Ever since musical minimalism began to take shape in the 1960s, contemporary choreographers have shown a fondness for its repetitive pulsations. One of its foundational texts is Terry Riley’s In C, premiered in San Francisco in 1964, although Riley, who turns 90 in June, has never considered himself a minimalist.
In fact, In C follows a somewhat maximalist path. Written for any number of players on any number of instruments, it consists of 53 tiny musical “cells” of varying lengths, to be played in a specified order but at no specified tempo. Each performer decides how many times to repeat each cell: it could go on forever but rarely does.
