Post-Minimalism: A Valid Terminology?

Abstract

Recent Minimalist music written by American composers as Adams, Reich and Glass, and European composers as Nyman, Andriessen and Pärt, features major esthetical and stylistic transformations if compared with the classic Minimalist works developed by Young, Riley, Reich and Glass in the 60s and 70s. Does this new Minimalist music should still be considered Minimalist or the terminology Post-Minimalist would be more appropriate to describe its new features, stylistic and esthetical transformations? Our aim in this paper is to discuss the concept of Post-Minimalist in the light of a number of musical works that started to emerge in the late 70s and in the early 80s.