daemon@decwrl.UUCP (12/26/83)
From: Karl Malik (ZK1-1/D42) <star::malik> Tom Dennehy listed Reich's Tehillim as one of the best ablums he's heard this year. I agree. It's a beautiful, rich, hypnotic/rhythmic work. Unless your of the opinion that music has to be 2 1/2 minutes long and have guitars or be in sonata form, I highly recommend it. You might have to look in the jazz section because it's recorded on ECM records, but it isn't jazz (classical contemporary composers get recorded where they can). He also challenged anyone to call it 'minimalism'. Well, it certainly is part of the minimalist tradition. But minimalism, like any living tradition continues to grow and change. I live in Nashua, New Hampshire (a cultural wasteland). Much to my surprize, I discovered an interesting book in one of our local music stores - 'American Minimal Music' by Wim Mertens. It's published by Kahn & Averill, London. Hardbound. It discusses the work of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. It's a tiny book (127 pages) but is interesting insofar as it is the only book (to my knowledge) exclusively devoted to minimalism. Best Wishes, Karl Malik decvax!decwrl!rhea!star!malik