Composing minimalist music
Ostinato is a good device to use when creating a minimalist piece. An ostinato is a pattern that repeats over and over again.
Repetition is a useful technique to use, so try and create an exact copy of your musical pattern or try altering the pattern in some way, for example:
- miss out some of the notes
- change the pitch of some notes
- change the duration of some notes
- change the pitch of the entire phrase
Daniel Ciobanu plays the 7th movement from "Musica Ricercata" by Gy枚rgy Ligeti, which is an example of a minimalist piece of music written for a solo piano in the 20th Century. Listen for the ostinato.
Daniel Ciobanu performing Musica Ricerta