MINIMAL - TV and Film Music Composer - David Beard Music Production.

Minimal By TV and Film Music Composer - David Beard, Inspired by works of composers such as John
Adams, John Cage, Steve Reich, etc.

A common constraint in minimalist music was for the composer to give the musicians two choices, that of either
playing or not playing the given rhythm and pitch, which is usually a small one or two bar phrase. Composer Steve
Reich's 'The Clapping Song' was built on a one-bar phrase performed by two players - with a quaver beat of that
phrase changing position for one of the players every 4 bars to create an ever changing rhythm as the position of
that movement continued until it was back to its original position.
This piece follows a similar rule and consists of one-bar phrases. The overall pulse of the piece is a simple
quadruple pulse (4/4) but some individual elements of six quaver beats to the bar (6/8) and five crotchet beats to a
bar (5/4) produce a polyrhythmic texture forming an ever-changing tapestry of sound, first in the foreground, then
moving to the background whilst other elements take over, and finally to the foreground to end the piece as it
started. The grid below shows how often these one-phrase bars of varying beat lengths are in line with each other.

Minimal - Underscore 0:57

Minimal - Ad 1 0:16

Minimal - Ad 2 0:18

The first 'rhythm' to be heard is the first piano part, setting the pace and feel:

Minimal - Full Version 6:28 (98kBit/sec quality)

Minimal - Hotel Mix 0:39

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to hear music examples :-

Piano 1 - Minimal - David Beard Music Production

followed shortly after by the second piano part playing in its own 6/8 rhythm, staggered at first but continuous
once the third element has started:

Piano 2 - Minimal - David Beard Music Production

The third element to enter is the bass marimba. With its own 5/4 rhythm; again with a staggered entrance but
continuous once the fourth element enters:

The fourth element is another 6/8 rhythm, played on the vibes:

and the fifth, a low pulse every crotchet beat played on the harp:

A syncopated higher harp part follows this causing an interesting interaction with the first piano part:

Harp 2 - Minimal - David Beard Music Production

Minimal Grid - showing polyrhythmic structure - David Beard Music Production

Because of the different number of beats to a bar of some of the single bar phrases, beat '1' only occurs
simultaneously every 15 4/4 Bars :

Minimal - Sting 0:08

Minimal - Extract 2:26

Piano 1

Piano 2

Bass
Marimba

Vibes

Harp 1

Harp 2

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Film music composer and production company - David Beard Music Production -
Supplying music and sound design to commercial multimedia. Specialising in composing music and
sound design for the moving image David Beard Music Production creates original music for
film, TV, corporate video, commercials, games, dance, theatre and Podcasts.

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