Area of study 2.3 electric counterpoint

• written in 1987
• west coast American minimalism
  • artist were interested in new extreme techniques
  • uses repetition, drones and loops
  • one other minimalistic artist- terry Riley

• first guitar part has ostinato 1 that is displaced for the other parts.
• live guitar builds up the song using fragments of the original ostinato
• Resultant melody is formed from all the different ostinatos. 

• builds gradualy
• the gradual introduction of the four guitar parts form a 4 part guitar canon
• in the coda parts disappear so it returns to the canonic texture

• e minor or e aeolian mode- no d# and no perfect cadences
• tonal ambiguity at the beginning
• frequent key changes in section b between e and c minor

• simple but layered to form complex
• the chords are simple and modal- they have no 'middle' to tell you if it is major or minor
• static non-functional chords

unusual- 9 pre-recorded guitars and 1 live

• multi-tracked recording
• as it is only 1 player all parts sound the same
• panning (making different tracks louder)- used to balance the sounds

• section a
  • the bringing in and establishment of the cannon.
  • the resultant melody is formed
  • the chords are brought in
  • it begins to establish e minor feel
• section b
  • continuation of full texture from section a
  • first key change to c minor
• coda
  • the bass and chords disappear
  • various key shifts until finishes in e minor

• rhythmic development important- how the stress paterns change
• changes in metre emphasises this in section b
• rhythmic counterpoint- the parts are slightly out of sync
  • this is NOT phasing as they stay out of sync
• bass ostinato establish rhythmic feel

• layers
• polyphonic texture
• note addition and subtraction
• rhythmic displacement
• phasing

this is in case of those questions of:

'give two techniques commonly used in minimalism'