Raised in Redding, California, Riley began studyingcomposition and performing solo piano in the 1950s. He befriended and collaborated with composerLa Monte Young, and later became involved with both theSan Francisco Tape Music Center and Young's New York collective, theTheatre of Eternal Music. A three-record deal withCBS in the late 1960s brought his work to wider audiences. In 1970, he began intensive studies underHindustani singerPandit Pran Nath, whom he often accompanied in performance. He has collaborated frequently throughout his career, most extensively withchamber ensemble theKronos Quartet and his son, guitaristGyan Riley.[2]
Around 1980, Riley began his long-lasting association with theKronos Quartet when he met their founderDavid Harrington while at Mills. Throughout his career, Riley composed 13string quartets for the ensemble, in addition to other works. He wrote his first orchestral piece,Jade Palace, in 1991, and has continued to pursue that avenue, with several commissioned orchestral compositions following. He is also currently performing and teaching both as an Indianraga vocalist and as a solo pianist.
Riley's music is usually based on improvising through a series ofmodal figures ofdifferent lengths. Works such asIn C (1964) and theKeyboard Studies (1964–1966) demonstrate this technique. The first performance ofIn C was given bySteve Reich,Jon Gibson,Pauline Oliveros andMorton Subotnick. Its form was an innovation: The piece consists of 53 separate modules of roughly one measure apiece, each containing a different musical pattern but each, as the title implies, in the key of C.[7] One performer beats a steady pulse ofCs on the piano to keep tempo. The others, in any number and on any instrument, perform these musical modules following a few loose guidelines, with the different musical modules interlocking in various ways as time goes on.
In the 1950s Riley was already working withtape loops, a technology still in its infancy at the time; he would later, with the help of a sound engineer, create what he called a "time-lag accumulator".[8] He has continued manipulating tapes to musical effect, in the studio and in live performances throughout his career. An early tape loop piece titledMusic for the Gift (1963) featured the trumpet playing ofChet Baker. It was during Riley's time in Paris, while composing this piece, that he conceived of and created the time-lag accumulator technique.[8] Premiered in 1968 in the Magic Theatre Exhibition at the Nelson Atkins Gallery inKansas City,[9] a new version of the installation was commissioned three decades later byLille 2004-European Capital of Culture and purchased by theMuseum of Contemporary Art of Lyon. A third version was built and presented by the Schauspielhaus inBochum in 2019. He has composed usingjust intonation as well asmicrotones.[10] In New York City in the mid-1960s he played with his longtime friend La Monte Young, as well as withJohn Cale and tabla playerAngus MacLise, who were founding members ofThe Velvet Underground. Riley is credited as inspiring Cale's keyboard part onLou Reed's composition "All Tomorrow's Parties", which was sung by German actressNico and included on the albumThe Velvet Underground and Nico, recorded in 1966.
Riley's collaborators have included theRova Saxophone Quartet,Pauline Oliveros, theARTE Quartett, and, as mentioned, the Kronos Quartet. His 1995Lisbon Concert recording features him in a solo piano format, improvising on his own works. In the liner notes Riley citesArt Tatum,Bud Powell andBill Evans as his piano "heroes", illustrating the importance of jazz to his conceptions.
He has three children: one daughter, Colleen,[13] and two sons,Gyan, who is a guitarist, and Shahn.[14] He was married to Ann Riley until her death in 2015.[15]
1972:Happy Ending (soundtrack toJoël Santoni's filmLes Yeux Fermés), Warner Bros. Records France 46125;Les Yeux Fermés & Lifespan, for solo electric organ; two soundtracks (2007 reissue)
1995:In C – 25th Anniversary Concert, version featuring Riley as one of four vocalists, recorded live January 14, 1990, San Francisco, New Albion Records
1995:Lisbon Concert, solo piano concert, recorded live July 16, 1995 Festival dos Capuchos, Teatro São Luis, Lisbon, Portugal., New Albion Records
1975:Lifespan. Film by Alexander Whitelaw feat. Klaus Kinski, Tina Aumont and Hiram Keller. Soundtrack released asLe secret de la vie in France, on Philips LP 9120 037 (1975).
1976:Music with Roots in the Aether: Opera for Television. Tape 6: Terry Riley. Produced and directed byRobert Ashley. New York, New York: Lovely Music.
1986:In Between the Notes...a Portrait of Pandit Pran Nath, Master Indian Musician. Produced byOther Minds, directed byWilliam Farley.
1995:Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy – Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
2008: "A Rainbow in Curved Air" features in the in-game soundtrack ofGrand Theft Auto IV. It can be found when listening to the fictional radio station, "The Journey".
Gagne, Cole (1993).Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press.ISBN0-8108-2710-7
Meigh-Andrews, Chris, 2006.A History of Video Art.
Potter, Keith (2000).Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Music in the Twentieth Century series. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
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