top of page
Terry Riley is an American composer born on June 24, 1935. He is known for his pioneering work in minimalism and experimental music. Riley's composition In C is considered a landmark piece in contemporary music, showcasing his innovative approach to rhythm and harmony. He has influenced many musicians and composers with his unique style and continues to create and perform music that challenges traditional boundaries. Terry's contributions to the world of music have made him a respected figure in the field.
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"It is important that we are coming up on the millennium because what I am experiencing, just being one person out of billions, is the feeling of acceleration. I experience this through my contact with other people."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"It seems like we are moving towards something, some kind of point and it is probably going to be an important point in our development or dissolution. That is what everybody seems to be thinking."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Throughout the evening I would be recording these long saxophone delays and about four hours into the concert, if I wanted to take a break I would just play back the saxophone."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Acceleration is finite, I think according to some laws of physics."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"I really didn't have a plan, I just went in and started playing. one of my specialties was to be able to play for a really long time without stopping and I would play these repeated patterns for hours and hours and I wouldn't seem to get tired."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just repeated patterns, musical patterns."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"I had already done Rainbow in Curved Air and had a big record on CBS. I was launched to have a long career and then I just dropped out and went to India."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Out of doing all that experimentation with sound I decided I wanted to do it with live musicians. To take repetition, take music fragments and make it live. Musicians would be able to play it and create this kind of abstract fabric of sound."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Everyone seems to be in a kind of accelerated time mode that is beyond their own control."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"I had been interested in Indian music and I actually started studying Tableaus before I met him."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Well I guess my music came to prominence around one piece called 'In C' which I wrote in 1964 at that time it was called 'The Global Villages for Symphonic Pieces', because it was a piece built out of 53 simple patterns and the structure was new to music at that time."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Music can also be a sensual pleasure, like eating food or sex. But its highest vibration for me is that point of taking us to a real understanding of something in our nature which we can very rarely get at. It is a spiritual state of oneness."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"So, essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just repeated patterns, musical patterns."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"Talking about the all night concerts, I did some of the first all night concerts back in the 60's with this little harmonium, and I also had saxophone taped delays."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"We are either going to dissolve as a human race or we are going to break through into a new understanding of what it is to be a human being."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
GettyImages-1390397976_b_edited.jpg
Quote_1.png

"I was using tape loops for dancers and dance production. I had very funky primitive equipment, in fact technology wasn't very good no matter how much money you had."

Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
bottom of page