A Word on "New Age" and "Minimalist" piano.

[aeon135]

This will not be a railing against Yiruma thread nor do I harbour any negative/elitist atitudes towards modern pianists who play for the masses in a vapid style, but rather I'm..well a little perplexed you see.

If you'll all just look to youtube for a second (look up "minimalist piano") - or even our own backyard in the audition room, you'll see that people use the word "Minimalist" to describe well..basically every solo modern piano work that isn't overly complex, this is minimalist according to professionals and fans alike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTkzyyv0DuA

This isn't just a one off thing, loads of proles believe "minimalism" is basically code for "solo piano music that's melodic and does not modulate" while "classical piano" music is "super-complex-the-masses-can't-handle-this-it-goes-over-their-heads-modulating-every-minute-c**p"

Minimalism is not melodic, it is often the opposite (read: not always), and it often does not have a climax, a verse/chorus structure or any sort of dissonance (depending on how you perceive it). What it does have is a very steady pulse ("If not an immobile drone"), an often very slow pace in going from one idea to the next, working with all the chords: as long as they're between C and D, they are "still", it lacks peaks and valleys, some might even say it's passionless - they might be right.

Here is my example of minimalism which I cooked up just minutes ago just for you, now homework: when does it stop being minimalism and proceed into the area many people are now calling "piano minimalism"? Also note the Philip Glass easter egg.

Now as for both fans, artists and professionals calling this stuff "new age"..well I guess that depends on the far less strict definition of New Age, "New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism." so it depends on the intention of the artist: if he says it's meant to be New Age piano, then it is.
Is Yiruma New Age? If he says so, but applying this term to artists who are simply quite melodic and "poppy" sounding does them a disservice, though if they call their works "Loves embrace" or "I have..No Words" they're probably cheesy New Age folks.

What should this popular piano music be called if it is neither New Age nor minimalist? I have no idea, and I don't know the formal reason why it isn't considered classical when similar stuff by the big greats of the classical world are.

Can you believe Yiruma called one of his works "I..."?

[49410enrique]

if find the whole situation interesting. i my research i had come across references and music that seems to suggest that satie really laid the ground work for all of this that later followed, yet i don't see  the hostility towards satie vs some of the others (yet, the cheesy yani-esque and josh tesh-ian stuff just annoys me and is only very very loosely tied to this believe, i can appreciate it when it is well done as glass often accomplishes).

[aeon135]

yet i don't see  the hostility towards satie vs some of the others

Because it's a damned popularity contest with some people: people are literally nervous to dislike "The Greats", there's an unofficial rule that if you play classical piano then you must like Chopin or Rachmaninoff, if you don't then you are wrong, not just plain ol' wrong: you are scientifically an idiot.

but Yiruma? Well no ones been telling you how brilliant he is since you were a youngin' like they have for Mozart so it's a lot easier to go with how you actually feel then go with the crowd.

It's elitism and I see it in all genres of music, or at least every art genre 9art rock, indie folk, minimalism, whatever)

In fact I think I actually admire modern classical composors: it takes courage knowing that you are automatically going to be compared to "The Greats" and that no one in the critic work is ever going to think you're as good. but I bet me a couple of pence that if you took an obscure but good work by Chopin and an obscure but good work by a modern composer like Max Richter that even the experts wont know the "right" one to choose.

i can appreciate it when it is well done as glass often accomplishes).

Philip Glass is really his own genre in my opinion.

thanks for the reply.

[49410enrique]

Because it's a damned popularity contest with some people: people are literally nervous to dislike "The Greats", there's an unofficial rule that if you play classical piano then you must like Chopin or Rachmaninoff, if you don't then you are wrong, not just plain ol' wrong: you are scientifically an idiot.

but Yiruma? Well no ones been telling you how brilliant he is since you were a youngin' like they have for Mozart so it's a lot easier to go with how you actually feel then go with the crowd.

It's elitism and I see it in all genres of music, or at least every art genre 9art rock, indie folk, minimalism, whatever)

In fact I think I actually admire modern classical composors: it takes courage knowing that you are automatically going to be compared to "The Greats" and that no one in the critic work is ever going to think you're as good. but I bet me a couple of pence that if you took an obscure but good work by Chopin and an obscure but good work by a modern composer like Max Richter that even the experts wont know the "right" one to choose.

Philip Glass is really his own genre in my opinion.

thanks for the reply.

i have really enjoyed reading your view on this thanks for sharing, i was hesitant to post this after reading the 'non classical' thread in the ps web site board but i thought you might appreciate this if you hadn't already seen/heard it.

i believe hisaishi approaches a greatness that probably belongs in not only his own genre but multiple ones (he is at times jazz, movie score, ambient/'new age-iesh, but always distinctly japanese.

what i love about him is that he is the poster boy for the argument that serious emotional content and thought, and love, goes into these compositions, here is a video of the man himself performing one of his better known (to western audiences) works from an hugely successfuly anime film.  i think oneof the most powerful moments is at the very end where he wipes a tear away from his face. obviouly this work carries special significance to the man and just reliving it at a performance (which he has probably done many times) does nothing to dimishin the impact it has on him.