Minimalism: a story told in 8 pulses

On Nov. 4, 1964, an ensemble of musicians took the stage at San Francisco's Tape Music Center. That night was the debut of an experimental composition, written by a young composer named Terry Riley — but it was the musicians who were in control of the performance. Each player could choose from 53 musical phrases, all of them revolving around the note C, to play for as long or as short as they wanted before moving on to the next one. The performance of In C was, unexpectedly, reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, whose critic called it "music like none other on Earth."

Around the same time, similar experiments in avant-garde music were, La Monte Young and. And yet, to view the scene's foundations only through the lens of that Mount Rushmore of names is to ignore the fullness and diversity that defined it even from the start. As musicologist William Robin puts it, "There are limitations to a story that relies on the Founding Fathers. There were so many others creating minimalist music in this period — that includes women, people of color and LGBTQ+ musicians."