Terry Riley’s In ‘C’
Terry Riley, a small town born American engaged in musical academia from a young age, learning classical violin as his first instrument later moving on to mentored piano and compositional studies (Carl, 2009). In 1964, Riley released his composition ‘In C’, a radically different score that kickstarted the minimalist movement within the world of experimental music.
In C at its core is a score of 53 individual sections, inspired by the process of looping tape, with each pattern having its own unique melodic form that can be performed by any number of instruments, usually up to 35 but can be as little as a quartet. When playing this piece each musician has free reign over how many times they repeat each section, they can also choose when they would like to move onto the next one as long as they stay within 2-3 sections ahead or behind the other instruments (Schenbeck, 2007). They can also cease playing whenever they would like, the same rule applies for joining back in, usually one instrument is instructed to play a simple 8th note metronome rhythm to ensure everyone is within time as shown in Riley’s original recording for this piece. The uniqueness of this is that no two performances will be alike therefore each 15 minutes to an hour and a half rendition will be its own composition that will not be heard again and removes any solo bravado or pressure on one instrument allowing each musician to relate to each other and co-create when performing (Bindeman, 2017) and (Berg, 2023).
The tonal qualities of this piece are of course centred around the C major scale, which is where its idea of minimalism stems from, as it’s based on a plethora of interchangeable loops it creates a psychedelic quality with Riley’s aim to introduce a trance like state for listeners as he was experimenting with different drugs at the time. Contextually this piece came about due to Riley’s interest in tape looping and repetition-based music like non-western sounds that were around at the time, specifically jazz and classical Indian music which is shown in this piece as a freeing Improvisational feel (Huizenga, 2024). Riley’s in C can also be seen as a political statement that encourages non-western musical practice and the breaking of western music limitations and boundaries which in result inspires and shows the audience that music does not need to conform to any rules and that experimental music is just music that doesn’t conform to someone else’s idea of classical music.
References:
- Bindeman, S.L. (2017) “Music and Silence,” in Silence in Philosophy, Literature, and Art. Brill, pp. 27–34. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004352582_005 (Accessed: November 23, 2025).
- Carl, R. (2009) Terry Riley’s In C. Oxford University Press, pp. 1–16.
- Huizenga, T. (2024) “‘In C’ Forever: The eternal evolution of Terry Riley’s minimalist masterpiece,” CRB, 7 November. Available at: https://www.classicalwcrb.org/2024-11-03/in-c-forever-the-eternal-evolution-of-terry-rileys-minimalist-masterpiece (Accessed: November 23, 2025).
- Schenbeck, L. (2007) “Terry Riley: In C (1964),” The Choral Journal; Oklahoma City, 48(3), p. 75.
- Berg , M.C. (2023) Riley Completes In C, EBSCO. Available at: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/music/riley-completes-c (Accessed: November 23, 2025).