April 11, 2009

http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=5708

TERRY RILEY: In C - Carnegie Hall Presents - Sony Classical

TERRY RILEY: In C - Carnegie Hall Presents - Sony Classical 88697

(Terry Riley, leader & sax; Margaret Hassell, the pulse; Lawrence Singer, oboe;
Darline Reynard, bassoon; Jon Hassell, trumpet; Jerry Kirkbride, clarinet; David
Shostac, flute; David Rosenboom, viola; Stuart Dempster, trombone; Edward
Burham, vibes; Jan Williams, marimbaphone)

This reissue of the 1968 Columbia recording celebrates the 40th anniversary of
the LP of the piece of new music that launched the entire minimalist genre. It is a visionary work
that has changed the whole landscape of new music since its performance in Carnegie Hall in 1967.
Terry Riley - known at the time for his all-night concerts of works involving keyboards, soprano sax,
electronics and tape - created In C in 1964 for performance at the San Francisco Tape Music Center
with the band including the likes of Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros and Morton Subotnick. The usually
conservative music reviewer of the San Francisco Chronicle called it “Music Like None Other on
Earth.”

The work’s simple score is reproduced in the fold-out CD package. It consists of 53 very short
figurations in the key of C, which can be played by any of the instruments participating. The
musicians don’t have to be virtuosi, but those with an ability to improvise and listen to one another
will do best. The pianist gives the continual, unchanging Pulse by striking the top two C octaves on
the piano. (Those involved in the premiere all recall she wore gloves to protect her sore fingers.)
Over this pulse and in sync with it the participants play each of the 53 figurations, moving from one
to the next as the spirit moves them. (Performances eventually stipulated that none of the players
could be more than five figures behind or ahead of the greater part of the ensemble.) The piece
ends when all the players reach the final figure, which usually takes from 45 minutes to as long as
90 minutes.

The music will probably strike first-time listeners as either the freshest and most freeing piece of
new music they have ever heard, or something designed to deliberately drive them up the wall -
making even Reich and Glass sound like varied rapidly-developing music in comparison. Riley
himself suggests imagining “you are lying in a field and there are cloud formations just passing over,
and you’re just watching them form and re-form.” The digital remastering doesn’t sound any better
than the original LP which I have. The whole thing seemed a bit tame to me this time, after all
these years (I attended the Tape Music Center at that time), but it won’t seem tame to first-time
hearers. The notes on the music are most interesting. Another interesting fact is that - at least on
my Mac - when putting the disc in iTunes and thus accessing the GraceNote catalog, it is identified
as not In C but as “Had to Cry Today” by Blind Faith!

- John Sunier
 April 3, 2009

http://www.buffalonews.com/gusto/story/628275.html

Place in history
Buffalo ensemble’s recording of Riley’s ‘In C’ reissued
BY JEFF SIMON
Arts Editor

It happened first in San Francisco in 1964. And then, in 1968, it happened again here when, as Jackson Brader’s new
notes to the 45th anniversary remastered disc now put it, “Buffalo was suddenly New Music Central.” The late Lukas
Foss and Allen Sapp had created the Creative and Performing Arts Center at the University at Buffalo.

Buffalo Creative Associates — including trombonist Stuart Dempster and composer David Rosenboom — got
together, performed Terry Riley’s “In C” on Dec. 19, 1967, in Carnegie Hall and subsequently recorded it for
Columbia Records. Things would change ever afterward.

The pianist wore white gloves. And Foss, writes Brader now, encouraged the audience to walk around during the
piece — to hear it from all over the hall. Some wandered onto the stage.

More importantly, their subsequent Columbia recording of Riley’s “In C” helped remake so much subsequent music
in its own image. It goes without saying that it helped strengthen the cause of fellow minimalists Steve Reich and
Philip Glass (who was racily known as Phil Glass back then).

But David Foil and Larry Hamby write in the notes to the 45th anniversary edition of “In C”:“Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark
Side of the Moon’ is almost unimaginable without the example of ‘In C.’ Pete Townshend of the Who was so
enamored of Riley’s music and creative energy that he celebrated the composer in the song ‘Baba O’Riley.’ ”

The composer himself was pleased with the Buffalo ensemble’s recording. He told Brader: “I didn’t have to do any
missionary work trying to convince somebody that this is going to be a good idea; they were all players experienced
in playing contemporary music, and some of them were composers, too. The whole thing was done in three hours.”

And here, beautifully remastered, is that original 1968 recording of “In C,” of which percussionist Jan Williams —
long a gray eminence of Buffalo’s music — says “it changed me forever.”

Among the many pieces of crucial Buffalo musical midwifery from that era, here is a splendid, newly burnished
version of one of the era’s most important births.•

Classical

Terry Riley

In C

Performed by Creative Associates of the State University at Buffalo in 1968

[SONY Masterworks/Carnegie Hall]

★★★★
 March 31, 2009

http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=12156

TERRY RILEY
In C
Members of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts of New York at Buffalo

Terry Riley

Sony Classical- 45368 2(CD)

Terry Riley's In C (1964), the Magna Carta of Minimalism, turns 45 in 2009, and what better way to celebrate than
for Sony/BMG to remaster the work's 1968 premiere recording from the original tape? In C comprises 53 melodic
patterns that can be played or sung in sequence by any number of singers or instruments. The performers determine
how many times they repeat a pattern before proceeding to the next. One can even drop out and listen, resuming
later. The patterns can be played in unison or in canonic alignment at any dynamic level. Most performances lock in
to a pulsing C-natural, usually provided by a pianist or a mallet percussionist.

It goes without saying that every performance is unique, and no two recordings offer exactly the same piece. For
example, Ictus and the Bang On A Can All Stars turn out suavely blended, slickly contoured renditions, while
Riley's 1990 25th-anniversary performance on New Albion is altogether grittier and harder hitting. The grit factor
emerges with even more urgency and excitement in this 1968 version, with its predominant reeds and brass--and
Riley's soprano saxophone the driving force. About halfway through its 41-minute trajectory, the pulse quickens as
the phrases grow more rhythmically elaborate, yet somehow the gathering momentum never grows frantic nor spins
toward the edge of control.

And with the CD medium's extended-play capacity, we're thankfully spared that ungodly electronic whooshing
insert that demarcated the original LP side breaks. Sony/BMG's new transfer conveys a crisper, more vivid impact
than the label's 1988 CD edition. A seminal release and a fun listen rolled into one!

--Jed Distler
'In C' turns 45 with reissue, performance
JONATHAN COHEN
February 6, 2009 6:10 AM

Billboard.com

NEW YORK - Terry Riley's landmark minimalist composition, ''In C,'' will be reissued March 24 in
celebration of its 45th anniversary.

In addition, the piece will be performed on April 24 at New York's Carnegie Hall by Riley and some of the
participants from the original 1964 recording.

This edition, which Sony Classical says is the first remastering from the original session tapes, is part of a
new branded series through Sony Classical and Carnegie Hall Presents. New liner notes feature interviews
with Riley and the supporting musicians.

''In C'' comprises 53 short musical phrases which can be repeated ad infinitum, leading to performances as
long as four hours. The musicians choose which phrase to play and for how long, making each
performance unique.

The piece - named for its constant pulse of C notes on the piano - was a huge influence on the future work
of composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, the latter of whom participated in its first performance.

AP-NY-02-06-09 0904EST