Topology

The area of composition which has become known as minimalism, characterised by repetitive patterns of reduced materials moving through gradual change, was galvanised by Terry Riley’s In C, composed in 1964. This work was effective in suggesting new paths for many composers including Steve Reich, Cornelius Cardew and Philip Glass, and gave rise to an energetic movement which may be considered as one of the major streams of post-war composition.

Riley was born in Colfax, California in 1935, and studied music at San Francisco State University and at the University of California at Berkeley. His composition teachers included Wendall Otey, William Denny, Seymour Shifrin and Robert Erickson. A parallel education in jazz piano took place as Riley supported himself financially through college by playing in clubs.

While studying at Berkeley in 1960, Riley established a lifelong friendship with fellow student La Monte Young. The composers shared a background in jazz performance and musical interests, including improvisation and non-western music. In addition to organising happenings together, the composers collaborated for Anna Halprin’s dance theatre.

After his graduation from Berkeley in 1961, Riley spent a brief period of involvement with the Fluxus movement in New York before boarding a ship for Europe. With his wife and young daughter he spent three months in southern Spain with frequent visits to Morocco, where he found an immediate connection with the music. A tour of Europe followed, during which Riley made a living as a cocktail pianist in American air force base nightclubs, eventually settling in Paris.

In Paris, Riley collaborated with American playwright Ken Dewey on several projects, until the assassination in 1963 of US President John F. Kennedy forced him to return to the USA - the nightclubs of the air force bases closed for a period in tribute, and Riley was out of work.

In C was composed the following year in San Francisco, and received its premiere at the San Francisco Tape Music Centre in November 1964, including in the ensemble new music figures such as Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Ramon Sender, Morton Subotnick and Jon Gibson. Since it premiere, In C has had a long and diverse performance history. A Mexico City performance in 1982 ran to three hours, performed by symphony orchestra with sixteen marimbas. A wide range of instrumental groups have presented the work, including a group of massed electric guitars, the Shanghai Film Music Orchestra using traditional Chinese instruments, the six pianos of Piano Circus and combined rock musicians brought together by the pop group Pulp. The work was considered a practical joke at Darmstadt, where its 1969 performance was sabotaged by switching on the house lights.

The release of In C on Columbia Masterworks was a popular success and did much to establish the reputation of both Riley and minimalism. A second album, A Rainbow in Curved Air, followed in 1969 and was similarly popular. Its influence was particularly felt amongst rock musicians including the bands Soft Machine, Curved Air and The Who (whose 1971 hit song "Baba O’Riley", named after Riley, quoted passages from the album). Riley’s impact on the popular music world was carried further with the 1970 release of The Church of Anthrax, a collaboration with John Cale of the Velvet Underground, recorded in 1968.

In 1965, Riley moved with his family to New York City for four years. He sang with La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music for eight months, leaving the group in 1966 to pursue solo performance of his own music. By 1968, he had become notorious for all-night solo performances, lasting up to nine hours.

Riley travelled to New Delhi in 1970 to begin studies in Hindustani music with Pandit Pran Nath. He had been seriously interested in Indian classical music since attending a 1964 concert given by Ravi Shankar and Alla Rahka, and had studied tabla drumming. Riley continued to study kirana vocal music with Pran Nath, accompanying him in performance on many tours, until the teacher’s death in 1995.

An appointment by Mills College took Riley back to California in 1972; he taught Hindustani music and composition until 1980, whilst continuing his solo performances in tours of the US and Europe.

While teaching at Mills College, Riley formed a friendship with the leader of the Kronos Quartet, David Harrington. A long association began, resulting in Riley’s composing a large number of works for the Kronos quartet. This led to collaborations with many other ensembles, and eventually to writing orchestral works, with commissions from the Carnegie Hall centennial (Jade Palace, 1990) and the Salzburg Festival (The Sands, 1990). He has also collaborated with single performers, including sitar and tabla artist Krishna Bhatt and contrabassist Stefano Scodanibbio.

Riley formed his own ensemble, Khayal in 1989. In 1993 he formed a theatre company, the Travelling Avant-Garde, to tour his chamber opera The Saint Adolf Ring, based on the work of Swiss schizophrenic artist Adolf Wölfli.

A devoted father, Riley currently spends much of his energy composing works for his guitarist son Gyan. He rises early each day to practise raga before improvising, practising and composing at his home in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Part of each year he spends touring, including a trip each February to New Delhi for performances and workshops.

© 1999 Robert Davidson

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