Process music is
music that arises from a
process. It may make that process
audible to the
listener, or the process may be concealed. Primarily begun in the 1960s, diverse composers have employed divergent methods and styles of process. "A 'musical process' as Christensen defines it is a highly complex dynamic phenomenon involving audible structures that evolve in the course of the musical performance ... 2nd order audible
developments, i.e., audible developments within audible developments" . These processes may involve specific systems of choosing and arranging
notes through
pitch and
time, often involving a long term change with a limited amount of musical material, or transformations of musical events that are already relatively complex in themselves.
Steve Reich defines process music not as, "the process of
composition but rather pieces of music that are, literally, processes. The distinctive thing about musical processes is that they determine all the note-to-note (sound-to-sound) details and the overall
form simultaneously. (Think of a
round or
infinite canon.)" .