'In C' Forever: The eternal evolution of Terry Riley’s minimalist masterpiece

'In C' Forever: The eternal evolution of Terry Riley’s minimalist masterpiece toggle caption Robin Little/Getty Images Inspiration can spark in the most mundane circumstances. toggle caption Terry Riley Archives Finally, on Nov. 4, 1964, Riley and his group of like-minded musicians debuted In C at San Francisco’s Tape Music Center, a haven of electronic and new music. Four days later, the headline for a review of the concert in the San Francisco Chronicle read: “Music Like none Other on Earth.” The reviewer, Alfred Frankenstein, ended by declaring In C “the evening’s masterpiece.” Cellist Maya Beiser agrees. “The nature of the music — it is at once fully notated, but it has the sound, the ethos, of this kind of communal jam session, where musicians are repeating these little riffs over and over and over again.” At Robin’s most recent performance in May, bassoon, tuba and piano traded riffs with banjo, vibraphones and Robin’s own alto sax, amid a wash of another dozen players. It’s hard to imagine minimalist classics like Glass’ Einstein on the Beach from 1976, or Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, completed that same year, without In C. And today, the music is all around us, from Taylor Swift’s song “Peace,” with its copycat Riley pulse, to music for television, film and commercials.