Terry Riley
Encyclopedia
Terrence Mitchell Riley, (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist
school of Western classical music
and was a pioneer of the movement. His work has been deeply influenced by both jazz
and Indian classical music
.
, Riley studied at Shasta College
, San Francisco State University
, and the San Francisco Conservatory before earning an MA in composition at the University of California, Berkeley
, studying with Seymour Shifrin and Robert Erickson
. He was involved in the experimental San Francisco Tape Music Center
working with Morton Subotnick
, Steve Reich
, Pauline Oliveros
, and Ramon Sender
. His most influential teacher, however, was Pandit Pran Nath
(1918–1996), a master of Indian classical voice, who also taught La Monte Young
and Marian Zazeela
. Riley made numerous trips to India over the course of their association to study and to accompany him on tabla
, tambura
, and voice. Throughout the 1960s he traveled frequently around Europe as well, taking in musical influences and supporting himself by playing in piano bar
s, until he joined the Mills College
faculty in 1971 to teach Indian classical music. Riley was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Music at Chapman University
in 2007.
Riley also cites John Cage
and "the really great chamber music groups of John Coltrane
and Miles Davis
, Charles Mingus
, Bill Evans
, and Gil Evans
" as influences on his work, demonstrating how he pulled together strands of Eastern music, the Western avant-garde, and jazz.
Also during the 1960s were the famous "All-Night Concerts", during which Riley performed mostly improvised music from evening until sunrise, using an old organ harmonium ("with a vacuum cleaner motor blower blowing into the ballasts") and tape-delayed saxophone. When he finally wanted a break, after hours of playing, he played back looped saxophone fragments recorded throughout the evening. For several years he continued to put on these concerts, to which people came with sleeping bags, hammocks, and their whole families.
Riley began his long-lasting association with the Kronos Quartet
by meeting its founder, David Harrington, while at Mills. Over the course of his career, Riley composed 13 string quartet
s for the ensemble, in addition to other works. He wrote his first orchestral piece, Jade Palace, in 1991, and has continued to pursue that avenue, with several commissioned orchestral compositions following. Riley is also currently performing and teaching both as an Indian raga
vocalist and as a solo pianist.
He has a son named Gyan Riley, who is a guitarist. Riley still performs live. He has been chosen by Animal Collective
to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties
festival that they will curate in May 2011.
, Riley changed direction after first encountering La Monte Young
, in whose Theater of Eternal Music he later performed in 1965-66. The String Quartet (1960) was Riley's first work in this new style; it was followed shortly after by a string trio, in which he first employed the repetitive short phrases for which he and minimalism are now known.
His music is usually based on improvising through a series of modal
figures of different lengths
, such as in In C and the Keyboard Studies. In C
(1964) is Riley's best-known work and one that brought the minimalist music movement to prominence. Its first performance was given by Steve Reich
, Jon Gibson
, Pauline Oliveros
, and Morton Subotnick
. Its form was an innovation: The piece consists of 53 separate modules of roughly one measure apiece, each containing a different musical pattern but each, as the title implies, in the key of C. One performer beats a steady pulse of Cs on the piano to keep tempo. The others, in any number and on any instrument, perform these musical modules following a few loose guidelines, with the different musical modules interlocking in various ways as time goes on. To some extent, though, critics have focused too obsessively on In C, thereby ignoring the full range of Riley's work and innovations. The Keyboard Studies are similarly structured, a single-performer version of the same concept.
In the 1950s he was already working with tape loop
s, a technology then in its infancy, and he has continued manipulating tapes to musical effect, both in the studio and in live performance, throughout his career. An early tape loop piece titled The Gift (1963) featured the trumpet playing of Chet Baker
. Riley has composed in just intonation
as well as microtonal pieces.
Riley's collaborators have included the Rova Saxophone Quartet
, Pauline Oliveros
, the ARTE Quartett
, and, as mentioned, the Kronos Quartet
.
Riley's famous overdubbed electronic album A Rainbow in Curved Air
(recorded 1967, released 1969) inspired many later developments in electronic music, including Pete Townshend
's synthesizer
parts on The Who
's "Won't Get Fooled Again
" and "Baba O'Riley
", the latter named in tribute to Riley as well as to Meher Baba
. The recording had a significant impact on the development of ambient music
and progressive rock
and predated the electronic jazz "fusion" of Miles Davis
, Herbie Hancock
, and others.
As Rainbow demonstrates, Riley performs on multiple keyboard instruments, but his principal instrument is actually the acoustic piano. Riley's 1995 Lisbon Concert recording features him in a solo piano format, improvising on his own works. In the liner notes Riley cites Art Tatum
, Bud Powell
, and Bill Evans
as his piano "heroes," illustrating the central importance of jazz to his conceptions, and his playing bears some notable similarities to that of Keith Jarrett
. (The album title invites this comparison.)
Riley's work and various innovations have influenced many others in various genres, including John Adams
, Roberto Carnevale
, Brian Eno
, Robert Fripp
, Philip Glass
, Frederic Rzewski
, Mixmaster Morris
and Tangerine Dream
.
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
school of Western classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and was a pioneer of the movement. His work has been deeply influenced by both jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Indian classical music
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
.
Life
Born in Colfax, CaliforniaColfax, California
Colfax is a city in Placer County, California, at the crossroads of Interstate 80 and State Route 174. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,963 at the 2010 census...
, Riley studied at Shasta College
Shasta College
Shasta College is an American two-year to four- year community college located in Redding, California founded in 1950. It later moved to a much bigger campus, while the original campus became the new location of Shasta High School....
, San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, and the San Francisco Conservatory before earning an MA in composition at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, studying with Seymour Shifrin and Robert Erickson
Robert Erickson
Robert Erickson was an American composer.He studied with Ernst Krenek from 1936-1947: "I had already studied—and abandoned—the twelve tone system before most other Americans had taken it up." He influenced notable students Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, and Paul Dresher...
. He was involved in the experimental San Francisco Tape Music Center
San Francisco Tape Music Center
The San Francisco Tape Music Center was founded in 1962 by composers Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender as a "nonprofit cultural and educational corporation, the aim of which was to present concerts and offer a place to learn about work within the tape music medium"...
working with Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
, Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
, and Ramon Sender
Ramon Sender
Ramon Sender Barayón is a composer, writer and the co-founder, with Morton Subotnick, of the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1961. He studied with George Copeland, Elliott Carter, and Robert Erickson....
. His most influential teacher, however, was Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath
Pandit Pran Nath was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana , with a successful American career.-Early life:...
(1918–1996), a master of Indian classical voice, who also taught La Monte Young
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
and Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela
Marian Zazeela is a light-artist, designer, painter and musician based in New York City.-Life and work:Born to Russian-Jewish parents and raised in the Bronx, Marian Zazeela was educated at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and at Bennington College where she...
. Riley made numerous trips to India over the course of their association to study and to accompany him on tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
, tambura
Tambura
The tambura, tanpura, or tambora is a long-necked plucked lute . The body shape of the tambura somewhat resembles that of the sitar, but it has no frets – only the open strings are played to accompany other musicians...
, and voice. Throughout the 1960s he traveled frequently around Europe as well, taking in musical influences and supporting himself by playing in piano bar
Piano bar
A piano bar consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician, located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, office building lobby, restaurant, or on a cruise ship. Usually the pianist receives a small salary plus tips in a jar or basket on or near the piano,...
s, until he joined the Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
faculty in 1971 to teach Indian classical music. Riley was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Music at Chapman University
Chapman University
Chapman University is a private, non-profit university located in Orange, California affiliated with the Christian Church . Known for its blend of liberal arts and professional programs, Chapman University encompasses seven schools and colleges: Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media...
in 2007.
Riley also cites John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
and "the really great chamber music groups of John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, and Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
" as influences on his work, demonstrating how he pulled together strands of Eastern music, the Western avant-garde, and jazz.
Also during the 1960s were the famous "All-Night Concerts", during which Riley performed mostly improvised music from evening until sunrise, using an old organ harmonium ("with a vacuum cleaner motor blower blowing into the ballasts") and tape-delayed saxophone. When he finally wanted a break, after hours of playing, he played back looped saxophone fragments recorded throughout the evening. For several years he continued to put on these concerts, to which people came with sleeping bags, hammocks, and their whole families.
Riley began his long-lasting association with the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
by meeting its founder, David Harrington, while at Mills. Over the course of his career, Riley composed 13 string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
s for the ensemble, in addition to other works. He wrote his first orchestral piece, Jade Palace, in 1991, and has continued to pursue that avenue, with several commissioned orchestral compositions following. Riley is also currently performing and teaching both as an Indian raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
vocalist and as a solo pianist.
He has a son named Gyan Riley, who is a guitarist. Riley still performs live. He has been chosen by Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....
festival that they will curate in May 2011.
Techniques
While his early endeavors were influenced by StockhausenKarlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, Riley changed direction after first encountering La Monte Young
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
, in whose Theater of Eternal Music he later performed in 1965-66. The String Quartet (1960) was Riley's first work in this new style; it was followed shortly after by a string trio, in which he first employed the repetitive short phrases for which he and minimalism are now known.
His music is usually based on improvising through a series of modal
Musical mode
In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
figures of different lengths
Phasing
In the compositional technique phasing, the same part is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo...
, such as in In C and the Keyboard Studies. In C
In C
In C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work"...
(1964) is Riley's best-known work and one that brought the minimalist music movement to prominence. Its first performance was given by Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Jon Gibson
Jon Gibson (minimalist musician)
Jon Gibson is a flautist, saxophonist, and composer.-Education:Gibson studied at Sacramento State University and with Henry Onderdonk and Wayne Peterson at San Francisco State University, where he earned a BA in 1964...
, Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
, and Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
. Its form was an innovation: The piece consists of 53 separate modules of roughly one measure apiece, each containing a different musical pattern but each, as the title implies, in the key of C. One performer beats a steady pulse of Cs on the piano to keep tempo. The others, in any number and on any instrument, perform these musical modules following a few loose guidelines, with the different musical modules interlocking in various ways as time goes on. To some extent, though, critics have focused too obsessively on In C, thereby ignoring the full range of Riley's work and innovations. The Keyboard Studies are similarly structured, a single-performer version of the same concept.
In the 1950s he was already working with tape loop
Tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
s, a technology then in its infancy, and he has continued manipulating tapes to musical effect, both in the studio and in live performance, throughout his career. An early tape loop piece titled The Gift (1963) featured the trumpet playing of Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
. Riley has composed in just intonation
Just intonation
In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
as well as microtonal pieces.
Riley's collaborators have included the Rova Saxophone Quartet
Rova Saxophone Quartet
The Rova Saxophone Quartet is a San Francisco-based saxophone quartet formed in October 1977 at the same time as their "less adventurous" but better known colleagues the World Saxophone Quartet. The name "Rova" is an acronym formed from the last initials of the founding members: Jon Raskin, Larry...
, Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
, the ARTE Quartett
ARTE Quartett
The ARTE Quartett was founded in 1995 by the saxophonists Beat Hofstetter, Sascha Armbruster, Andrea Formenti and Beat Kappeler.They are mainly committed to contemporary music and to jazz and free improvised music...
, and, as mentioned, the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
.
Riley's famous overdubbed electronic album A Rainbow in Curved Air
A Rainbow in Curved Air
A Rainbow in Curved Air is the third album by experimental music and classical minimalism pioneer Terry Riley. Through the use of overdubbing, the composer, a keyboard virtuoso, plays all the instruments on the title track: electric organ, electric harpsichord , dumbec , and tambourine...
(recorded 1967, released 1969) inspired many later developments in electronic music, including Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
's synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
parts on The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's "Won't Get Fooled Again
Won't Get Fooled Again
"Won't Get Fooled Again" is a song by the rock band The Who which was written by Pete Townshend The original version of the song appears as the final track on the album Who's Next...
" and "Baba O'Riley
Baba O'Riley
"Baba O'Riley" is a song written by Pete Townshend for the English rock band The Who. Roger Daltrey sings most of the song, with Pete Townshend singing the middle eight: "Don't cry/don't raise your eye/it's only teenaged wasteland"...
", the latter named in tribute to Riley as well as to Meher Baba
Meher Baba
Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....
. The recording had a significant impact on the development of ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
and progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and predated the electronic jazz "fusion" of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, and others.
As Rainbow demonstrates, Riley performs on multiple keyboard instruments, but his principal instrument is actually the acoustic piano. Riley's 1995 Lisbon Concert recording features him in a solo piano format, improvising on his own works. In the liner notes Riley cites Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
, Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
, and Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
as his piano "heroes," illustrating the central importance of jazz to his conceptions, and his playing bears some notable similarities to that of Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
. (The album title invites this comparison.)
Riley's work and various innovations have influenced many others in various genres, including John Adams
John Coolidge Adams
John Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
, Roberto Carnevale
Roberto Carnevale
Roberto Carnevale is an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Biography and career :Born in Catania, he started studying piano at the age of seven. He took a degree in Arts at the University of Catania and he attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena...
, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
, Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
, Mixmaster Morris
Mixmaster Morris
Mixmaster Morris is an English ambient DJ and underground musician. Relating specifically to ambient music, Morris stated "It's exactly what you need if you have a busy and stressful life".-Life and career:...
and Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
.
Discography
- 1963: Music for The Gift
- 1965: Reed Streams
- 1967: A Rainbow in Curved AirA Rainbow in Curved AirA Rainbow in Curved Air is the third album by experimental music and classical minimalism pioneer Terry Riley. Through the use of overdubbing, the composer, a keyboard virtuoso, plays all the instruments on the title track: electric organ, electric harpsichord , dumbec , and tambourine...
- 1968: In CIn CIn C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work"...
- 1970: Church of AnthraxChurch of AnthraxChurch of Anthrax is a collaboration between John Cale and Terry Riley. The record was released in February 1971 by Cale's record company, Columbia Records, nearly a year after the material was recorded.-Track listing:...
, with John CaleJohn CaleJohn Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground.... - 1972: Persian Surgery DervishesPersian Surgery DervishesPersian Surgery Dervishes is a minimalist recording of two live solo electric organ concerts, the first held in Los Angeles on and the second in Paris on , by avant-garde minimalist composer Terry Riley...
- 1975: Descending Moonshine Dervishes, Kuckucku Records
- 1978: Shri CamelShri CamelShri Camel is an album by experimental music and classical minimalism pioneer Terry Riley. Riley began composing the work in 1975 on commission from West Germany's Radio Bremen, and performed an early version of the work in Bremen in May 1976...
for solo electronic organ tuned in just intonation and modified by digital delay - 1984: Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night PlainTerry Riley: Cadenza on the Night PlainTerry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet, the first album-length recording of a collaboration between the quartet and American composer Terry Riley.-Genesis and performance:...
, a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet - 1986: The Harp of New Albion, for piano tuned in just intonationJust intonationIn music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
- 1987: Chanting the Light of ForesightChanting the Light of ForesightChanting the Light of Foresight is a 1987 composition by Terry Riley written for and commissioned by the Rova Saxophone Quartet, though during the course of the composition it was decided that Rova would compose "The Chord of War" and "The Pipes of Medb/Medb's Blues" contains improvisation.The...
, with Rova Saxophone QuartetRova Saxophone QuartetThe Rova Saxophone Quartet is a San Francisco-based saxophone quartet formed in October 1977 at the same time as their "less adventurous" but better known colleagues the World Saxophone Quartet. The name "Rova" is an acronym formed from the last initials of the founding members: Jon Raskin, Larry...
in just intonation - 1989: Salome Dances for Peace for the Kronos QuartetKronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
- 2002: Sun RingsSun RingsSun Rings is a string quartet played exclusively by the Kronos Quartet. Composed by Terry Riley in 2002 it incorporates a library of sounds provided by NASA and other astronomical institutions. It is also accompanied by video throughout the entire performance, and features a guest choir.-External...
for the Kronos QuartetKronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan... - 2004: The Cusp of Magic, with the Kronos QuartetKronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, composed for his seventieth birthday, an ode to the rite of MidsummerMidsummerMidsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...
Eve - 2010: Two Early Works, the first-ever recordings of two of Riley's early compositions, performed by the Calder Quartet
Filmography
- 1970 - Corridor. Film by Standish Lawder.
- 1976 - CrossroadsCrossroads (1976 film)Crossroads is a 1976 short film directed by Bruce Conner. It features extreme slow-motion replays of the July 25, 1946 Operation Crossroads Baker underwater nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific....
. Film by Bruce ConnerBruce ConnerBruce Conner was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.-Early life:...
. - 1976 - LifespanLifespan (film)Lifespan is a 1976 Dutch thriller film directed by Sandy Whitelaw and starring Klaus Kinski.-Plot:American Dr. Ben Land travels to Amsterdam to find with Dr. Linden, an expert on aging who is supposedly close to a breakthrough. Unfortunately, Dr. Linden is discovered hanged and Ben is left with...
. Film by Sandy Whitelaw. Soundtrack released as La Secret De La Vie. - 1976 - Music With Roots in the Aether: Opera for Television. Tape 6: Terry Riley. Produced and directed by Robert AshleyRobert AshleyRobert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
. New York, New York: Lovely Music. - 1986 - In Between the Notes...a Portrait of Pandit Pran Nath, Master Indian Musician. Produced by Other MindsOther MindsOther Minds is a San Francisco based private 501 not-for-profit organization, founded in 1992 by Charles Amirkhanian and Jim Newman...
, directed by William FarleyWilliam FarleyWilliam Farley is an American film director, based in San Francisco. He directed Whoopi Goldberg in her first screen role, in the ensemble piece Citizen : I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away .-Biography:...
. - 1995 - Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
- 2008 - "A Rainbow In Curved Air" features in the in-game soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto IV. It can be found when listening to the fictional radio station, "The Journey".
External links
- Official home page
- [ Terry Riley page on Allmusic]
- Terry Riley page on Ubu Web (audio and video)
- Davidson, Robert. “Short Biography of Terry Riley.” 1999.
- Elision Fields, Riley’s management and CD label
- Otherminds.org score of Riley’s In C (PDF)
- A Concert in Honor of Terry Riley on his 50th Birthday, featuring the Kronos Quartet .
- Epitonic.com: Terry Riley featuring tracks from The Book of Abbeyozzud and The Light of Foresight (with RovaRova"Rova" can refer to:* Rova, a village in the Domžale Municipality in Slovenia;* The Rova Manjakamiadana, a royal palace complex in Antananarivo, former home of the monarchs of Madagascar;...
) - Art of the States: Terry Riley In C (1964)
- Golden, Barbara. “Conversation with Terry Riley.” eContact! 12.2 — Interviews (2) (April 2010). Montréal: CECCanadian Electroacoustic CommunityFounded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
. - Leopizzi, Marco. “Terry Riley — Il guru del minimalismo.” Interview from 1 June 2008. Musicaround.net.
- Oteri, Frank J. “Terry Riley: Obsessed and Passionate About All Music.” Interview from 16 February 2001 (includes video). NewMusicBox — People & Ideas in Profile, 1 June 2001.
- Interview with Terry Riley.