Notable minimalist composers include: (click on link for playlist) Louis Andriessen (born in the Netherlands)
David Behrman (born in Austria)
David Borden (born in the US; and his ensemble
Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company)
Gavin Bryars (born in the UK)
Joseph Byrd (born in the US)
Tony Conrad (born in the US)
Julius Eastman (born and died in the US)
Ludovico Einaudi (born in Italy)
Brian Eno (born in the UK)
Frans Geysen (born in Belgium)
Jon Gibson (born in the US)
Philip Glass (born in the US)
John Godfrey (born in the UK)
Karel Goeyvaerts (born and died in Belgium)
Michael Harrison (born in the US)
Christopher Hobbs (born in the UK)
Terry Jennings (born and died in the US)
Douglas Leedy (born in the US)
Angus MacLise (born in the US, died in Kathmandu)
Richard Maxfield (born and died in the US)
Robert Moran (born in the US)
Phill Niblock (born in the US)
Michael Nyman (born in the UK)
Mike Oldfield (born in the UK)
Pauline Oliveros (born in the US)
Charlemagne Palestine (born in the US)
Rabinovitch-Barakovsky (born in Russia)
Steve Reich (born in the US)
Terry Riley (born in the US)
Howard Skempton (born in the UK)
Dave Smith (born in the UK)
Ann Southam (born in Canada)
Yoshi Wada (born in Japan)
John White (born in the UK)
La Monte Young (born in the US)
Other more current minimalists include:AustraliaRobert DavidsonNigel Westlake
BelgiumWim MertensCanadaPeter Hannan
EstoniaArvo PärtFinlandErkki SalmenhaaraFranceRenaud Gagneux
Yann TiersenGermanyPeter Michael HamelHauke Harder
Matthias Maute
Hans OtteNorbert Walter Peters
Ernstalbrecht StieblerAsmus TietchensHarald WeissWalter ZimmermannHungaryZoltán Jeney
László Melis
László Sáry
László Vidovszky
ItalyFulvio Caldini
Roberto CarnevaleGiovanni SollimaJapanJo Kondo
Yoshi Wada (based in the United States)
LatviaArmands Strazds
NetherlandsSimeon ten HoltPolandZygmunt Krauze
Tomasz Sikorski
PortugalErnesto Rodrigues
Serbia and MontenegroVladimir Tošić
United KingdomJoe CutlerBob Dickinson
Graham FitkinOrlando Gough
Steve MartlandAndrew PoppyDaniel Patrick QuinnMalcolm RycraftUnited StatesJohn AdamsJohn Luther AdamsGlenn BrancaHarold BuddRhys Chatham (based in France)
Philip Corner (based in Italy)
Kurt Doles
Arnold Dreyblatt (based in Germany)
Daniel Goode
Tom Johnson (based in France)
Ingram MarshallMeredith MonkTim Risher
Frederic RzewskiWayne Siegel (based in Denmark)
Stars of the Lid (Adam Wiltzie & Brian McBride)
A number of composers showing a distinctly religious influence have been labeled the "mystic minimalists", or "holy minimalists": Henryk Górecki Alan Hovhaness (the earliest mystic minimalist)
Giya Kancheli Hans Otte Arvo Pärt John Tavener Pēteris VasksSofia Asgatowna Gubaidulina
Other composers whose works have been described as precedents to minimalism include: Jakob van Domselaer, whose early-20th century experiments in translating the theories of
Piet Mondrian's
De Stijl movement into music represent an early precedent to minimalist music.
Alexander Mosolov, whose orchestral composition
Iron Foundry (1923) is made up of mechanical and repetitive patterns.
George Antheil, whose 1924 Ballet Mecanique (
part 1,
part 2
)is characterized by much use of motoric and repetitive patterns, as well as an instrumentation made up of multiple player pianos and mallet percussion
Erik Satie, seen as a precursor of minimalism as in much of his music, for example his score for Francis Picabia's 1924 film Entr'acte (
part 1,
part 2 ) which consists of phrases, many borrowed from bawdy popular songs, ordered seemingly arbitrarily and repetitiously, providing a rhythmic counterpoint to the film.
Colin McPhee, whose Tabuh-Tabuhan for two pianos and orchestra (1936) features the use of motoric, repetitive, pentatonic patterns drawn from the music of Bali (and featuring a large section of tuned percussion).
Carl Orff, who, particularly in his later theater works Antigone
(1940-49) and Oedipus der Tyrann (1957-58), utilized instrumentations (six pianos and multiple xylophones, in imitation of gamelan music) and musical patterns (motoric, repetitive, triadic) reminiscent of the later music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
Yves Klein, whose 1949 Monotone Symphony (formally The Monotone-Silence Symphony, conceived 1947-1948) is an orchestral 40-minute piece whose first movement is an unvarying 20-minute drone and the second and last movement a 20-minute silence, predating by several years both the drone music works of La Monte Young and the "silent" 4'33" of John Cage.
Morton Feldman, whose works prominently feature some sort of repetition as well as a sparseness.
Alvin Lucier, whose acoustical experiments demand a stripped-down musical surface to bring out details in the phenomena.
Anton Webern, whose economy of materials and sparse textures led many of the minimalists who were educated in serialism to turn to a reduction of means.
