# Totalism

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Genre of art music

For the political system, see [Totalitarianism](/source/Totalitarianism). For the psychological concept, see [Robert Jay Lifton § Totalism](/source/Robert_Jay_Lifton#Totalism). For an ethical theory, see [Total utilitarianism](/source/Total_utilitarianism).

**Totalism** is a style of [art music](/source/Art_music) that arose in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to [minimalism](/source/Minimalism_music). It paralleled [postminimalism](/source/Postminimalism) but involved a younger generation of creators, born in the 1950s.[1] This term, invented by writer and composer [Kyle Gann](/source/Kyle_Gann), has not been adopted by contemporary musicology and generally still refers only to Gann's use of it in his writings.

## Early 1980s

In the early 1980s, many young composers began writing music within the static confines of [minimalism](/source/Minimalism), but using greater rhythmic complexity, often with two or more simultaneous tempos (or implied tempos) audible at once.[2] The style acquired a name around 1990, when it became evident to composers working in New York City that a number of them, including [John Luther Adams](/source/John_Luther_Adams), [Glenn Branca](/source/Glenn_Branca), [Rhys Chatham](/source/Rhys_Chatham), [Kyle Gann](/source/Kyle_Gann), [Michael Gordon](/source/Michael_Gordon_(composer)), [Arthur Jarvinen](/source/Art_Jarvinen), [Bernadette Speach](/source/Bernadette_Speach), [Ben Neill](/source/Ben_Neill), [Larry Polansky](/source/Larry_Polansky), [Mikel Rouse](/source/Mikel_Rouse), and [Evan Ziporyn](/source/Evan_Ziporyn), were employing similar types of global tempo structures in their music.[3] Others include [Eve Beglarian](/source/Eve_Beglarian), [Allison Cameron](/source/Allison_Cameron_(composer)), [Nick Didkovsky](/source/Nick_Didkovsky), [David First](/source/David_First), [Phil Kline](/source/Phil_Kline), and [Lois V. Vierk](/source/Lois_V._Vierk).[4]

The term *totalist* refers to the aims of the music, in trying to have enough surface rhythmic energy, but also to contain enough background complexity. There is also an echo in the term of [serialism](/source/Serialism)'s "total organization," here drawn not from the [12-tone row](/source/Tone_row), but from [Henry Cowell](/source/Henry_Cowell)'s theories about using the same structuring devices for rhythm that have been traditionally used for pitch. For instance, the traditional ratio between frequencies of a major second interval is 9:8, and 9-against-8 is an important tempo contrast in many totalist pieces, achieved by having some instruments play dotted eighth notes while others play triplet half notes.[5] In practice, totalist music can be consonant, dissonant, or both, but generally restricts itself to a small number of sonorities within any given piece.

## Examples

Examples of works in the totalist idiom include:[6]

- [Mikel Rouse](/source/Mikel_Rouse): *Quick Thrust*, *Failing Kansas*, *Dennis Cleveland* (a talk-show opera),[4] *The End of Cinematics*

- [Glenn Branca](/source/Glenn_Branca): *The Ascension*

- [Michael Gordon](/source/Michael_Gordon_(composer)): *Thou Shalt!/Thou Shalt Not!*, *Acid Rain*, *Four Kings Fight Five*, *Van Gogh Video Opera*, *Trance*

- [Rhys Chatham](/source/Rhys_Chatham): *An Angel Moves Too Fast to See*[4]

- [John Luther Adams](/source/John_Luther_Adams): *Dream in White on White*, *Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing*, *In The White Silence*[4]

- [Kyle Gann](/source/Kyle_Gann): *Long Night*, *Custer and Sitting Bull*, *Unquiet Night*

- [Ben Neill](/source/Ben_Neill): *678 Streams*, *ITSOFOMO*

- [Bernadette Speach](/source/Bernadette_Speach): *Telepathy Suite*

- [Larry Polansky](/source/Larry_Polansky): *Lonesome Road*

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Edward Rothstein, "Minimalism Pumped Up to the Max," *New York Times*, July 18, 1993](https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5D61E39F93BA25754C0A965958260)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Kyle Gann, *American Music in the Twentieth Century*, pp. 355–56.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Kyle Gann, *Music Downtown*, pp. 13–14; [Kyle Gann, "Minimal Music, Maximal Impact: Minimalism Gets Complex: Totalism](http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=1538) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20070225095438/http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=1538) 2007-02-25 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine); Kyle Gann, "Tyrannize Me," *Village Voice*, Vol. XXXIX No. 13 (March 29, 1994), p. 86).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Discography_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Discography_4-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Discography_4-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Discography_4-3) Gann, Kyle (2001). "[A Discography of Postminimal, Totalist, and Rare Minimalist Music](http://www.kylegann.com/postminimaldisc.html)", *KyleGann.com*. Accessed: July 6, 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Kyle Gann, "Totally Ismic," *Village Voice*, Vol. XXXVIII No. 29 (July 20, 1993), p. 69, reprinted in [Kyle Gann](/source/Kyle_Gann), *Music Downtown*, pp. 127–29.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Gann, Kyle; *American Music in the Twentieth Century*, 1997, Schirmer [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-02-864655-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-02-864655-X) pp. 352–386

## References

- [Gann, Kyle](/source/Kyle_Gann), *American Music in the Twentieth Century*, 1997, Schirmer [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-02-864655-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-02-864655-X)

- [Gann, Kyle](/source/Kyle_Gann), *Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice*, 2006, University of California Press [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-520-22982-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-520-22982-7)

## External links

- [Minimal Music, Maximal Impact](http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=31tp00) by [Kyle Gann](/source/Kyle_Gann) © 2001 NewMusicBox

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v t e Totalism John Luther Adams Glenn Branca Rhys Chatham Kyle Gann Michael Gordon Arthur Jarvinen Diana Meckley Ben Neill Larry Polansky Mikel Rouse Evan Ziporyn

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Totalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalism) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalism?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.