Short Piece Inspired by Philip Glass

The Concept of Minimalism

Minimalism, as the name suggests, is the concept of simplification. It is associated with simplicity. At the same time, it requires richness and color to make the piece not boring. Notable minimalism composers are Steve Reich and Philip Glass. In fact, this piece is strongly inspired by Philip Glass’s “Mishima” (all credits go to their rightful owners). How Glass handles the gradual increasing complexity of the melody while staying on the simple side, along with such a beautiful melody, makes the piece very thoughtful.

Mount Universe

This piece, which I’ll name it “Mount Universe”, is my interpretation of minimalism: a gradual accumulation of complexity with a steady unchanging elementary melody that resolves to a simpler yet more impactful ending. An interesting part about this piece is that I am also experimenting on the asymmetrical structure of a phrase. Instead of using 4 measures as a phrase, I used 5, and the last measure of each phrase is changed to 5/4 instead of 3/4 in other measures. In addition to structural asymmetry, I gave each phrase a tempo asymmetry, having to slow down significantly at the end of the phrase just to return back to the original tempo on the next measure.

Here is a small excerpt from the composition.