The Young Gods – ...

In C, the famous piece by american composer Terry Riley was written in 1964. It is often cited as the first minimalist composition. In C consists of 53 short, numbered musical phrases, lasting from half a beat to 32 beats; each phrase may be repeated an arbitrary number of times. In this way, although the melodic content of each part is predetermined, In C has elements of aleatoric music to it. The performance normally average between 45 minutes and an hour and a half.

In C is like a game of life: everyone has to listen carefully to each other to make things work. One could say that this is true of all music, but In C is more than just playing together at the same time: this piece invites you into another dimension where past and future events are so intertwined that you are constantly in the field of all possibilities. Franz Treichler.