In C
Terry Riley
In C is a 1968 album presenting Terry Riley’s landmark minimalist composition of the same name, recorded with musicians from the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at SUNY Buffalo and released on Columbia Masterworks. The piece itself, composed in 1964, consists of 53 short melodic “modules” in the key of C, which any number of performers—on any instruments—repeat independently, moving forward at their own pace while listening closely to the ensemble. A steady pulse of high Cs (often played on piano or mallet percussion) keeps the performance anchored while patterns overlap, phase, and recombine, creating a shimmering, ever‑changing texture out of extremely simple materials.
On the original recording, Riley joins an ensemble of winds, brass, strings, keyboards, and percussion for a roughly 45‑minute realization that many listeners still regard as the “classic” In C. Because the score specifies modules and rules rather than a fixed duration or orchestration, every performance is different, but the album’s version demonstrates the work’s core qualities: gradual additive processes, diatonic harmony, and a sense of hypnotic forward motion that feels both static and constantly in flux. Critics and musicologists routinely cite this recording as one of the first fully formed minimalist works and a foundational document for later composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams, while its influence has also seeped into ambient, rock, and electronic music.
In C
Terry Riley
In C is a 1968 album presenting Terry Riley’s landmark minimalist composition of the same name, recorded with musicians from the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at SUNY Buffalo and released on Columbia Masterworks. The piece itself, composed in 1964, consists of 53 short melodic “modules” in the key of C, which any number of performers—on any instruments—repeat independently, moving forward at their own pace while listening closely to the ensemble. A steady pulse of high Cs (often played on piano or mallet percussion) keeps the performance anchored while patterns overlap, phase, and recombine, creating a shimmering, ever‑changing texture out of extremely simple materials.
On the original recording, Riley joins an ensemble of winds, brass, strings, keyboards, and percussion for a roughly 45‑minute realization that many listeners still regard as the “classic” In C. Because the score specifies modules and rules rather than a fixed duration or orchestration, every performance is different, but the album’s version demonstrates the work’s core qualities: gradual additive processes, diatonic harmony, and a sense of hypnotic forward motion that feels both static and constantly in flux. Critics and musicologists routinely cite this recording as one of the first fully formed minimalist works and a foundational document for later composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams, while its influence has also seeped into ambient, rock, and electronic music.