Editing In C (section)

==Recording==
{{Infobox album
| italic_title = In C
| name         = In C
| type         = Studio album
| artist       = [[Terry Riley]]
| cover        = Terry_Riley_In_C_1968.jpg
| alt          =
| released     = 1968
| recorded     = March 27–8, 1968
| venue        =
| studio       = [[CBS 30th Street Studio]]
| genre        = [[Minimal music|minimalism]]
| length       = 43:00
| label        = [[Columbia Records]]
| producer     = [[David Behrman]]
| prev_title   = Reed Streems
| prev_year    = 1966
| next_title   = [[A Rainbow in Curved Air]]
| next_year    = 1969
}}
In late 1965, Terry Riley moved to New York City and started performing on [[soprano saxophone]] in his apartment on Grand Street in the Bowery. He would use [[Revox]] machines to create tape delays and loop his improvisations. One of the people who loved the shows was [[David Behrman]], the producer for [[Columbia Records]]' ''Music of Our Time'' series.<ref name=Carl/>{{rp|76–8}}

When Columbia was ready to record the piece, Riley performed it once more at [[Carnegie_Hall#Weill_Recital_Hall|Carnegie Recital Hall]] on March 26, 1968. The musicians then recorded the piece on the following two days, along with works by Carlos Alcina, [[David Rosenboom]], and [[Yuji Takahashi]]. The sessions were engineered by [[Fred Plaut]] and Russ Payne. David Behrman conducted the ensemble by holding up cue cards for each module. His job was to keep the ensemble on pace for a recording that would fit on the two sides of an [[LP record]].<ref name=Carl/>{{rp|80–2}} Margaret Hassell broke a string on the piano while playing the pulse.<ref name=Sun/>{{rp|170}}

Riley knew that the texture would be more captivating if it were thicker. With only eleven musicians, he decided to record the piece three times and [[Overdubbing|overdub]] the takes.<ref name=Carl22>Carl, Robert. "[https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/In-C_Carl.pdf 'In C'—Terry Riley (1968)]", [https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/index-of-essays/ Library of Congress], [[National Recording Preservation Board]] (2022).</ref> Columbia staff were hesitant to apply a pop music recording technique to a classical piece, but the ensemble was consciously blurring the boundaries between the two genres. When everyone listened to the initial [[Audio mixing (recorded music)|mix]] of the session, David Behrman exclaimed, "I think we've just changed music."<ref name=Carl/>{{rp|83}}

The album's cover was designed by Billy Bryant, and it incorporates a [[blurb]] from Alfred Frankenstein's review of the premiere. The founder of ''[[Crawdaddy (magazine)|Crawdaddy!]]'', [[Paul Williams (Crawdaddy)|Paul Williams]], also wrote an enthusiastic essay for the package. He writes: <blockquote>I'm not here to justify this record, or explain it...Allright, so let’s say that what we have here is a '[[Psychedelic experience|trip]]', a voluntary, unpredictable, absorbing experience, one which brings together parts of one’s self perhaps previously unknown to each other...Playing this record for a small group of people is like watching a web being spun. Playing it for a friend means watching a ''[[Pilgrim’s Progress]]'' of reactions.<ref name=Riley68>Riley, Terry. ''[https://archive.org/details/lp_in-c_terry-riley/mode/1up In C]''. [[Columbia Records]] (MS 7178), 1968.</ref></blockquote>

Most importantly for ''In C's'' legacy, a foldout in the record liner included a copy of the score which enabled people to perform it. Whereas most of Riley's compositions are formally published in order to control the  [[performing rights]], Riley has never relied on a publisher to protect ''In C''. This decision is a marked departure from the other titans of minimalism (Young, Reich, and Glass) who zealously guard their performing rights.<ref name=Sun>Sun, Cecilia J. ''Experiments in Musical Performance: Historiography, Politics, and the Post-Cagian Avant-Garde''. University of California, 2004.</ref>{{rp|152}} By giving the piece away as a kind of [[freeware]], Riley inadvertently ensured its popularity.<ref name=Carl22/> 

===Personnel===
{{Image frame
|content='''Track Listing'''
{{Track listing
| headline      = Side One

| all_writing   = [[Terry Riley]]

| title1        = In C
| length1       = 23:50
}}
{{Track listing
| headline      = Side Two
| title1        = In C
| length1       = 19:10
}}|width=300|align=right}}
*Terry Riley – leader and saxophone
*[[Jon Hassell]] – trumpet 
*Edward Burnham – vibraphone 
*[[David Rosenboom]] – viola 
*Darlene Reynard – bassoon 
*Jerry Kirkbride – clarinet 
*David Shostac – flute 
*[[Jan Williams]] – marimbaphone 
*Lawrence Singer – oboe 
*[[Stuart Dempster]] – trombone 
*Margaret Hassell – the pulse
===Reception===
''In C'' was well-reviewed by critics. For ''[[Glamour (magazine)|Glamour]]'', Janet Rotter dubbed the composition "the global village’s first ritual symphonic piece" and raved, "Terry Riley has not yet reached the mass concert audience that [[the Beatles]] have, but he has written in his own way to that audience". <ref>Rotter, Janet. "Sound", ''[[Glamour (magazine)|Glamour]]''. February 1969. 66.</ref> In ''[[Sound & Vision (magazine)|Stereo Review]]'', David Heckman admired the effect while disliking the result, "In C produces, over the course of its forty-three minutes, a vague hypnotic effect, that is doubtless related to the repeated C, hammering away incessantly through the musical fabric. Isolated motives, bits and snatches of themes, and a kind of ''[[Klangfarbenmelodie]]'' of individual pitches drift in and out of one’s consciousness. Very nice, for a while, but ultimately wearing."<ref>Heckman, David. ''[[Sound & Vision (magazine)|Stereo Review]]''. March 1969. 103–4.</ref> Alfred Frankenstein revisited the piece with undimmed enthusiasm in his album review for ''[[High Fidelity (magazine)|High Fidelity]]'', "Terry Riley’s ''In C'' is one of the definitive masterpieces of the twentieth century. It is probably the most important piece of music since [[Pierre Boulez|Boulez]]' ''[[Le Marteau sans maître|Marteau sans maître]]'', conceivably it is the most important since the ''[[The Rite of Spring|Sacre]]''."<ref>[[Alfred Frankenstein|Frankestein, Alfred]], ''[[High Fidelity (magazine)|High Fidelity]]''. February 1969. 104.
</ref>

In 2022, the 1968 LP recording of ''In C'' was selected by the [[Library of Congress]] for preservation in the United States [[National Recording Registry]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{cite web |title=National Recording Registry Inducts Music from Alicia Keys, Ricky Martin, Journey and More in 2022 |url=https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-inducts-music-from-alicia-keys--ricky-martin--journey-and-more-in-2022/s/fee30140-0454-401c-a2a2-205298e32fb1 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=13 April 2022}}</ref>