Thirty years of postminimalism: Elements and growth

Minimalism was a short lived movement in American music, but it had a lasting effect, giving rise to a new generation of composers and a new genre: postminimalism. While difficult to define, postminimalism can be best understood by looking at the roughly thirty years of its development, from its roots in minimalism, to the more recent genre totalism. This paper will explore that development and will present a detailed analysis of John Adams's 1977 solo piano work China Gates, an example of early postminimalism, as well as an analysis of the author's 2007 orchestral work Envelopes as a recent example of this genre.