Few composers can justifiably be called the father of an entire musical genre. However, American composer Terry Riley fits the description. His 1964 composition In C encapsulated, through its endless, hypnotic repetition, something that soon came to be known as minimalism.

Since that milestone, Riley’s composing career has continued for over 60 years. It received a fresh addition in 2024, when flutist Claire Chase commissioned a new work for her mammoth Density 2036 project. The result was The Holy Liftoff, an hour-long piece dominated by a solo flute conversing with recorded sounds of flutes, stones, and wind. Samuel Birmer’s string quartet part is just one possibility for the realization of the work – in typical Riley fashion, the music is not written as a traditional score, but as a series of separate musical fragments, with the composer providing instructions for their repetition.

The score of The Holy Liftoff is exceptional in other ways too. The manuscript does not consist solely of notes, but is filled with cartoon characters drawn in colored pencils in imaginative poses floating around the staves. According to Riley, they are “meant to be played”: a musician who sees the drawings understands what kind of person he is and how he wants his music to sound.

The masterpiece begins with a gentle chorale. The flute blends into the backdrop of flutes and repeats a chord progression that is taken over by a string quartet after a couple of minutes. The music is repetitive but ever-changing: Riley’s minimalism does not follow machine-like mathematical operations, but breathes freely and creates a pastoral atmosphere.

Riley, who lives in Japan, has given the section that begins after eight minutes the name “C Major Ishi.” Ishi means stone in Japanese – that is, a stone in C major. Its cheerful chatter turns into a lament in the E-flat minor ishi that begins with a cello and violin duet. The name of each new section is announced by the composer at the beginning.

The darkest dimensions of the composition are revealed in the section “The Tragedy of What We Lost.” The haunting melody fragments of the flute are met with a solemn, repeated response from the strings. The names of each of the victims who died in the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, are written in the score. The string chord progression is repeated 21 times, in memory of the 19 students and two teachers.

Rising from the depths of grief, the music soars to the heights of birdsong. The “All Arise” section sparkles with energy. Finally, the music calms down and the choral theme from the beginning returns in the section “Liftoff Harmony.”

The word “liftoff” is used, for example, to describe the moment when a rocket launches, when the spacecraft leaves the Earth’s surface and heads into the distance. Terry Riley is also aware that his own departure is near. In an interview with essayist Jenny Judge prior to the premiere in 2024, he states: “I feel that this work brings together many things I have been working on.” Riley has found a way to express his musical ideas without shackling performers who are intelligent enough to see how his work is presented. “It doesn’t have to be my idea, as long as it ignites a fire in them.”

The composer believes that each of Claire Chase’s performances will be different. The work continues to evolve with its performers. How it will change cannot be known in advance. For Terry Riley, composing is a constant search, “rushing forward with the lights off, trusting in what is in the darkness.” “If we know exactly what we are doing, we are not doing it right.”

Lauri Mäntysaari