Dennis Johnson (composer)

Dennis Johnson (born 1938) is credited as having composed the first truly 'Minimal' composition ‘November’,[1] which was written for solo piano in 1959 (later revised).

‘November’ is famous for being the inspiration for Johnson’s UCLA college friend La Monte Young’s 1964 composition ‘The Well-Tuned Piano’.[2]

The work has been painstakingly reconstructed from a 1962 (112min) cassette recording, and six pages of the original score, by the composer and musicologist Kyle Gann,[3] who first performed a four and a half hour version in 2009 with Sarah Cahill. Gann has produced a new performance score based on the original material that R. Andrew Lee has recorded in a five hour version released in 2013 by Irritable Hedgehog Music, receiving good reviews[4][5] and a renewed interest in this seminal work of minimalism. In 2017 the Dutch pianist and composer Jeroen van Veen released 'November' as part of his 8 disc Minimal Piano Collection Vol XXI-XXVIII.


Dennis Johnson gave up music around 1962 and moved into mathematics (working for a time at Caltech, the private research university in Pasadena)[2] leaving this one fascinating and influential work that features many of the elements that would later become the basic staples of 1960s and early 1970s ‘Minimalism’.

References

  1. ↑ Walls, Seth Colter (29 July 2015). "R. Andrew Lee ... as if to each other...". Pitchfork. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 Bell, Clive (March 2013). "Dennis Johnson: Maths, Mars landings and minimalism". Wire. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  3. ↑ Gann, Kyle. "Reconstructing "November"". Irritable Hedgehog. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  4. ↑ Smith, Steve (10 March 2013). "R. Andrew Lee rewrites the history books with November". Time Out: New York. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  5. ↑ "Music Review: November, by Dennis Johnson". kirkville.com. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
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