Terrence Mitchell Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and musician known for helping create the minimalist style of music. His work was influenced by jazz and Indian classical music. He used repetition, tape delay systems, and improvisation in new ways. His most famous works are the 1964 composition In C and the 1969 album A Rainbow in Curved Air, which are considered important examples of minimalism and have influenced experimental music, rock, and electronic music.

Riley was raised in Redding, California. He began studying composition and playing solo piano in the 1950s. He worked with composer La Monte Young and later joined groups such as the San Francisco Tape Music Center and Young's New York group, the Theatre of Eternal Music. A three-record contract with CBS in the late 1960s helped more people hear his music. In 1970, he started studying closely with Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath and often performed with him. Later works, such as Shri Camel (1980), used just intonation. Throughout his career, Riley has worked with many musicians, especially the Kronos Quartet and his son, guitarist Gyan Riley.

Life

Riley was born in Colfax, California on June 24, 1935, and grew up in Redding, California. During the 1950s, he began performing as a solo pianist and studied composition at San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the University of California, Berkeley. His teachers included Seymour Shifrin and Robert Erickson. He became friends with composer La Monte Young, whose early minimalist compositions used long, continuous notes. Together, Young and Riley performed Riley's free-form composition Concert for Two Pianists and Tape Recorders between 1959 and 1960. Riley later joined the experimental San Francisco Tape Music Center, working with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, and Ramon Sender. Throughout the 1960s, he frequently traveled in Europe, absorbing musical influences and earning money by playing in piano bars. He also performed briefly with the Theatre of Eternal Music in New York from 1965 to 1966.

Riley’s most influential teacher was Pandit Pran Nath (1918–1996), a master of Indian classical voice who also taught La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Michael Harrison. Riley made many trips to India to study with Pran Nath and to play the tabla, tambura, and sing. In 1971, he joined the Mills College faculty to teach Indian classical music. Riley also mentions John Cage and the great chamber music groups of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, and Gil Evans as influences on his work. He received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Chapman University in 2007.

Around 1980, Riley began a long-term partnership with the Kronos Quartet after meeting their founder, David Harrington, at Mills College. Throughout his career, Riley composed 13 string quartets for the ensemble, as well as other works. He wrote his first orchestral piece, Jade Palace, in 1991 and continued creating commissioned orchestral compositions. He is currently performing and teaching as an Indian raga vocalist and as a solo pianist.

Riley continues to perform live and participated in the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in May 2011.

Artistry

Terry Riley is a wise composer whose work combines elements of American minimalism, Indian classical raga, barrelhouse piano, modal jazz, and the values of rugged western individualism. His music changed how people thought about classical composition by using ever-changing structures and long, free-form musical sections. Riley was first inspired by the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

Riley’s music often involves performers improvising through a series of specific musical patterns of different lengths. Works like In C (1964) and the Keyboard Studies (1964–1966) show this technique. The first performance of In C was given by Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, and Morton Subotnick, among others. This piece was a new kind of musical form: It includes 53 separate sections, each about one measure long, with each section containing a unique musical pattern but all in the key of C. One performer plays a steady rhythm on the piano to keep the tempo, while others use any number of instruments to perform the sections following simple rules. As time passes, the sections connect in different ways.

In the 1950s, Riley worked with tape loops, a technology that was still new at the time. Later, with the help of a sound engineer, he created a device called a "time-lag accumulator." He continued using tape recordings in both studio and live performances throughout his career. An early piece called Music for the Gift (1963) included the trumpet playing of Chet Baker. Riley developed the time-lag accumulator technique while in Paris, composing this piece. A version of the installation was first shown in 1968 at the Nelson Atkins Gallery in Kansas City. A new version was created in 2004 by Lille 2004 – European Capital of Culture and bought by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon. A third version was made in 2019 by the Schauspielhaus in Bochum. Riley also used just intonation and microtones in his compositions. In the mid-1960s in New York City, he performed with his friend La Monte Young, as well as with John Cale and tabla player Angus MacLise, who were part of The Velvet Underground. Riley is credited with inspiring Cale’s keyboard part in Lou Reed’s song "All Tomorrow’s Parties," which was sung by German actress Nico and included on the album The Velvet Underground and Nico (1966).

Riley’s famous electronic album A Rainbow in Curved Air (recorded in 1968, released in 1969) influenced many later developments in electronic music. These include Pete Townshend’s organ parts on The Who’s songs "Won’t Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O’Riley," the latter named in honor of Riley and Meher Baba. Charles Hazlewood, in his BBC documentary on Minimalism (Part 1), suggests that Mike Oldfield’s album Tubular Bells was also inspired by Riley’s work. The English progressive rock group Curved Air, formed in 1970, took its name from Riley’s album.

Riley has worked with many musicians, including the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Pauline Oliveros, the ARTE Quartett, and the Kronos Quartet. His 1995 Lisbon Concert recording features him playing solo piano, improvising on his own compositions. In the liner notes, Riley mentions Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans as his piano "heroes," showing how important jazz was to his musical ideas.

Personal life

He has three children: a daughter named Colleen, and two sons named Gyan and Shahn. Gyan plays the guitar. He was married to Ann Riley until she passed away in 2015. Since 2020, he has lived in Japan.

Discography

• 1963: Music for The Gift (Organ of Corti 1, 1963)
• 1965: Reed Streams (Mass Art Inc. M-131)
• 1967: You're No Good, recorded in 1967 but not released until 2000 (Cortical Foundation / Organ of Corti, 2000)
• 1968: Germ, with Gérard Frémy & Martine Joste (Spalax CD 14542, 1998). Includes a track by Pierre Mariétan.
• 1968: In C (Columbia MS7178)
• 1969: A Rainbow in Curved Air (CBS 64564)
• 1971: Church of Anthrax, with John Cale (CBS)
• 1972: Happy Ending (soundtrack to Joël Santoni’s film Les Yeux Fermés), Warner Bros. Records France 46125; Les Yeux Fermés & Lifespan, for solo electric organ; two soundtracks (2007 reissue)
• 1972: Persian Surgery Dervishes (Shanti 83502)
• 1975: Le Secret de la Vie (Lifespan film soundtrack), Philips France 9120 037
• 1975: Descending Moonshine Dervishes (Kuckuck Records)
• 1980: Shri Camel (CBS Masterworks M3519), for solo electronic organ tuned in just intonation and modified by digital delay
• 1983: Songs for the Ten Voices of the Two Prophets, for two Prophet 5 synthesizers (Kuckuck Records)
• 1984: Cadenza on the Night Plain, a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet
• 1984: Terry Riley and Krishna Bhatt Duo, a collaboration with Krishna Bhatt
• 1985: No Man's Land
• 1986: The Harp of New Albion, for piano tuned in just intonation
• 1987: Chanting the Light of Foresight, with Rova Saxophone Quartet in just intonation
• 1989: Salome Dances for Peace, for the Kronos Quartet
• 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)
• 1997: Lazy Afternoon Among the Crocodiles, experimental album recorded with contrabassist Stefano Scodanibbio
• 1998: Piano Music of John Adams and Terry Riley, performed by Gloria Cheng
• 1999: The Book of Abbeyozzud
• 2001: Moscow Conservatory Solo Piano Concert, recording of a live performance on April 18, 2000
• 2001: Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam, with Riley’s tribute to the son of David Harrington performed by the Kronos Quartet, and a solo piano improvisation by Riley
• 2002: Atlantis Nath, hand-numbered signed edition of 1000 copies
• 2003: Cantos Desiertos (Naxos)
• 2004: I Like Your Eyes Liberty, duets with Terry Riley, piano and Michael McClure, poetry (Sri Moonshine Music)
• 2004: The Cusp of Magic, with the Kronos Quartet, composed for his seventieth birthday, an ode to the rite of Midsummer Eve
• 2005: Diamond Fiddle Language, duets with Stefano Scodanibbio, bass (Wergo)
• 2005: Assassin Reverie, Arte Quartett, saxophone quartet (New World Records)
• 2008: Banana Humberto, piano concerto with Paul Dresher Ensemble
• 2008: The Last Camel in Paris, live solo electric organ performance in Paris, 1978
• 2010: Two Early Works, the first-ever recordings of two of Riley’s early compositions, performed by the Calder Quartet
• 2010: Autodreamographical Tales (Tzadik Records)
• 2011: Keyboard Studies Nos. 1 and 2 / Tread on the Trail (Stradivarius)
• 2012: Aleph (Tzadik Records)
• 2015: ZOFO Plays Terry Riley, ZOFO piano duo (Sono Luminus)
• 2015: One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley, Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch Records)
• 2015: Music Of Terry Riley – Sunrise Of The Planetary Dream Collector, Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch Records)
• 2019: Sun Rings, Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch)
• 2019: The Lion's Throne, with singer Amelia Cuni, recorded live (Sri Moonshine Music, SMM008)
• 2019: Archangels, with conductor Julian Wachner, Trinity Choir, Novus Cellos (National Sawdust Tracks)
• 2021: Zephyr, Francesco D'Orazio, violin
• 2022: Autodreamographical Tales, transcriptions and arrangements for the Bang on a Can All-Stars (Cantaloupe Music)
• 2022: Keyboard Studies, John Tilbury (Another Timbre)
• 2022: Organum for Stefano, Terry Riley pipe organ, voice. Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi, Bologna, Italy, May

Filmography

• 1970: Corridor. Film directed by Standish Lawder.
• 1975: Lifespan. Film directed by Alexander Whitelaw, featuring Klaus Kinski, Tina Aumont, and Hiram Keller. The soundtrack was released as Le secret de la vie in France on Philips LP 9120 037 (1975).
• 1976: Crossroads. Film directed by Bruce Conner.
• 1976: Music with Roots in the Aether: Opera for Television. Tape 6: Terry Riley. Produced and directed by Robert Ashley. Published by Lovely Music, New York, New York.
• 1986: In Between the Notes…a Portrait of Pandit Pran Nath, Master Indian Musician. Produced by Other Minds and directed by William Farley.
• 1995: Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy – Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
• 2008: "A Rainbow in Curved Air" is featured in the in-game soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto IV. It can be heard by listening to the fictional radio station, "The Journey."
• 2017: Hochelaga, Land of Souls. Film directed by François Girard.