A Study On The Primary Techniques Of Minimalism

The subject of this dissertation is the minimalism. I want to discuss the compositional philosophy of the Minimalism by analyzing its Primary Techniques.The central content of this dissertation is focused on these points: Firstly, I summarized the basic situation of the definition, history and style of the minimalism; then, I focused on the four Primary techniques: Sustains, Modular Repetition, Phasing, Additive Process, and I tried to summarize the common rules of these fours by analyzing the originality and the developed progress of their musical conception and their applications in compositions; final, I placed the minimalism in the grand background of western and American musical culture and defined its thinking and cultural characters.I adopted a study method, in which I combined the musical analyzing and conceptional interpretation. I hope my dissertation can be a introduction to the later researchers.