Papers by Lawrence J Rizzuto
This article explores the intersection of post-minimalism and the burgeoning New York City punk s... more This article explores the intersection of post-minimalism and the burgeoning New York City punk scene by examining the music of Rhys Chatham. Chatham was part of a generation that crafted a distinct aesthetic within the downtown music scene. Recent scholarship and criticism have ignited a musical discourse regarding the breakdown of musical barriers during the 1970s–80s. Caroline Polk O'Meara notes in her dissertation New York Noise that punk was an " aesthetic strategy of disruption, dissonance, and disorder, " and Bernard Gendron wrote in his book Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club that the post-minimalists had adopted the codes of punk and thus, " stressed pure musicality at the expense of extra-musical aggression and antics. " While scholars have examined the music of other post-minimalists such as Glenn Branca and Laurie Anderson, few have focused on the ways in which Chatham forged an aesthetic that combined the aggressive musical tendencies of punk with post-minimalism specific to his unconventional adaptation and use of the electric guitar. I argue that Chatham's merger of post-minimalism and punk fused the smooth and linear comprehensibility of post-minimalism with the discord and amateur sensibility of punk music, and is intensified by the performance venue, namely sacred spaces, through which his work is realized. Chatham had studied just-intonation with La Monte Young and electronic music with Morton Subotnick. In 1976, Chatham's interests turned to the electric guitar after listening to The Ramones perform at CBGB. In 1977, Chatham composed his first work for electric guitar entitled Guitar Trio, and he currently composes large-scale works for guitar orchestras. I will demonstrate how Chatham's guitar orchestrations combined the musical idioms of post-minimalism with the aesthetics of punk rock. His most recent work A Crimson Grail (2005) was originally composed for 400 guitars, 16 basses, percussion, and 5 conductors. The immense performance considerations and collaborative details induce an altogether visceral experience for his target audience of experimental music devotees and amateur guitar heroes. As a result, Chatham has widened the landscape of American experimental music while cleverly engaging participants and listeners in his distinct musical blend of post-minimalism and punk. his article examines the music and aesthetics of the post-minimalist composer Rhys Chatham and highlights his relationship to minimalism and the bourgeoning punk rock scene in New York City during the mid–late 1970s. Chatham was part of a generation that crafted a distinct aesthetic within the downtown music scene 1 and recent criticism has ignited a discourse regarding the breakdown of musical barriers during the 1970s–80s. Caroline Polk O'Meara notes in her dissertation New York Noise that punk was an " aesthetic strategy of disruption, dissonance, and disorder, " 2 and Bernard Gendron wrote in his book Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club that the post-minimalists had adopted the codes of punk and thus, " stressed pure musicality at the expense of extra-musical aggression and antics. " 3 While scholars have examined the music of other post-minimalists 4 such as Glenn Branca and Laurie Anderson, there has been limited scholarly research written on Chatham. In an effort to address Chatham's musical aesthetic in more detail this article will focus on the ways in which Chatham combined the aggressive musical tendencies of punk with post-minimalism specific to his unconventional adaptation and use of the electric guitar. I intend to argue that Chatham widened the landscape of American experimental music while cleverly engaging participants and listeners in his distinct musical blend of punk and post-minimalism. The first part of this article addresses the historical influences of minimalism and punk music in the development of Chatham's music. The second part of the article will demonstrate how Chatham fused the linear comprehensibility of post-minimalism with the discord and amateur sensibility of punk music in one of his more recent compositions, A Crimson Grail.
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Papers by Lawrence J Rizzuto