Born in Colfax, California on June 24, 1935, Terry Riley would, in the 1950s, he begin performing as a solo pianist and studied composition at San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the University of California, Berkeley, studying with Seymour Shifrin and Robert Erickson. He befriended composer La Monte Young, whose earliest compositions using sustained tones were an influence. Though he himself never embraced the term, Riley would launch what is now known as the Minimalist movement with his revolutionary classic In C in 1964. Based on interlocking repetitive patterns, this seminal work provided a new concept in musical form—whose impact was to change the course of 20th Century music and it's influence heard in the works of prominent composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams and in the music of Rock Groups such as The Who, The Soft Machine, Tangerine Dream, Curved Air and many others.
Upon hearing the premiere of In C in 1964, Alfred Frankenstein remarked that Riley had developed "a style like that of no one else on earth...He is bound to make a profound impression with it"—and Keith Fullerton Whitman, writing more recently in the music magazine Pitchfork, would remark: "Where American minimalism, Indian classical raga, barrelhouse piano, modal jazz, and rugged western individualism all intersect, there stands the sage composer Terry Riley. His work exploded listeners’ notions of classical composition with his ever-shifting structures and epic improvisations."
On Wednesday's Classical Music with Foley Schuler, we'll celebrate the birthday of this true American musical visionary with his most influential work, the seminal In C, in what is considered one of the definitve of the more recent recordings of the piece, as performed by the Grand Valley New Music Ensemble from right here in West Michigan, and hear several other entries in his always intriguing ouevre, including music performed by frequent, longtime Terry Riley collaborators, the Kronos Quartet.
You can hear Foley Schuler's musical selections—and stories behind the music—every weekday afternoon from 1 until 4 on Blue Lake Public Radio.
