If you'd like to explore the ideas further:<p>Carter's 8 etudes and a fantasy's 7th etude is just the note G (1949) and Ligeti's Musica ricercata's (1951-3) first movement almost only A (the entire work explores having a limited number of notes).<p>In terms of playing with harmonics, the spectralists (starting with Grisey and Murail in the 1970s) originated the idea formally whilst it is informally explored by many minimalists (the most relevant to this article's piece would be Terry Riley's In C, 1964).<p>In terms of mammoth piano works, seek out Sorabji's Opus clavicembalisticum (1930, 4 hours) by John Ogdon.
Meanwhile, at the shallow end of the meme pool, this entry from the baffling but, to me, fascinating microgenre of "'All Star' by Smash Mouth but", in which case the entire song is in one note:<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/vagidictoris/all-star-by-smash-mouth-but-all-notes-are-in-c" rel="nofollow">https://soundcloud.com/vagidictoris/all-star-by-smash-mouth-...</a><p>The thing that surprised me is how much it sounds like 'real' music, like this could have been an entirely deliberate and valid choice by a composer. It has a sort of surly, menacing urgency to it that i'm sure i've heard in some kind of rock/metal music, although i can't think of any examples.
One note? So indulgent. How about zero notes?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage</a>
It's quite pleasant and I can imagine listening to this for pleasure occasionally.<p>Equate it with a piece for untuned percussion and then maybe it's not quite so unusual. The first sections of Steve Reich's Drumming are pitchless and very listenable. It's composing purely with rhythm.
Also worth mentioning Terre Thaemlitz, who wrote a nearly 30 hour piece with two chords.<p>"The resulting MP3 file is an edit of a 31+ hour piano solo recorded in sittings averaging 4 to 6 hours in length. The theme is "Meditation on Wage Labor and the Death of the Album.""<p>You can listen to an excerpt here: <a href="http://www.comatonse.com/writings/2012_soulnessless.html#c5" rel="nofollow">http://www.comatonse.com/writings/2012_soulnessless.html#c5</a><p>And here's the sheet music: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/DoD1Ew4.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/DoD1Ew4.jpg</a>
Along with the other contemporary examples, here's another one, though from a completely different genre: Spastic Ink's "See, and It's Sharp!" (1994) consists of only C and C# notes: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY11_tgAhQs" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY11_tgAhQs</a>
For a great, down-to-earth discussion on another great minimalist piece, check-out this great episode of Classical Classroom where they discuss Steve Reich's "Piano Phase"[0].<p>[0] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-iIHUBpYTc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-iIHUBpYTc</a>
In college orchestration class we were required to write a piece using one note (octaves like this piece) for whatever instruments we had in the class, which in this case were three string basses and a violin. It really does require a lot of thought process with such sparse harmony.
recommended for fans of minimalistic music, very good to play in background while working:
Arvo part - Alina (1999)
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4RmJaP683A" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4RmJaP683A</a><p>Can anyone recommend something else minimalistic and so beautiful? I am fan of instrumental music but it is really difficult to find something really minimalistic, for instance Max Richter is great (Perfect Sense score for instance) but far from minimalism.<p>EDIT: seem Olafur Arnalds is relatively minimalistic, Tony Anderson not so much but very nice
Bandcamp page with the music: <a href="http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/randy-gibson-the-four-pillars-appearing-from-the-equal-d-under-resonating-apparitions-of-the-eternal-process-in-the-midwinter-starfield-16-viii-10-kansas-city" rel="nofollow">http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/randy-gibson-t...</a>
Along the same lines, "Four Violins": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY9RTSXki8E" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY9RTSXki8E</a><p>IIRC, this stuff influenced the Velvet Underground.
The overture of Wagner's Das Rheingold comes to mind.<p>Since it's only one chord, it's a great score to read to learn about orchestration.
Christ. Grind out two drably mediocre bits of three-chord moon-June-soon pop for no greater purpose than to fill out an album, and they will be better than that piece.