On June 24, 1935, Terry Riley, a renowned composer and performing musician, was born in Colfax.
Riley studied music and composition at San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory and at the University of California, Berkeley. Early in his career, he experimented with tape loops and improvisation and was influenced by classical Indian music and jazz. But it was his foray into minimalism that merged all of his experiences, influences and creative energy into his breakthrough composition, “In C.”
According to the Nov. 3, 2024 National Public Radio article: “In 1964, a young composer named Terry Riley was on his way to work – playing ragtime piano at San Francisco’s Gold Street Saloon – when he had a light bulb moment that would alter the American musical landscape. A tiny, hiccupping, 2-note seed unexpectedly came to him. ‘I was riding to work on the bus when I heard this first line come into my consciousness like somebody was playing it to me,’ Riley recalls. ‘And I got quite excited, so as soon as I got off work that night, I went home and wrote down the first line.’ That seed blossomed into In C, a piece which essentially launched the musical movement later known as minimalism.”
Riley’s innovative music style influenced other composers such as Philip Glass and John Adams. His work also inspired rock bands and musicians such as The Who and Mike Oldfield.
Since 2021, Riley has resided in Japan.
Photo: Terry Riley, c. 2017
|
