Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Rileyis an American composer and performing musician associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music, of which he was a pioneer. His work is deeply influenced by both jazz and Indian classical music...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth24 June 1935
CountryUnited States of America
play would-be fabric
Out of doing all that experimentation with sound I decided I wanted to do it with live musicians. To take repetition, take music fragments and make it live. Musicians would be able to play it and create this kind of abstract fabric of sound.
cabin flights happen night
Especially on trans-Atlantic flights, flights that take a long time, flights that happen at night when the cabin is dark,
along america classical depth encouraged felt indian pure since study uniquely western
Pran Nath always encouraged me to do my own composition and experiments with Western classical music, along with the pure study of Indian classical music. I think he also felt that something of this depth could also be assimilated in America and would be uniquely our own, since it's been transplanted here.
people stepped
People really have stepped up to the plate.
delays four hours recording saxophone throughout
Throughout the evening I would be recording these long saxophone delays and about four hours into the concert, if I wanted to take a break I would just play back the saxophone.
ingredient main melody music musical repeated western
So, essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just repeated patterns, musical patterns.
interested met music
I had been interested in Indian music and I actually started studying Tableaus before I met him.
arrived found hungry next people
A lot of things are happening. We've had people who arrived here on one day and on the next day have found a job. A lot of these people are hungry for jobs.
became highest morning music peaceful point practicing singing state tone wanting
This morning I was practicing raga, and at one point I was singing a long tone and I became very peaceful and still. I thought this is really the highest point of music for me is to become in a place where there is no desire, no craving, wanting to do anything else, just to be in a state of being to the highest point.
essential form heart la minimalist
La monte's idea was just to have this one big form that were just long tones, I think that was the real essential heart of minimalist music.
gdp musical western-music
Essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just repeated patterns, musical patterns.
technology dancer matter
I was using tape loops for dancers and dance production. I had very funky primitive equipment, in fact technology wasn't very good no matter how much money you had.
race break-through understanding
We are either going to dissolve as a human race or we are going to break through into a new understanding of what it is to be a human being.
thinking law physics
Acceleration is finite, I think, according to some laws of physics.