, studying composition with M ...

.Gann, Kyle (2001).
A Discography of Postminimal, Totalist, and Rare Minimalist Music
, ''KyleGann.com''. Accessed: July 6, 2017. The term ''totalist'' refers to the aims of the music, in trying to have enough surface rhythmic energy, but also to contain enough background complexity. There is also an echo in the term of

serialism In music, serialism is a method of Musical composition, composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other elements of music, musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, thou ...

's "total organization," here drawn not from the 12-tone row, but from

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

's theories about using the same structuring devices for rhythm that have been traditionally used for pitch. For instance, the traditional ratio between frequencies of a major second interval is 9:8, and 9-against-8 is an important tempo contrast in many totalist pieces, achieved by having some instruments play dotted eighth-notes while others play triplet half-notes. In practice, totalist music can either be consonant, dissonant, or both, but generally restricts itself to a small number of sonorities within any given piece.

Examples

Examples of works in the totalist idiom include:Gann, Kyle; American Music in the Twentieth Century, 1997, Schirmer pp.352-386 *

: ''Quick Thrust'', ''Failing Kansas'', ''Dennis Cleveland'' (a talk-show opera), ''The End of Cinematics'' * Michael Gordon: ''Thou Shalt!/Thou Shalt Not!'', ''Acid Rain'', ''Four Kings Fight Five'', ''Van Gogh Video Opera'', ''Trance'' *

: ''An Angel Moves Too Fast to See'' * John Luther Adams: ''Dream in White on White'', ''Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing'', ''In The White Silence'' * Kyle Gann: ''Long Night'', ''Custer and Sitting Bull'', ''Unquiet Night'' *

: ''678 Streams'', ''ITSOFOMO'' *

: ''Telepathy Suite'' * Larry Polansky: ''Lonesome Road''

Notes

References

* Gann, Kyle, ''American Music in the Twentieth Century'', 1997, Schirmer * Gann, Kyle, ''Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice'', 2006, University of California Press

External links

Minimal Music, Maximal Impact
by Kyle Gann © 2001 NewMusicBox {{Totalism Contemporary classical music Music of New York City