Terry Riley

Terry Riley is an American composer and performer whose works, including In C, helped establish minimalist music. His music often uses repetition, improvisation, and sustained tones.

Minimal music: A style of music built from limited materials, repetition, gradual change, and extended duration. Riley’s early works helped define this musical style.
In C: A 1964 composition by Terry Riley in which performers repeat short musical phrases at their own pace. Its open form made Riley’s best-known experiment in patterned ensemble music.
La Monte Young: An American composer whose sustained tones and experimental works helped shape minimal music. Young’s work and partnership with Riley formed part of the New York avant-garde in the 1960s.
The Once Group: A San Francisco collective of composers and performers active in experimental music during the 1960s. Riley performed with this collective as he developed his early open-form works.
Philip Glass: An American composer whose repetitive structures and operas became central to minimal music. Glass heard Riley’s music in Paris and later developed a distinct, large-scale minimalist language.
Tape loop: A length of recorded sound joined end to end so it can play repeatedly. Riley used tape loops to explore repetition and layered sound.
A Rainbow in Curved Air: A 1969 album by Terry Riley featuring layered keyboard performances and electronic effects. Its overdubbed sound brought Riley’s looping, keyboard-centered style to a broad audience.
Pauline Oliveros: An American composer and accordionist known for electronic music and the practice of Deep Listening. Oliveros and Riley shared San Francisco’s experimental music scene and collaborated in the Once Group.
San Francisco Tape Music Center: An experimental music organization and studio founded in San Francisco in 1962. The center provided Riley with collaborators and facilities for tape-based experiments.
John Adams: An American composer who combined repetitive patterns with tonal harmony and orchestral forms. Adams’s music reflects the wider influence of repetition that Riley helped establish.

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