5. If a piece of music is composed in a very complex fashion but consists of only one instrument or even better yet only one instrument with only one string is that minimal?sauce wrote:1. If I compose an orchestral piece of music featuring 100 musical movements, for 100 different instruments, but composed only in one scale, is the piece minimal?
2. If I compose another piece featuring many different scales and parts for 100 players, but they are all playing the same instrument (i.e. violas), is it minimal?
3. If I design a building with no decorum on the facade and no windows, is it minimal? What if it's a kilometer high and I use 10 million bricks? Is a highly decorated and ornate building more minimal than the previous building if it is only 1 meter high?
4? How shall I paint a minimal painting? Shall I make it very small? Should I use a very large canvas, yet only paint in a small area in the bottom corner? Perhaps I should make it very intricate as well as large, but I should only use one color?
I would like to share with all of you an example of minimalism that I found exciting. This is a video of a Chinese Erhu player named Yu Hongmei.
In this vid there is a piano playing backup to Yu so it may not be the perfect example to illustrate my point but I like it anyways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re6LVYisnYY*** Amendment - apparently there are two strings to an ehru. The only place I have ever seen an ehru in real life was on a subway platform. There was an old man that would spend all day playing his ehru and selling CD's. (One of which I purchased)
Is it an unfortunate or fortunate occurrence to see a person of talent selling music in that manner on a subway platform? For me it is fortunate and enriching, to him? maybe not, then again maybe that is his calling...
Respect for those that suffer to enrich others is important I think.
