THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION AND REDUCTION IN KAREL GOEYVAERTS’ FIVE LITANIES
THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION AND REDUCTION IN KAREL GOEYVAERTS’ FIVE LITANIES

Summary/Abstract: The culmination of Karel Goeyvaerts’ minimalist production is the Litanieën series (5 works), which combines his compositional methods from the 1970s with a formal coherence and structural clarity. These five pieces mark a turning point in the composer’s stylistic development as they strike a careful balance between repetition and constant transformation. Established at the intersection of postminimalism and minimalism, the Litany series shifts from static repetition to a dynamic process of transformation. Goeyvaerts defines his method as “evolving-repetitive” music because he leans the balance even more in the direction of transformation compared to pure minimalism, which typically applies gradual change to reductive material. This article explores the construction and reduction process in the Litany series.

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