TERRY RILEY (b.1935): Keyboard Studies 1 and 2, Tread on the trail.

Description: The Keyboard Studies from 1964 represent the fundamentals of hardcore minimalism - and as such, necessarily seem something of an historical artifact now that 'minimalism' of one sort or another has become absorbed into the vocabularies of a wide range of composers. Nevertheless, they remain fascinating on heir own terms, in their hypnotic suspension or dilation of time. Both are based on small cells of repeated material, which in this version for solo piano and tape, shift in and out of phase with themselves, thus producing a continuous variety of evolving secondary patterns. Tread on the Trail is rather different; five jazzy melodic lines revolve around each other over a steady beat, building up layers of fairly complicated texture and harmony. The composer left open the number and type of instruments; the present performer multi-tracks pianos played in a variety of ways (including direct contact on the strings) to emulate the ensemble sound of earlier versions of this engagingly witty and lively work. Fabrizio Ottaviucci (piano).