Process music or systems music is music that arises from a process, and more specifically, music that makes that process audible. The term predates and is often used synonymously with minimalism. The specific term Process Music was coined (in this sense) by Minimalist composer Steve Reich in his 1968 manifesto entitled "Music as a Gradual Process" in which he very carefully yet briefly described the entire concept including such definitions as phasing and the use of phrases in composing or creating this music, as well as his ideas as to its purpose as well as a brief history of his discovery of it. Illustration of a physical process: a geyser in action. Process (lat. ... Minimal music is sometimes applied to classical music of the last 45 years which displays some or all of the following features: emphasis on consonant harmony, if not functional tonality; reiteration of musical phrases, with subtle, gradual, and/or infrequent variation over long periods of time, possibly limited to simple... Minimal music is sometimes applied to classical music of the last 45 years which displays some or all of the following features: emphasis on consonant harmony, if not functional tonality; reiteration of musical phrases, with subtle, gradual, and/or infrequent variation over long periods of time, possibly limited to simple... In music the compositional technique phasing, popularized by composer Steve Reich, is that while the same part is played on two musical instruments, one instrumentalist keeps playing in steady tempo, while the other gradually moves ahead of the first until it becomes out of and then back in phase (the... A phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. ...

A number of Steve Reich's early works are examples of process music, particularly a specific process called phasing. In his 1968 work Pendulum Music, a number of microphones are connected to a number of loudspeakers, and each is allowed to swing freely above the loudspeaker it is connected to until it is still—the feedback that results from this process, as each microphone passes above its loudspeaker, makes up the music. György Ligeti's Poème symphonique (1962), in which a hundred metronomes are set to different tempos and allowed to run down is another notable example. Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer. ... In music the compositional technique phasing, popularized by composer Steve Reich, is that while the same part is played on two musical instruments, one instrumentalist keeps playing in steady tempo, while the other gradually moves ahead of the first until it becomes out of and then back in phase (the... Pendulum Music is the name of a work by Steve Reich, involving suspended microphones and speakers, creating phasing feedback tones. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Feedback loop. ... “Ligeti” redirects here. ... The Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes by 20th century composer György Ligeti that is played by an orchestra of 100 metronomes. ... A mechanical wind-up metronome in motion A metronome is a device that produces a strict rhythm. ... The first two measures of Mozarts Sonata XI, which indicates the tempo as Andante grazioso and a modern editors metronome marking: = 120. “Andante” redirects here. ...

Process music can also be created using relatively traditional instrumental techniques—Reich's Piano Phase is an example. James Tenney is another composer who is concerned with process, such as in his tribute to Steve Reich, Chromatic Canon, in which a tone row is eventually built up and, one note at a time, from what started as a repeated open fifth, before returning by the same path. Piano Phase is a piece of music written in 1967 by the minimalist composer Steve Reich for two pianos. ... James Tenney (August 10, 1934 in Silver City, NM) is an American composer and influential music theorist. ... In music, a tone row or note row is a permutation, an arrangement or ordering, of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. ... Fifth may refer to: One fifth, a quintile, or 20% of a certain amount The fifth in a series, or four after the first In the United States, the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution especially as in the expression Taking the Fifth. Fifth (Stargate), a robotic character in...

Michael Nyman^{[citation needed]} has described how the generally minimalistic tonal music associated with process music arose from the influence of and reaction against process-based music of extreme determinism or indeterminism using serial, aleatoric, and stochastic methods. Kyle Gann (1987), on the other hand, sees many similarities between serialism and minimalism, and Herman Sabbe (1977) has demonstrated how process music functions in the early serial works of the Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts, especially in his electronic compositions Nr. 4, met dode tonen [with dead tones] (1952) and Nr. 5, met zuivere tonen [with pure tones] (1953). Elsewhere, Sabbe (1981) makes a similar demonstration for Kreuzspiel (1951) by Karlheinz Stockhausen. In the 1960s, Stockhausen composed several instrumental works which he called "process compositions", in which symbols including plus, minus, and equal signs are used to indicate successive transformations of sounds which are unspecified or unforeseeable by the composer. These works include Plus-Minus (1963), Prozession (1967), Kurzwellen, and Spiral (both 1968), and led to the verbally described processes of Aus den sieben Tagen (1968) and Für kommende Zeiten (1968–71) (Kohl 1978 and 1981; Hopp 1998). Michael Nyman (born March 23, 1944) is a British minimalist composer, pianist, librettist and musicologist, perhaps best known for the many scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the British filmmaker Peter Greenaway. ... Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. ... Indeterminism is the philosophical belief contradictory to determinism: that there are events which do not correspond with determinism (and therefore have no cause). ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... Aleatory (or aleatoric) means pertaining to luck. Aleatoric art is that which exploits the principle of randomness. ... Stochastic, from the Greek stochos or goal, means of, relating to, or characterized by conjecture; conjectural; random. ... Kyle Gann (born November 21 1955) is a composer and music critic born in Dallas, Texas. ... Karel Goeyvaerts (Antwerp Jun 8, 1923 - February 3, 1993, Antwerp) was a composer. ... Kreuzspiel (Crossplay) is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen written for for oboe, bass clarinet, piano and three percussionists in 1951. ... Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a German composer, and one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th century. ... Aus den sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) is a collection of 15 text compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in May of 1968, in reaction to a personal crisis, and characterized as intuitive music. Often regarded as meditation exercises, all but two of them nonetheless describe in words specific musical...

Elliott Carter also uses the word "process" to describe the complex compositional shapes he began using around 1944 (Edwards 1971, 90–91; Brandt 1974, 27–28), with works like the Piano Sonata and First String Quartet, and continued to use down to the present time. Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. ...

Within the field of popular music, process music made its strongest early appearance in the ambient works of Brian Eno, notably his first foray into the genre, Discreet Music. On several of the tracks of this album, musicians were instructed to play a small section of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D major in different ways. On one piece, for instance musicians played the section at different speeds, the speed determined purely by the pitch of the instrument used. Thus the bass instruments played the section at a slower rate than the treble instruments, and the new piece created was shaped by these melodic lines drifting in and out of phase with each other. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Brian Eno (pronounced ) (born Brian Peter George St. ... Virgin release Discreet Music (1975) is an album by the British ambient musician Brian Eno. ... Johann Pachelbel (IPA: [], [] or [][2]) (baptized September 1, 1653 – March 3, 1706) was a German Baroque composer, organist and teacher who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. ...

Notable works

• William Basinski

The Disintegration Loops I-IV (2003)

The River

• Elliott Carter

Sonata for Cello and Piano (1948)

String Quartet No. 1 (1950–51)

Piano Concerto (1964–65)

A Mirror on Which to Dwell (1975)

Night Fantasies (1980)

Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei (1993–1996)

• Brian Eno

Discreet Music (1975)

Neroli (1993)

• Karel Goeyvaerts

Nr. 4, met dode tonen (1952)

Nr. 5, met zuivere tonen (1953)

• György Ligeti (1923–2006)

Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes

• Alvin Lucier

I am sitting in a room

Music On A Long Thin Wire

• Alli Price

Ambient aquaticsm (2001)

• Steve Reich

It's Gonna Rain (1965)

Come Out (1966)

Piano Phase (1967)

Violin Phase (1967)

Pendulum Music (1968)

Clapping Music (1972)

• Frederic Rzewski

Les Moutons de Panurge (1969)

• Karlheinz Stockhausen

Plus-Minus (1963)

Mikrophonie I (1964)

Solo (1965–66)

Prozession (1967)

Kurzwellen (1968)

Aus den sieben Tagen (1968)

Spiral (1968)

Pole (1969–70)

Expo (1969–70)

Für kommende Zeiten (1968–70)

Ylem (1972)

• James Tenney

For Ann (rising) (1969)

Chromatic Canon (1980/83)

Sergei Prokofiev Symphony N° 1 (1917) Igor Stravinsky Pulcinella (ballet) (1920) more references to neoclassicist pieces can be found in the article Neoclassicism (music). ... For the subgenre of darkwave, see Neoclassical (Dark Wave). ... George Antheil Ballet mécanique Bela Bartok Bluebeards Castle (1911) Cantata Profana Piano Concerto No. ... Modernism in musicis characterized by a desire for or belief in progressand science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, politicaladvocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with tradition or common practice. ... (propose to merge this list with List of surrealistic pieces - the only composition mentioned on this page up till now (Relâche) is to be labelled Instantaneist, which is nearer to surrealism rather than to dada: I moved the mentioned piece to the list of surrealist pieces. ... Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ... Claude Debussyhuh Prélude à laprès-midi dun faune Suite bergamasque Clair de Lune Rêverie Estampes La Mer Childrens Corner Deux livres de Préludes Images I Images II Douze Études Pelléas et Mélisande (opera) Maurice Ravel Jeux deau (music) Miroirs Rhapsody Espagnole... The impressionist movement in music is a movement in European classical music that had its beginnings in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the twentieth century. ... This is a list of jazz pieces by composer: Dave Brubeck Take Five Blue Rondo A La Turk The Duke In Your Own Sweet Way John Coltrane Giant Steps Countdown Moments Notice Naima A Love Supreme Crescent Bill Evans Waltz for Debby Peris Scope Time Remembered Sugar Plum... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... John Adams Phrygian Gates Shaker Loops David Borden The Continuing Story of Counterpoint (1976-1987) Gavin Bryars Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971) Philip Glass Strung Out (1967) Music in the Shape of a Square (1967) Two Pages (1968) Music in Contrary Motion (1969) Music in Fifths (1969) Music... This article is about a musical style. ... Enrique Granados Goyescas Edvard Grieg Peer Gynt LeoÅ¡ Janáček Jenufa Jean Sibelius Finlandia BedÅ™ich Smetana Má vlast The Bartered Bride This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. ... Nationalism in music refers to the use of materials that are identifiable as national or regional. ... William Duckworth Southern Harmony Thirty-One Days Time Curve Preludes Lois V. Vierk Go Guitars Into the brightening air Manhattan Cascade Red Shift Red Shift IV River Beneath the River Simoom Timberline This is an incomplete list. ... Postminimalism is a term utilized in various artistic fields for work which is influenced by, or attempts to develop, the aesthetic of minimalism. ... George Antheil Piano preludes (1933) for Max Ernsts collage-novel La femme 100 têtes (Albright, 2004) Bohuslva Martinů Julietta, based on a play by Georges Neveux Ariane, based on a play by Georges Neveux The Revolt (1925), ballet (Albright, 2004) Darius Milhaud Le boeuf sur le toit... Surrealist music is music which uses unexpected juxtapositions and other surrealist techniques. ... For atonal pieces using the twelve-tone technique and serialism see: List of twelve-tone pieces and List of serial pieces. ... Atonality describes music not conforming to the system of tonal hierarchies, which characterizes the sound of classical European music between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. ... Josef Matthias Hauer Second Viennese School Alban Berg Hanns Eisler Arnold Schoenberg Waltz from 5 Klavierstücke, Op. ... Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ... List of pieces which use serialism, by composer: Palle Mikkelbourg Aura Influenced deeply by serialism and the inspiration of Gil Evans, Mikkelbourg composed a theme from ten notes based on the letters of Davis first and last names. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... Luciano Berio Sequenzas I-XIV John Cage prepared piano pieces (1938) One8 (1991), for curved bow Henry Cowell Tides of Manaunaun (1915), large tone-clusters The Banshee, Aeolian Harp, and Sinister Resonance, played inside the piano George Crumb Black Angels, extended string techniques, including bowing with glass rods Makrokosmos (1972... Cover of Henry Cowell: Piano Music, with Henry Cowell demonstrating the longitudinal sweeping string piano technique Extended technique is a term used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox or improper techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments. ... In music pandiatonic chords and successions are those formed freely from all degrees of a diatonic scale without regard for their diatonic function, sometimes to the extent of no single pitch being felt as a tonic. ... Béla Bartók Mikrokosmos Volume 5 number 125: The opening (mm. ... The musical use of more than one key simultaneously is polytonality. ... See also Process music. ... Maurice Ravel Ma Mère lOye : Mouvt de Marche of Laideronnette: This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. ... Quartal harmonies and quintal harmonies are harmonies based on fourths and fifths rather than the traditional harmonies based on thirds. ... Sofia Gubaidulina Quaternion for cello quartet, two of the cellos are tuned down a quarter tone Music for Flute, Strings, and Percussion, the strings are divided into two sections, one of which is tuned a quarter-tone lower than the other. ... A quarter tone is an interval half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which is half a whole tone. ... Claude Debussy many pieces Alban Berg Violin Concerto Bela Bartók String Quartet No. ... In music, a whole tone scale (set form 6-35, 02468t) is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole step. ... In music the compositional technique phasing, popularized by composer Steve Reich, is that while the same part is played on two musical instruments, one instrumentalist keeps playing in steady tempo, while the other gradually moves ahead of the first until it becomes out of and then back in phase (the... For the Wikipedia quotation templates, see Category:Quotation templates. ... William Basinski (born 1958 in Houston, Texas) is an American composer, clarinetist, saxophonist, and sound & video artist. ... There have been five movies titled The River: The River (1997) directed by Tsai Ming-liang. ... Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. ... Brian Eno (pronounced ) (born Brian Peter George St. ... Virgin release Discreet Music (1975) is an album by the British ambient musician Brian Eno. ... Neroli oil is a plant oil similar to bergamot produced from the blossom of the bitter orange tree ( or Bigaradia). ... Karel Goeyvaerts (Antwerp Jun 8, 1923 - February 3, 1993, Antwerp) was a composer. ... “Ligeti” redirects here. ... The Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes by 20th century composer György Ligeti that is played by an orchestra of 100 metronomes. ... Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. ... I am sitting in a room (1970) is one of composer Alvin Luciers best known works, featuring Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the recording back into the room, re-recording it. ... Music On A Long Thin Wire is a piece by Alvin Lucier conceived in 1977. ... Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer. ... Its gonna rain is a musical composition written by Steve Reich in 1965 and approximately 17 minutes and 50 seconds in length. ... Come Out is a 1966 piece by American composer Steve Reich. ... Piano Phase is a piece of music written in 1967 by the minimalist composer Steve Reich for two pianos. ... Violin Phase, written by minimalist composer Steve Reich in 1967, is an example of his phasing technique previously used in Piano Phase in which the music itself is created not by the instruments but by interactions of temporal variations on an original melody. ... Pendulum Music is the name of a work by Steve Reich, involving suspended microphones and speakers, creating phasing feedback tones. ... Clapping music is a minimalist piece written by Steve Reich in 1972. ... Frederic Anthony Rzewski (born April 13, 1938) is an American composer and virtuoso pianist. ... Karlheinz Stockhausen (born August 22, 1928) is a German composer, and one of the most important and controversial composers of the 20th century. ... Mikrophonie is the title given by Karlheinz Stockhausen to two of his compositions, written in 1964 and 1965, in which “normally inaudible vibrations . ... Aus den sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) is a collection of 15 text compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in May of 1968, in reaction to a personal crisis, and characterized as intuitive music. Often regarded as meditation exercises, all but two of them nonetheless describe in words specific musical... James Tenney (August 10, 1934 in Silver City, NM) is an American composer and influential music theorist. ... For Ann (rising) is a piece created by James Tenney in 1969. ...

Sources

• Edwards, Allen. 1971. Flawed Words and Stubborn Sounds: A Conversation with Elliott Carter. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc.
• Brandt, William E. 1974. "The Music of Elliott Carter: Simultaneity and Complexity". Music Educators Journal 60, no. 9 (May): 24–32.
• Gann, Kyle. 1987. "Let X = X: Minimalism vs. Serialism". Village Voice (24 February): 76.
• Hopp, Winrich. 1998. Kurzwellen von Karlheinz Stockhausen: Konzeption und musikalische Poiesis. Kölner Schriften zur neuen Musik 6. Mainz ; New York: Schott.
• Kohl, Jerome. 1978. "Intuitive Music and Serial Determinism: An Analysis of Stockhausen’s Aus den sieben Tagen." In Theory Only 3, no. 2 (March): 7–19.[1]
• ———. 1981. "Serial and Non-Serial Techniques in the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1962–1968." Ph.D. diss., Seattle: University of Washington.
• Nyman, Michael: Experimental Music. Cage and beyond. London 1971 (repr.1999, Cambridge University Press)
• Sabbe, Herman. 1977. Het muzikale serialisme als techniek en als denkmethode: Een onderzoek naar de logische en historische samenhang van de onderscheiden toepassingen van het seriërend beginsel in de muziek van de periode 1950–1975. Ghent: Rijksuniversiteit te Gent.
• Sabbe, Harman. 1981. “Die Einheit der Stockhausen-Zeit ...: Neue Erkenntnismöglichkeiten der seriellen Entwicklung anhand des frühen Wirkens von Stockhausen und Goeyvaerts. Dargestellt aufgrund der Briefe Stockhausens an Goevaerts”. In Musik-Konzepte 19: Karlheinz Stockhausen: ... wie die Zeit verging ..., edited by Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, 5–96. Munich: Edition Text + Kritik.

See also

• List of process music pieces
• Tom Johnson
• Alvin Lucier
• Conlon Nancarrow

See also Process music. ... American composer and critic Tom Johnson (born November 18, 1939), is one of the few composers to self-identify as minimalist, in fact, he may have coined the term while serving as the new music critic for the Village Voice. ... Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. ... Conlon Nancarrow (October 27, 1912 - August 10, 1997) was an American composer who took Mexican citizenship in 1955. ...

External links

• Music as a Gradual Process by Steve Reich