ABSTRACT
In postminimalism, however, either the ear can tell that there is some underlying logic, or some underlying logic is suggested by the limitation of materials or gradual transformation; but either that logic is not entirely accessible to left-brain analysis or turns out to be a deliberate illusion. The left brain remains involved, hoping (perhaps) to figure out the underlying pattern; but the ear is more often left with a sense of mystery, enjoying the opaque process without being able to pin very much down. It is a pleasant listening mode, because without some left-brain involvement, many listeners will simply become bored (as many do with serialist and chance-composed music); but the right brain, once well engaged, loses any sense of time and becomes wrapped up in the energy or atmosphere. This is why it seems so significant that there are postminimalist works – Duckworth’s Time Curve Preludes and Janice Giteck’s Om Shanti are examples – in which strictly structured movements jostle with intuitively written ones, and the ear cannot tell which is which. There is no significant difference, postminimalism tells us, between intuition and arithmetic. Through different paths, they come to the same result. This suggests that at the base of our intuition is a kind of arithmetic – and perhaps vice versa.
