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. He has since collected those articles in the book The Voice of New Music which is available for free through the external link below. He has lived in Paris, France, since 1983. A composer is a person who writes music. ... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 remaining. ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. ... The Village Voice is a New York City-based weekly newspaper featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City. ...

His pieces are most often based simply on mathematical and logical processes, such as tiling, which he attempts to make as clear as possible. His works include: Rational Melodies, An Hour for Piano, and The Four Note Opera. As Greg Sandow (2003) describes Nine Bells, "in which he walked, at a steady rhythmic pace (and, if I remember correctly, for more than an hour), among nine suspended burglar alarm bells, systematically exploring all the possible paths among them. Which, since he strikes each bells as he passes it, are also all the possible melodies their pitches might make. As in many of Tom's works, theory and practice are identical here... You see and hear the structure of the piece. That's not even remotely abstract; instead, it's pure happiness, as the pealing bells seem to ring with Tom's concentration (visible in his face and body, audible in his steady steps), and his joie de vivre." In geometry, a tiling (also called tessellation, mosaic or dissection) of a given shape S consists of a collection of other shapes which precisely cover S. Often the shape S to be tiled is the Euclidean plane, but other shapes and three-dimensional objects are considered as well. ...

Johnson is married to artist Esther Ferrer.

External links

• Tom Johnson Editions 75
• Some Observations on Tiling Problems by Tom Johnson
• Lovely Music Artist: Tom Johnson
• NewMusicBox.org: Tom Johnson answers: "What role has theory played in your compositions and how important is it for people to know the theory behind the music in order to appreciate it?"
• Four-note Opera
• THE VOICE OF NEW MUSIC (1991) "An anthology of articles on the evolution of minimal music in New York in 1972-1982, which originally appeared in the Village Voice. Published originally by Apollohuis, in Eindhoven, Holland, and now available as a free download."
• NewMusicBox.org: View From The East: An Old Friend By Greg Sandow © 2003 NewMusicBox
• Bonhoeffer Oratorium Program Notes