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Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of
minimal music
Minimal music (also called minimalism)"Minimalism in music has been defined as an aesthetic, a style, and a technique, each of which has been a suitable description of the term at certain points in the development of minimal music. However, two o ...
in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of
repetitive figures, slow
harmonic rhythm
In music theory, harmonic rhythm, also known as harmonic tempo, is the rate at which the chords change (or progress) in a musical composition, in relation to the rate of notes. Thus a passage in common time with a stream of sixteenth notes and ch ...
, and
canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay, "Music as a Gradual Process", by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." To do so, his music employs the technique of phase shifting, in which a phrase is slightly altered over time, in a flow that is clearly perceptible to the listener. His innovations include using
tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound when played on a tape recorder. Originating in the 1940s with the work of Pierre Schaeffer, they were used among cont ...
s to create
phasing
A phaser is an electronic sound processor used to filter a signal, and it has a series of troughs in its frequency-attenutation graph. The position (in Hz) of the peaks and troughs are typically modulated by an internal low-frequency oscillat ...
patterns, as on the early compositions ''
It's Gonna Rain
''It's Gonna Rain'' is a minimal music, minimalist musical composition for magnetic tape written by Steve Reich in 1965. It lasts about 18 minutes. It was Reich's first major work and a landmark in minimalism and process music.
Analysis
The so ...
'' (1965) and ''
Come Out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
'' (1966), and the use of simple, audible
processes, as on ''
Pendulum Music
''Pendulum Music'' (For Microphones, Amplifiers Speakers and Performers) Reich, S. (1974). "''Pendulum Music''". In '' Writings About Music'' (pp. 12–13). The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Co-published by: New York Univ ...
'' (1968) and ''
Four Organs
''Four Organs'' is a work for four electronic organs and maraca, composed by Steve Reich in January 1970.
Music
The four organs harmonically expound a dominant eleventh chord (E–D–E–F–G–A–B), dissecting the chord by playing parts of ...
'' (1970). The 1978 recording ''
Music for 18 Musicians
''Music for 18 Musicians'' is a work of minimalist music composed by Steve Reich during 1974–1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976, at The Town Hall in New York City. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New ...
'' would help entrench minimalism as a movement. Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably ''
Different Trains
''Different Trains'' is a three- movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988.
Background
During World War II, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his parents, who had separated. Y ...
'' (1988).
Reich's style of composition has influenced many contemporary composers and groups, especially in the United States. Writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', music critic Andrew Clements suggested that Reich is one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history".
Early life
Reich was born in New York City to the Broadway lyricist
June Sillman and Leonard Reich. When he was one year old, his parents divorced, and Reich divided his time between New York and California. He is the half-brother of writer
Jonathan Carroll
Jonathan Samuel Carroll (born January 26, 1949) is an American fiction writer primarily known for novels that may be labelled magic realism, slipstream or contemporary fantasy. He has lived in Austria since 1974.
Life and work
Carroll was b ...
. He was given piano lessons as a child and describes growing up with the "middle-class favorites", having no exposure to music written before 1750 or after 1900. At the age of 14 he began to study music in earnest, after hearing music from the
Baroque period
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
and earlier, as well as music of the 20th century. Reich studied drums with Roland Kohloff in order to play
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
. While attending
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, he minored in music and graduated in 1957 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Reich's B.A. thesis was on
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
; later he would set texts by that philosopher to music in ''
Proverb
A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
'' (1995) and ''You Are (variations)'' (2006).
For a year following graduation, Reich studied composition privately with
Hall Overton
Hall Franklin Overton (February 23, 1920 – November 24, 1972) was an American composer, jazz pianist and music teacher. He was born in Bangor, Michigan, the first of the three sons of Stanford and Ruth (Barnes) Overton. He grew up in Grand Rapi ...
before he enrolled at
Juilliard
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
to work with
William Bergsma
William Laurence Bergsma (April 1, 1921 – March 18, 1994) was an American composer and teacher. He was long associated with Juilliard School, where he taught composition, until he moved to the University of Washington as head of their music ...
and
Vincent Persichetti
Vincent Ludwig Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, he was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own wo ...
(1958–1961). Subsequently, he attended
Mills College
Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...
in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, where he studied with
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...
and
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
(1961–1963) and earned a master's degree in composition. At Mills, Reich composed ''Melodica'' for
melodica
The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...
and
tape
Tape or Tapes may refer to:
Material
A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation):
Adhesive tapes
* Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive
*Athletic tape, pressure-sensitiv ...
, which appeared in 1986 on the three-LP release ''Music from Mills''.
Reich worked with the
San Francisco Tape Music Center
The San Francisco Tape Music Center, or SFTMC, was founded in the summer of 1962 by composers Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick as a collaborative, "non profit corporation developed and maintained" by local composers working with tape recorders a ...
along with
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music.
She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center ...
,
Ramon Sender
Ramón Sender Barayón (born October 29, 1934) is a composer, visual artist and writer. He was the co-founder with Morton Subotnick of the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1962. He is the son of Spanish writer Ramón J. Sender.
Education
S ...
,
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick (born April 14, 1933) is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his 1967 composition '' Silver Apples of the Moon'', the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch. He was one of the foun ...
,
Phil Lesh
Philip Chapman Lesh (born March 15, 1940) is an American musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career.
After the band's disbanding in 1995, Lesh continued the tradition of ...
and
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for it ...
. He was involved with the premiere of Riley's ''
In C
''In C'' is a musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for an indefinite number of performers. He suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work". A series of short melodic fragments, ''In C'' is o ...
'' and suggested the use of the eighth note pulse, which is now standard in performance of the piece.
Career
1960s
Reich's early forays into composition involved experimentation with
twelve-tone composition, but he found the rhythmic aspects of the number twelve more interesting than the pitch aspects. Reich also composed film soundtracks for ''Plastic Haircut'' (1963), ''Oh Dem Watermelons'' (1965), and ''Thick Pucker'' (1965), three films by
Robert Nelson. The soundtrack of ''Plastic Haircut'', composed in 1963, was a short tape collage, possibly Reich's first. The ''Watermelons'' soundtrack used two 19th-century
minstrel tunes as its basis, and used repeated phrasing together in a large five-part
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western can ...
. The music for ''Thick Pucker'' arose from street recordings Reich made walking around San Francisco with Nelson, who filmed in black and white 16mm. This film no longer survives. A fourth film from 1965, about 25 minutes long and tentatively entitled "Thick Pucker II", was assembled by Nelson from outtakes of that shoot and more of the raw audio Reich had recorded. Nelson was not happy with the resulting film and never showed it.
Reich was influenced by fellow minimalist Terry Riley, whose work ''
In C
''In C'' is a musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for an indefinite number of performers. He suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work". A series of short melodic fragments, ''In C'' is o ...
'' combines simple musical patterns, offset in time, to create a slowly shifting, cohesive whole. Reich adopted this approach to compose his first major work, ''It's Gonna Rain''. Composed in 1965, the piece used a fragment of a
sermon
A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. El ...
about the end of the world given by a Black
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement street-preacher known as Brother Walter. Reich built on his early tape work, transferring the last three words of the fragment, "it's gonna rain!", to multiple tape loops that gradually move out of phase with one another.
The 13-minute ''Come Out'' (1966) uses similarly manipulated recordings of a single spoken line given by Daniel Hamm, one of the falsely accused
Harlem Six
The Harlem Six was the name applied to six men in Harlem, New York, who were put on trial in March 1965. The media also referred to them as the Blood Brothers. Their arrests and subsequent trial stemmed from their connection with an incident known ...
, who was severely injured by police. The survivor, who had been beaten, punctured a bruise on his own body to convince police about his beating. The spoken line includes the phrase "to let the bruise's blood come out to show them". Reich rerecorded the fragment "come out to show them" on two channels, which are initially played in unison. They quickly slip out of sync; gradually the discrepancy widens and becomes a reverberation. The two voices then split into four, looped continuously, then eight, and continues splitting until the actual words are unintelligible, leaving the listener with only the speech's rhythmic and tonal patterns.
''Melodica'' (1966) takes the phase looping idea of his previous works and applies it to instrumental music. Steve Reich took a simple melody, which he played on a
melodica
The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...
, then recorded it. He then sets the melody to two separate channels, and slowly moves them out of phase, creating an intricate interlocking melody. This piece is very similar to ''Come Out'' in rhythmic structure, and are an example of how one rhythmic process can be realized in different sounds to create two different pieces of music. Reich was inspired to compose this piece from a dream he had on May 22, 1966, and put the piece together in one day. ''Melodica'' was the last piece Reich composed solely for tape, and he considers it his transition from tape music to instrumental music.
Reich's first attempt at translating this phasing technique from recorded tape to live performance was the 1967 ''
Piano Phase
''Piano Phase'' is a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich, written in 1967 for two pianos (or piano and tape). It is one of his first attempts at applying his "phasing" technique, which he had previously used in the tape pieces ...
'', for two pianos. In ''Piano Phase'' the performers repeat a rapid twelve-note
melodic
A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinat ...
figure, initially in unison. As one player keeps tempo with robotic precision, the other speeds up very slightly until the two parts line up again, but one sixteenth note apart. The second player then resumes the previous tempo. This cycle of speeding up and then locking in continues throughout the piece; the cycle comes full circle three times, the second and third cycles using shorter versions of the initial figure. ''Violin Phase'', also written in 1967, is built on these same lines. ''Piano Phase'' and ''Violin Phase'' both premiered in a series of concerts given in New York art galleries.
A similar, lesser known example of this so-called
process music
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 'music ...
is ''Pendulum Music'' (1968), which consists of the sound of several microphones swinging over the loudspeakers to which they are attached, producing
feedback
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
as they do so. "Pendulum Music" has never been recorded by Reich himself, but was introduced to rock audiences by
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
in the late 1990s.
Reich also tried to create the phasing effect in a piece "that would need no instrument beyond the human body". He found that the idea of phasing was inappropriate for the simple ways he was experimenting to make sound. Instead, he composed ''
Clapping Music
''Clapping Music'' is a minimalist piece written by Steve Reich in 1972. It is written for two performers and is performed entirely by clapping.
Reich and his ensemble were on tour in Europe in 1972. After a concert in Brussels, the promoter ...
'' (1972), in which the players do not phase in and out with each other, but instead one performer keeps one line of a 12-eighth-note-long (12-quaver-long) phrase and the other performer shifts by one
eighth note
180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest.
180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together.
An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...
beat every 12 bars, until both performers are back in unison 144 bars later.
The 1967 prototype piece ''
Slow Motion Sound'' was not performed although
Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes (born November 26, 1983) is an American entrepreneur and author who co-founded and served as spokesman for the online social directory and networking site Facebook until 2007. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of ''The New R ...
performed it 27 years later as ''
Slow Motion Blackbird'' on his Reich-influenced 1994 album ''
Shift''. It introduced the idea of slowing down a recorded sound until many times its original length without changing pitch or timbre, which Reich applied to ''Four Organs'' (1970), which deals specifically with augmentation. The piece has
maraca
A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair.
Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...
s playing a fast
eighth note
180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest.
180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together.
An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...
pulse
In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...
, while the four organs stress certain eighth notes using an 11th chord. This work therefore dealt with
repetition
Repetition may refer to:
* Repetition (rhetorical device), repeating a word within a short space of words
*Repetition (bodybuilding), a single cycle of lifting and lowering a weight in strength training
*Working title for the 1985 slasher film '' ...
and subtle rhythmic change. In contrast to Reich's typical cyclical structure, ''Four Organs'' is unique among his work in using a linear structure—the superficially similar ''
Phase Patterns
Phase or phases may refer to:
Science
*State of matter, or phase, one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist
*Phase (matter), a region of space throughout which all physical properties are essentially uniform
* Phase space, a mathematic ...
'', also for four organs but without maracas, is (as the name suggests) a cyclical phase piece similar to others composed during the period. ''Four Organs'' was performed as part of a
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...
program, and was Reich's first composition to be performed in a large traditional setting.
1970s
In 1970, Reich embarked on a five-week trip to study music in Ghana, during which he learned from the master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie. Reich also studied Balinese
gamelan
Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
in 1973 and 1974. From his African experience, as well as
A. M. Jones
Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980), was a missionary and musicologist who worked in Zambia during the early 20th century. He was stationed at St Mark's School in Mapanza, a community in the Southern Province of present-day Zambia (called Rhodesia ...
's ''
Studies in African Music
''Studies in African Music'' is a 1959 book in two volumes by A.M. Jones. It is an in-depth analysis of the traditional music of the Ewe tribe.
Summary
The work is divided into two volumes, with the first volume being an analysis of the music ...
'' about the
music of the Ewe people, Reich drew inspiration for his 90-minute piece ''
Drumming
Drumming may refer to:
* the act of playing the drums or other percussion instruments
* Drummer, a musician who plays a drum, drum kit, or drums
* ''Drumming'' (Reich), a musical composition written by Steve Reich in 1971 for percussion ensemble
...
'', which he composed shortly after his return. Composed for a nine-piece percussion ensemble with female voices and
piccolo
The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...
, ''Drumming'' marked the beginning of a new stage in his career, for around this time he formed his ensemble,
Steve Reich and Musicians
Steve Reich and Musicians, sometimes credited as the Steve Reich Ensemble, is a musical ensemble founded and led by the American composer Steve Reich (born 1936). The group has premiered and performed many of Reich's works both nationally and int ...
, and increasingly concentrated on composition and performance with them. Steve Reich and Musicians, which was to be the sole ensemble to interpret his works for many years, still remains active with many of its original members.
After ''Drumming'', Reich moved on from the "phase shifting" technique that he had pioneered, and began writing more elaborate pieces. He investigated other musical processes such as
augmentation (the temporal lengthening of phrases and melodic fragments). It was during this period that he wrote works such as ''
Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ
''Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ'' is a 1973 composition by American composer Steve Reich. The piece is scored for glockenspiels, marimbas, metallophone (vibraphone without resonator fans), women's voices, and organ, and runs abou ...
'' (1973) and ''
Six Pianos
''Six Pianos'' is a minimalist piece for six pianos by the American composer Steve Reich. It was completed in March 1973. He also composed a variation for six marimbas, called ''Six Marimbas'', in 1986. The world première performance of ''Six Pi ...
'' (1973).
In 1974, Reich began writing ''
Music for 18 Musicians
''Music for 18 Musicians'' is a work of minimalist music composed by Steve Reich during 1974–1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976, at The Town Hall in New York City. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New ...
''. This piece involved many new ideas, although it also hearkened back to earlier pieces. It is based on a
cycle
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...
of
eleven chords introduced at the beginning (called "Pulses"), followed by a small section of music based on each
chord ("Sections I-XI"), and finally a return to the original cycle ("Pulses"). This was Reich's first attempt at writing for larger
ensembles. The increased number of performers resulted in more scope for psychoacoustic effects, which fascinated Reich, and he noted that he would like to "explore this idea further". Reich remarked that this one work contained more harmonic movement in the first five minutes than any other work he had written. Steve Reich and Musicians made the premier recording of this work on
ECM Records
ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...
.
Reich explored these ideas further in his frequently recorded pieces ''
Music for a Large Ensemble
''Music for a Large Ensemble'' is a piece of music written by Steve Reich in 1978. It is scored for violin 1, violin 2, cellos, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 soprano saxophones, 4 trumpets, 4 pianos, 2 marimbas, vibraphone, 2 xylophones and two female ...
'' (1978) and ''
Octet
Octet may refer to:
Music
* Octet (music), ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble
** String octet, a piece of music written for eight string instruments
*** Octet (Mendelssohn), 1825 compos ...
'' (1979). In these two works, Reich experimented with "the human breath as the measure of musical duration ... the chords played by the trumpets are written to take one comfortable breath to perform". Human voices are part of the musical palette in ''Music for a Large Ensemble'' but the wordless vocal parts simply form part of the texture (as they do in ''Drumming''). With ''Octet'' and his first orchestral piece ''
Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards
''Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards'' is an orchestral piece composed in 1979 by Steve Reich. The piece is scored for oboes, flutes, full brass (three trumpets, three trombones, and tuba), strings, pianos, and electric organs. ''Variatio ...
'' (also 1979), Reich's music showed the influence of Biblical
cantillation
Cantillation is the ritual chanting of prayers and responses. It often specifically refers to Jewish Hebrew cantillation. Cantillation sometimes refers to diacritics used in texts that are to be chanted in liturgy.
Cantillation includes:
* Chant
...
, which he had studied in Israel since the summer of 1977. After this, the human voice singing a text would play an increasingly important role in Reich's music.
In 1974 Reich published the book ''Writings About Music'', containing essays on his philosophy, aesthetics, and musical projects written between 1963 and 1974. An updated and much more extensive collection, ''Writings On Music (1965–2000)'', was published in 2002.
1980s
![Steve Reich, composer, cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Steve_Reich%2C_composer%2C_cropped.jpg)
Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage. ''
Tehillim'' (1981),
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
for ''
psalm
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
s'', is the first of Reich's works to draw explicitly on his Jewish background. The work is in four parts, and is scored for an ensemble of four women's voices (one high
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
, two lyric sopranos and one
alto
The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...
),
piccolo
The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...
, flute,
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
A ...
,
English horn
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...
, two
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
s, six percussion (playing small tuned
tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...
s without jingles, clapping,
maraca
A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair.
Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...
s,
marimba
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
,
vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
and
crotales
Crotales (, ), sometimes called antique cymbals, are percussion instruments consisting of small, tuned bronze or brass disks. Each is about in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base. They are commonly played by being struck ...
), two
electronic organ
An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...
s, two violins,
viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
, cello and double bass, with amplified voices, strings, and winds. A setting of texts from Psalms 19:2–5 (19:1–4 in Christian translations), 34:13–15 (34:12–14), 18:26–27 (18:25–26), and 150:4–6, ''Tehillim'' is a departure from Reich's other work in its formal structure; the setting of texts several lines long rather than the fragments used in previous works makes melody a substantive element. Use of formal
counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
and functional
harmony
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
also contrasts with the loosely structured minimalist works written previously.
''
Different Trains
''Different Trains'' is a three- movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988.
Background
During World War II, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his parents, who had separated. Y ...
'' (1988), for
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
and tape, uses recorded speech, as in his earlier works, but this time as a melodic rather than a rhythmic element. In ''Different Trains'', Reich compares and contrasts his childhood memories of his train journeys between New York and California in 1939–1941 with the very different trains being used to transport contemporaneous European children to their deaths under
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
rule. The
Kronos Quartet
The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...
recording of ''Different Trains'' was awarded the
Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to composers for quality works of contemporary classical ...
in 1990. The composition was described by
Richard Taruskin
Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as ...
as "the only adequate musical response—one of the few adequate artistic responses in any medium—to
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
", and he credited the piece with earning Reich a place among the great composers of the 20th century.
1990s
In 1993, Reich collaborated with his wife, the video artist
Beryl Korot
Beryl Korot (born September 17, 1945) is an American video artist.
Biography
Beryl Korot has pioneered the field of video art since the early 1970s. She was co-editor of ''Radical Software'' (1970), the first publication to discuss the possibiliti ...
, on an opera, ''
The Cave'', which explores the roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam through the words of Israelis,
Palestinians
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
, and Americans, echoed musically by the ensemble. The work, for percussion, voices, and strings, is a musical documentary, named for the
Cave of Machpelah
, alternate_name = Tomb of the Patriarchs, Cave of Machpelah, Sanctuary of Abraham, Ibrahimi Mosque (Mosque of Abraham)
, image = Palestine Hebron Cave of the Patriarchs.jpg
, alt =
, caption = Southern view of the complex, 2009
, map ...
in
Hebron
Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...
, where a mosque now stands and
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...
is said to have been buried.
Reich and Korot collaborated on the opera ''
Three Tales'', which concerns the
''Hindenburg'' disaster, the testing of
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s on
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Second ...
, and other more modern concerns, specifically
Dolly the sheep
Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finnish Dorset sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a ...
,
cloning
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, cl ...
, and the
technological singularity
The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. According to the m ...
.
Reich used sampling techniques for pieces like ''Three Tales'' and ''
City Life'' from 1994. Reich returned to composing purely instrumental works for the concert hall, starting with ''Triple Quartet'' in 1998 written for the Kronos Quartet that can either be performed by string quartet and tape, three string quartets or 36-piece string orchestra. According to Reich, the piece is influenced by
Bartók's and
Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...
's string quartets, and
Michael Gordon's ''Yo Shakespeare''.
2000s
The instrumental series for the concert hall continued with ''Dance Patterns'' (2002), ''
Cello Counterpoint
''Cello Counterpoint'' is a composition for cello and pre-recorded tape by the American composer Steve Reich. The work was jointly commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and ...
'' (2003), and multiple works centered around variations: ''You Are (Variations)'' (2004), ''
Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings'' (2005), and the ''
Daniel Variations'' (2006). ''You Are'' looks back to the vocal writing of ''Tehillim'' and ''The Desert Music'' while the ''Daniel Variations'', which Reich called "much darker, not at all what I'm known for", are partly inspired by the death of
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.'
Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...
.
in 2002 Reich was invited by
Walter Fink
Walter Fink (16 August 1930 – 13 April 2018) was a German entrepreneur and a patron of contemporary classical music. He is known for being a founding member, executive committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival, where he initia ...
to the annual
Komponistenporträt of the
Rheingau Musik Festival
The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...
, as the 12th composer featured.
December 2010
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly called Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Non ...
and
Indaba Music
Indaba Music is a web-based company that provides a music collaboration environment for musicians: "a place to build a profile, promote their tunes and collaborate with other musicians" as well as enter opportunities like remixing and songwriting ...
held a community remix contest in which over 250 submissions were received, and Steve Reich and Christian Carey judged the finals. Reich spoke in a related BBC interview that once he composed a piece he would not alter it again himself; "When it's done, it's done," he said. On the other hand, he acknowledged that remixes have an old tradition e.g. famous religious music pieces where melodies were further developed into new songs.
2010s
Reich premiered a piece, ''
WTC 9/11
''WTC 9/11'' is a composition by Steve Reich for string quartet written in 2009–2010 which premiered on March 19, 2011 at Duke University. The piece was written for the Kronos Quartet, who performed the premiere, and was co-commissioned by Bar ...
'', written for String Quartet and Tape (a similar instrumentation to that of ''Different Trains'') in March 2011. It was performed by the
Kronos Quartet
The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...
, at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
, North Carolina, US.
On March 5, 2013, the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Brad Lubman, at the
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...
in London gave the world premiere of ''
Radio Rewrite
''Radio Rewrite'' is a 2012 musical composition by American composer Steve Reich (born 1936), inspired by two songs by British rock band Radiohead: "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and "Everything in Its Right Place". It is the first time that Reich ...
'' for ensemble with 11 players, inspired by the music of
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
. The programme also included ''Double Sextet'' for ensemble with 12 players, ''Clapping Music'', for two people and four hands featuring Reich himself alongside percussionist
Colin Currie
Colin David Currie (born 25 September 1976) is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. He is the founder and leader of the Colin Currie Group, an ensemble dedicated to performing and recording the music of Steve Reich.
Biography Early years
Colin ...
, ''
Electric Counterpoint
''Electric Counterpoint'' is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast," "Slow", and "Fast". Reich has offered two versions of the piece: one for electric guitar and tape (the ...
'', with electric guitar by
Mats Bergström
Mats Johan Bergström (7 March 1961) is a Swedish guitarist and composer principally focused in the genre of chamber music.
Borne in Gävle, Sweden, he received his MFA from the Royal College of Music, Stockholm in 1982, and did post-graduate stu ...
accompanied by a layered soundtrack, as well as two of Reich's small ensemble pieces, one for acoustic instruments, the other for electric instruments and tape.
''Music for Ensemble and Orchestra'' was premiered on November 4, 2018 by the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...
under
Susanna Mälkki
Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki (born 13 March 1969) is a Finnish conductor and cellist.
Early life and education
Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki was born on 13 March 1969 in Helsinki. She began to learn the violin, piano, and cello in her youth ...
at
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...
, marking Reich's return to writing for orchestra after an interval of more than thirty years.
Awards
In 2005, Reich was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal.
Reich was awarded with the
Praemium Imperiale
Prince Takamatsu
The Praemium Imperiale ( ja, 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞, Takamatsu-no-miya Denka Kinen Sekai Bunka-shō, World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu) is an international art prize inaugura ...
Award in Music in October 2006.
On January 25, 2007, Reich was named 2007 recipient of the
Polar Music Prize
The Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, best known as the manager of the Swedish band ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The award is annually given to one contemporary ...
with jazz saxophonist
Sonny Rollins
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a ...
.
On April 20, 2009, Reich was awarded the 2009
Pulitzer Prize for Music
The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted i ...
, recognizing ''
Double Sextet
''Double Sextet'' is a composition by Steve Reich scored for two sextets of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano. It won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first for the composer. With funds from the Carnegie Hall Corporati ...
'', first performed in Richmond March 26, 2008. The citation called it "a major work that displays an ability to channel an initial burst of energy into a large-scale musical event, built with masterful control and consistently intriguing to the ear".
In May 2011 Steve Reich received an honorary doctorate from the
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music Music school, conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The ...
.
In 2012, Steve Reich received the Gold Medal in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 2013 Reich received the US$400,000
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...
in contemporary music for bringing a new conception of music, based on the use of realist elements from the realm of daily life and others drawn from the traditional music of Africa and Asia.
In September 2014, Reich was awarded the "Leone d'Oro" (Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Music) from the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
.
In March 2016, Reich was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
in London.
Influence
The American composer and critic
Kyle Gann
Kyle Eugene Gann (born November 21, 1955, in Dallas, Texas) is an American professor of music, critic, analyst, and composer who has worked primarily in the New York City area. As a music critic for ''The Village Voice'' (from 1986 to 2005) and ...
has said that Reich "may ... be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer". Reich's style of composition has influenced many other composers and musical groups, including
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
, the
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
band
King Crimson
King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...
, the new-age guitarist
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter.
Early years
The son of Thayne Alden Hedges and Ruth Evelyn Hedges Ipsen, Michael Hedges was born in Sacramento, California. His l ...
, the art-pop and electronic musician
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
, the experimental art/music group
the Residents
The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, ''Meet the Residents'' (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music vi ...
, the electronic group
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
, the composers associated with the
Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the cou ...
festival (including
David Lang,
Michael Gordon, and
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer and professor of music at New York University. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Wolfe's music has "long inhabited a terrain of its own, a place where classical forms are rech ...
), and numerous
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
musicians including songwriters
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomi ...
and Matthew Healy of
the 1975
The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in 2002 in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Now based in Manchester, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matthew "Matty" Healy, lead guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald, and drummer G ...
, and instrumental ensembles
Tortoise
Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...
,
The Mercury Program
The Mercury Program is an American musical group composed of Dave Lebleu on Drum kit, drums, Sander Travisano on bass guitar, Tom Reno on guitar, and Whit Travisano on vibraphone and piano.
History
The first three members formed a trio in Au ...
, and
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian post-rock band which originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation, an independent record label also located i ...
(who titled an unreleased song "Steve Reich").
John Adams commented, "He didn't reinvent the wheel so much as he showed us a new way to ride." He has also influenced visual artists such as
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico.
Life and work ...
, and many notable choreographers have made dances to his music,
Eliot Feld
Eliot Feld (born July 5, 1942) is an American modern ballet choreographer, performer, teacher, and director. Feld works in contemporary ballet. His company and schools, including the Feld Ballet and Ballet Tech, are deeply committed to dance an ...
,
Jiří Kylián
Jiří Kylián (born 21 March 1947) is a Czech former dancer and contemporary dance choreographer.
Life
Jiří Kylián was born in 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to his father Václav who was a banker and to his mother Markéta, who was as a ...
,
Douglas Lee and
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
among others; he has expressed particular admiration of
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Anne Teresa, Baroness De Keersmaeker (, born 1960 in Mechelen, Belgium, grew up in Wemmel) is a contemporary dance choreographer. The dance company constructed around her, , was in residence at La Monnaie in Brussels from 1992 to 2007.
Biography
...
's work set to his pieces.
In featuring a sample of Reich's ''
Electric Counterpoint
''Electric Counterpoint'' is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast," "Slow", and "Fast". Reich has offered two versions of the piece: one for electric guitar and tape (the ...
'' (1987) in the 1990 track ''
Little Fluffy Clouds
"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the British ambient house group the Orb. It was originally released in November 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at number 87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their ...
'' the British
ambient techno
Ambient techno is a subgenre of techno that incorporates the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the rhythmic elements and production of techno. It was pioneered by 1990s electronic artists such as Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, the Black Dog, Pe ...
act
the Orb
The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...
exposed a new generation of listeners to his music.
[ Emmerson, S. (2007), ''Music, Electronic Media, and Culture'', Ashgate, Adlershot, p. 68.] In 1999 the album ''
Reich Remixed
''Reich Remixed'' is a remix album of music by the American composer Steve Reich. It was released in 1999 by Nonesuch Records and features tracks produced by various American, British, and Japanese DJs.
Track listing
# "Music for 18 Musicians (Co ...
'' featured
remix
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
es of a number of Reich's works by various electronic dance-music producers, such as
DJ Spooky
Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...
,
Kurtis Mantronik
Kurtis el Khaleel (born Graham Curtis el Khaleel, September 4, 1965), known by the stage name Kurtis Mantronik, is a Jamaican-born hip hop and electronic-music artist, DJ, remixer, and producer. He was the leader, DJ, and keyboardist of the inf ...
,
Ken Ishii
is a Japanese Disc_jockey, DJ and record producer from Sapporo. He graduated from Hitotsubashi University. He has released work under his own name as well as under the pseudonyms: FLR, Flare, UTU, Yoga, and Rising Sun.
Strongly influenced by De ...
, and
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, ...
among others.
[
Reich's '']Cello Counterpoint
''Cello Counterpoint'' is a composition for cello and pre-recorded tape by the American composer Steve Reich. The work was jointly commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and ...
'' (2003) was the inspiration for a series of commissions for solo cello with pre-recorded cellos made by Ashley Bathgate Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsc'' (“ash”) and '' lēah'' (“meadow”). It may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Ashley (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
...
in 2017 including new works by Emily Cooley
Emily may refer to:
* Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name
Music
* "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily''
* "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...
and Alex Weiser
Alex Weiser is an American composer of contemporary classical music.
Biography
Weiser was born in New York City to a Jewish family. He attended Stuyvesant High School and Yale University, and received a master's degree in Music Theory and Compos ...
.
Reich often cites Pérotin
Pérotin () was a composer associated with the Notre Dame school of polyphony in Paris and the broader musical style of high medieval music. He is credited with developing the polyphonic practices of his predecessor Léonin, with the introdu ...
, J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
, Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
, Bartók, and Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
as composers whom he admires and who greatly influenced him when he was young. Jazz is a major part of the formation of Reich's musical style, and two of the earliest influences on his work were vocalists Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
and Alfred Deller
Alfred George Deller, CBE (31 May 1912 – 16 July 1979), was an English singer and one of the main figures in popularising the return of the countertenor voice in Renaissance and Baroque music during the 20th century.
He is sometimes referre ...
, whose emphasis on the artistic capabilities of the voice alone with little vibrato or other alteration was an inspiration to his earliest works. John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...
's style, which Reich has described as "playing a lot of notes to very few harmonies", also had an impact; of particular interest was the album ''Africa/Brass
''Africa/Brass'' is the eighth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane, released on September 1, 1961 on Impulse! Records. The sixth release for the fledgling label and Coltrane's first for Impulse!, it features Coltrane's working quartet au ...
'', which "was basically a half-an-hour in E". Reich's influence from jazz includes its roots, also, from the West African music he studied in his readings and visit to Ghana. Other important influences are Kenny Clarke
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...
and Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
, and visual artist friends such as Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism.
LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...
and Richard Serra
Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...
. Reich has also stated that he admires the music of the band Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
, which led to his composition ''Radio Rewrite''.
Works
Compositions
* Soundtrack for '' Plastic Haircut'', tape (1963)
* ''Music for two or more pianos'' (1964)
* ''Livelihood'' (1964)
* ''It's Gonna Rain
''It's Gonna Rain'' is a minimal music, minimalist musical composition for magnetic tape written by Steve Reich in 1965. It lasts about 18 minutes. It was Reich's first major work and a landmark in minimalism and process music.
Analysis
The so ...
'', tape (1965)
* Soundtrack for '' Oh Dem Watermelons'', tape (1965)
* ''Come Out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
'', tape (1966)
* ''Melodica'', for melodica and tape (1966)
* ''Reed Phase
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* R ...
'', for soprano saxophone or any other reed instrument and tape, or three reed instruments (1966)
* ''Piano Phase
''Piano Phase'' is a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich, written in 1967 for two pianos (or piano and tape). It is one of his first attempts at applying his "phasing" technique, which he had previously used in the tape pieces ...
'' for two pianos, or two marimbas (1967)
* ''Slow Motion Sound'' ''concept piece'' (1967)
* ''Violin Phase
''Violin Phase'' is a musical work written by minimalist composer Steve Reich in October 1967.
Structure
''Violin Phase'' is an example of Reich's phasing technique, previously used in ''It's Gonna Rain'', '' Come Out'', '' Reed Phase'', and '' ...
'' for violin and tape or four violins (1967)
* ''My Name Is'' for three tape recorders and performers (1967)
* ''Pendulum Music
''Pendulum Music'' (For Microphones, Amplifiers Speakers and Performers) Reich, S. (1974). "''Pendulum Music''". In '' Writings About Music'' (pp. 12–13). The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Co-published by: New York Univ ...
'' for 3 or 4 microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers (1968) (revised 1973)[*]
* ''Pulse Music'' for phase shifting pulse gate (1969)
* ''Four Log Drums'' for four log drums and phase shifting pulse gate (1969)
* ''Four Organs
''Four Organs'' is a work for four electronic organs and maraca, composed by Steve Reich in January 1970.
Music
The four organs harmonically expound a dominant eleventh chord (E–D–E–F–G–A–B), dissecting the chord by playing parts of ...
'' for four electric organs and maracas (1970)
* ''Phase Patterns'' for four electric organs (1970)
* ''Drumming
Drumming may refer to:
* the act of playing the drums or other percussion instruments
* Drummer, a musician who plays a drum, drum kit, or drums
* ''Drumming'' (Reich), a musical composition written by Steve Reich in 1971 for percussion ensemble
...
'' for 4 pairs of tuned bongo drums, 3 marimbas, 3 glockenspiels, 2 female voices, whistling and piccolo (1970/1971)
* ''Clapping Music
''Clapping Music'' is a minimalist piece written by Steve Reich in 1972. It is written for two performers and is performed entirely by clapping.
Reich and his ensemble were on tour in Europe in 1972. After a concert in Brussels, the promoter ...
'' for two musicians clapping (1972)
* ''Music for Pieces of Wood'' for five pairs of tuned claves
Claves (; ) are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, wooden sticks about 20–25 centimeters (8–10 inches) long and about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in diameter. Although traditionally made of wood (typically rosewood, ebony o ...
(1973)
* ''Six Pianos
''Six Pianos'' is a minimalist piece for six pianos by the American composer Steve Reich. It was completed in March 1973. He also composed a variation for six marimbas, called ''Six Marimbas'', in 1986. The world première performance of ''Six Pi ...
'' (1973) – also arranged as ''Six Marimbas'' (1986), adapted as ''Six Marimbas Counterpoint'' (2010) and ''Piano Counterpoint'' (2011) by the others
* ''Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ
''Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ'' is a 1973 composition by American composer Steve Reich. The piece is scored for glockenspiels, marimbas, metallophone (vibraphone without resonator fans), women's voices, and organ, and runs abou ...
'' (1973)
* ''Music for 18 Musicians
''Music for 18 Musicians'' is a work of minimalist music composed by Steve Reich during 1974–1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976, at The Town Hall in New York City. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New ...
'' (1974–76)
* ''Music for a Large Ensemble
''Music for a Large Ensemble'' is a piece of music written by Steve Reich in 1978. It is scored for violin 1, violin 2, cellos, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 soprano saxophones, 4 trumpets, 4 pianos, 2 marimbas, vibraphone, 2 xylophones and two female ...
'' (1978, rev. 1979)
* ''Octet'' (1979) – withdrawn in favor of the 1983 revision for slightly larger ensemble, ''Eight Lines
''Eight Lines'' is a work by American minimalist composer Steve Reich which was originally titled ''Octet''.
History
Under its original title, ''Octet'', the work was commissioned by the Hessischer Rundfunk (Radio Frankfurt) and completed in Ap ...
''
* ''Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards
''Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards'' is an orchestral piece composed in 1979 by Steve Reich. The piece is scored for oboes, flutes, full brass (three trumpets, three trombones, and tuba), strings, pianos, and electric organs. ''Variatio ...
'' for orchestra (1979)
* '' Tehillim'' for voices and ensemble (1981)
* ''Vermont Counterpoint
''Vermont Counterpoint'' is a minimalist composition for amplified flute and tape written by the American composer Steve Reich in 1982. It was commissioned and premiered by the flutist Ransom Wilson. The piece has a duration of roughly 10 minute ...
'' for amplified flute and tape (1982)
* ''The Desert Music
''The Desert Music'' is a work of music for voices and orchestra composed by the minimalist composer Steve Reich. It is based on texts by William Carlos Williams and takes its title from the poetry anthology ''The Desert Music and Other Poems''. ...
'' for chorus and orchestra or voices and ensemble (1983, text by William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.
In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
)
* ''Sextet
A sextet (or hexad) is a formation containing exactly six members. The former term is commonly associated with vocal ensembles (e.g. The King's Singers, Affabre Concinui) or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six ...
'' for percussion and keyboards (1984, rev. 1985)
* ''New York Counterpoint
''New York Counterpoint'' for amplified clarinet and tape, or 9 clarinets and 3 bass clarinets (one part doubles B and bass), is a 1985 minimalist composition written by American composer Steve Reich. The piece, intended to capture the throbbing ...
'' for amplified clarinet and tape, or 11 clarinets and bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...
(1985)
* ''Three Movements'' for orchestra (1986)
* ''Electric Counterpoint
''Electric Counterpoint'' is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast," "Slow", and "Fast". Reich has offered two versions of the piece: one for electric guitar and tape (the ...
'' for electric guitar or amplified acoustic guitar and tape (1987, for Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progre ...
)
* '' The Four Sections'' for orchestra (1987)
* ''Different Trains
''Different Trains'' is a three- movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988.
Background
During World War II, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his parents, who had separated. Y ...
'' for string quartet and tape (1988)
* '' The Cave'' for four voices, ensemble and video (1993, with Beryl Korot
Beryl Korot (born September 17, 1945) is an American video artist.
Biography
Beryl Korot has pioneered the field of video art since the early 1970s. She was co-editor of ''Radical Software'' (1970), the first publication to discuss the possibiliti ...
)
* ''Duet'' for two violins and string ensemble (1993, dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...
)
* ''Nagoya Marimbas'' for two marimba
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
s (1994)
* '' City Life'' for amplified ensemble (1995)
* ''Proverb
A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
'' for voices and ensemble (1995, text by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
)
* '' Triple Quartet'' for amplified string quartet (with prerecorded tape), or three string quartets, or string orchestra (1998)
* ''Know What Is Above You'' for four women's voices and 2 tamborim
A ''tamborim'' ( or ) is a small, round Brazilian frame drum of Portuguese and African origin.
The frame is 6" in width and may be made of metal, plastic, or wood. The head is typically made of nylon and is normally very tightly tuned in order ...
s (1999)
* '' Three Tales'' for video projection, five voices and ensemble (1998–2002, with Beryl Korot)
* ''Dance Patterns'' for 2 xylophones, 2 vibraphones and 2 pianos (2002)
* ''Cello Counterpoint
''Cello Counterpoint'' is a composition for cello and pre-recorded tape by the American composer Steve Reich. The work was jointly commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and ...
'' for amplified cello and multichannel tape (2003)
* '' You Are (Variations)'' for voices and ensemble (2004)
* '' For Strings (with Winds and Brass)'' for orchestra (1987/2004)
* '' Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings'' dance piece for three string quartets, four vibraphones, and two pianos (2005)
* '' Daniel Variations'' for four voices and ensemble (2006)
* ''Double Sextet
''Double Sextet'' is a composition by Steve Reich scored for two sextets of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano. It won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first for the composer. With funds from the Carnegie Hall Corporati ...
'' for 2 violins, 2 cellos, 2 pianos, 2 vibraphones, 2 clarinets, 2 flutes or ensemble and pre-recorded tape (2007)
* ''2×5
2×5 is a composition by Steve Reich written in 2008. It is scored for five musicians and pre-recorded tape, or two identical quintets on rock instruments, in total: 2 drum sets, 2 pianos, 4 electric guitars, 2 bass guitars. It is described as a ...
'' for 2 drum sets, 2 pianos, 4 electric guitars and 2 bass guitars (2008)
* ''Mallet Quartet
''Mallet Quartet'' is a composition by Steve Reich scored for two marimbas and two vibraphones, or for four marimbas. It was co-commissioned by the Amadinda Quartet in Budapest, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, by Nexus in Toronto, So Per ...
'' for 2 marimbas and 2 vibraphones or 4 marimbas (or solo percussion and tape) (2009)
* ''WTC 9/11
''WTC 9/11'' is a composition by Steve Reich for string quartet written in 2009–2010 which premiered on March 19, 2011 at Duke University. The piece was written for the Kronos Quartet, who performed the premiere, and was co-commissioned by Bar ...
'' for string quartet and tape (2010)
* ''Finishing the Hat'' for two pianos (2011)
* ''Radio Rewrite
''Radio Rewrite'' is a 2012 musical composition by American composer Steve Reich (born 1936), inspired by two songs by British rock band Radiohead: "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and "Everything in Its Right Place". It is the first time that Reich ...
'' for ensemble (2012)
* ''Quartet'' for two vibraphones and two pianos (2013)
* ''Pulse'' for winds, strings, piano and electric bass (2015)
* ''Runner'' for large ensemble (2016)
* ''For Bob'' for piano (2017)
* ''Music for Ensemble and Orchestra'' (2018)
* '' Reich/Richter'' for large ensemble'' (2019)
*''Traveler's Prayer'' for 2 tenors, 2 sopranos, 2 vibraphones, 1 piano, 4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos (2020)
Selected discography
* ''Live/Electric Music'', (Columbia, 1968)
* ''Music for 18 Musicians'', Ensemble Signal
Ensemble Signal is a contemporary classical music ensemble founded in 2008 and based in New York City. It is led by Brad Lubman and performs a variety of chamber, electro-acoustic, and large scale ensemble works.
Work
Ensemble Signal specializ ...
, Brad Lubman harmonia mundi
Harmonia Mundi is an independent record label which specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group.
Its Latin name ''ha ...
* ''Radio Rewrite'', Ensemble Signal, Brad Lubman harmonia mundi
* ''Double Sextet'', Ensemble Signal, Brad Lubman harmonia mundi
* ''Drumming''. Steve Reich and Musicians (Two recordings: Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
and Nonesuch __NOTOC__
Nonesuch may refer to:
Plants
* ''Lychnis chalcedonica'', a wildflower
* ''Medicago lupulina'', a wildflower
Places and structures
*Nonesuch, Kentucky
*Nonesuch Island, Bermuda
*Nonesuch Mine, Michigan
*Nonesuch Palace, mis-spelling of ...
) So Percussion
Sō Percussion is an American percussion quartet formed in 1999 and based in New York City.
Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Cha-Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for th ...
(Cantaloupe
The cantaloupe, rockmelon (Australia and New Zealand, although cantaloupe is used in some states of Australia), sweet melon, or spanspek (Southern Africa) is a melon that is a variety of the muskmelon species (''Cucumis melo'') from the fami ...
)
* ''Music for 18 Musicians''. Steve Reich and Musicians (Two recordings: ECM
ECM may refer to:
Economics and commerce
* Engineering change management
* Equity capital markets
* Error correction model, an econometric model
* European Common Market
Mathematics
* Elliptic curve method
* European Congress of Mathematics
...
and Nonesuch), Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble ( Innova), Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern is an international ensemble dedicated to performing and promoting the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries.
Hi ...
(RCA).
* '' Octet/Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase''. Steve Reich and Musicians (ECM
ECM may refer to:
Economics and commerce
* Engineering change management
* Equity capital markets
* Error correction model, an econometric model
* European Common Market
Mathematics
* Elliptic curve method
* European Congress of Mathematics
...
)
* ''Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards/Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ/ Six Pianos''. San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Fr ...
, Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart (born 1 June 1941, Amsterdam) is a Dutch conductor. He is Music Director Laureate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. De Waart is the former chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2011-2016), Artistic Partner with the S ...
, Steve Reich & Musicians (Deutsche Grammophon)
* '' Tehillim/The Desert Music
''The Desert Music'' is a work of music for voices and orchestra composed by the minimalist composer Steve Reich. It is based on texts by William Carlos Williams and takes its title from the poetry anthology ''The Desert Music and Other Poems''. ...
''. Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary classical music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the ''Financial Times' ...
and OSSIA, Alan Pierson (Cantaloupe)
* ''Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint''. Kronos Quartet, Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progre ...
(Nonesuch)
* ''You Are (Variations)/Cello Counterpoint''. Los Angeles Master Chorale
The Los Angeles Master Chorale is a professional chorus in Los Angeles, California, and one of the resident companies of both The Music Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1964 by Roger Wagner to be one of the t ...
, Grant Gershon, Maya Beiser (Nonesuch)
* '' Steve Reich: Works 1965–1995''. Various performers (Nonesuch).
* '' Daniel Variations'', with ''Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings''. London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London.
The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert in 1968—givi ...
, Grant Gershon, Alan Pierson (Nonesuch)
* ''Double Sextet/2×5
The album consists of two works composed by Steve Reich, ''Double Sextet'' and ''2×5''. ''Double Sextet'', which won the Pulitzer Prize, 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music, is written for two identical sextets of flute, clarinet, vibraphone, piano, vi ...
'', Eighth Blackbird and Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the cou ...
(Nonesuch)
* ''Piano Phase'', transcribed for guitar, Alexandre Gérard (Catapult)
* ''Reich Remixed
''Reich Remixed'' is a remix album of music by the American composer Steve Reich. It was released in 1999 by Nonesuch Records and features tracks produced by various American, British, and Japanese DJs.
Track listing
# "Music for 18 Musicians (Co ...
'', Nonesuch – 79552-2; 1999
* ''Phase to Face'', a film documentary about Steve Reich by Eric Darmon & Franck Mallet (EuroArts
DVD
* ''Radio Rewrite'', Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary classical music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the ''Financial Times' ...
, Jonny Greenwood
Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician and composer. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the alternative rock band Radiohead, and has written numerous film scores.
Along with his elder brother, th ...
, Vicky Chow (Nonesuch)
* ''Pulse – Quartet'', International Contemporary Ensemble
The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a contemporary classical music ensemble, based in New York City and Chicago. ICE performs a diverse and extensive array of chamber, electro-acoustic, improvisatory, and multimedia works.
History
...
, Colin Currie Group (Nonesuch)
Books
*
*
*
See also
* Minimal music
Minimal music (also called minimalism)"Minimalism in music has been defined as an aesthetic, a style, and a technique, each of which has been a suitable description of the term at certain points in the development of minimal music. However, two o ...
* Steve Reich and Musicians
Steve Reich and Musicians, sometimes credited as the Steve Reich Ensemble, is a musical ensemble founded and led by the American composer Steve Reich (born 1936). The group has premiered and performed many of Reich's works both nationally and int ...
References
Further reading
* D. J. Hoek. ''Steve Reich: A Bio-Bibliography.'' Greenwood Press, 2002.
* Potter, Keith (2000). ''Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass.'' Music in the Twentieth Century series. Cambridge, UK; New York City: Cambridge University Press.
* K. Robert Schwarz. ''Minimalists.'' Phaidon Press, 1996.
* Walter Zimmermann
Walter Zimmermann (born 15 April 1949) is a German composer associated with the Cologne School.
Born in Schwabach, Germany, Zimmermann studied composition in Germany with Werner Heider and Mauricio Kagel, the theory of musical intelligence at ...
, ''Desert Plants – Conversations with 23 American Musicians'', Berlin: Beginner Press in cooperation with Mode Records, 2020 (originally published in 1976 by A.R.C., Vancouver). The 2020 edition includes a CD featuring the original interview recordings with Larry Austin
Larry Don Austin (September 12, 1930 – December 30, 2018) was an American composer noted for his electronic and computer music works. He was a co-founder and editor of the avant-garde music periodical '' Source: Music of the Avant Garde''. Austin ...
, Robert Ashley
Robert Reynolds Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve ...
, Jim Burton, John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
, Philip Corner
Philip Lionel Corner (born April 10, 1933; name sometimes given as Phil Corner) is an American composer, trombonist, alphornist, vocalist, pianist, music theorist, music educator, and visual artist.
Biography
After The High School of Music & Ar ...
, Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...
, Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
, Joan La Barbara
Joan Linda La Barbara (born June 8, 1947) is an American vocalist and composer known for her explorations of non-conventional or "extended" vocal techniques. Considered to be a vocal virtuoso in the field of contemporary music, she is credited w ...
, Garrett List
Garrett List (September 10, 1943 – December 27, 2019) was an American trombonist, vocalist, and composer.
List was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He studied at California State University, Long Beach, and the Juilliard School. He was a member of Ital ...
, Alvin Lucier
Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (May 14, 1931 – December 1, 2021) was an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University in Mi ...
, John McGuire, Charles Morrow, J. B. Floyd (on Conlon Nancarrow
Samuel Conlon Nancarrow (; October 27, 1912 – August 10, 1997) was an American- Mexican composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. Nancarrow is best remembered for his ''Studies for Player Piano'', being one of the first ...
), Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music.
She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center ...
, Charlemagne Palestine
Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born 1947), known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by La ...
, Ben Johnston (on Harry Partch
Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...
), Steve Reich, David Rosenboom
David Rosenboom (born 1947 in Fairfield, Iowa) is a composer-performer, interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator known for his work in American experimental music.
Rosenboom has explored various forms of music, languages for improvisation, ...
, Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. His major compositions, which often incorporate social an ...
, Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...
, James Tenney
James Tenney (August 10, 1934 – August 24, 2006) was an American composer and music theorist. He made significant early musical contributions to plunderphonics, sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, process music, spectral music, microtonal ...
, Christian Wolff, and La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best kno ...
.
External links
*
London Steve Reich Ensemble
(official)
*
Music and the Holocaust – ''Different Trains''
Steve Reich oral histories at Oral History of American Music
Interviews
A Steve Reich Interview with Christopher Abbot
by Bruce Duffie (October 1985 and November 1995)
*
*
"Drumming" – Interview & analysis
selected as one of th
most important musical works of the 20th century. RealAudio
RealAudio, or also spelled as Real Audio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fid ...
format, timing: 12:46, July 2000
In Conversation with Steve Reich, by Molly Sheridan, June 2002
*
The Next Phase: Steve Reich talks to Richard Kessler About Redefinition and Renewal, 2004
*
*
* ttp://www.rte.ie/tv/theview/archive/20060529.html An interview with Steve Reich on RTE television, National Broadcaster in Ireland, May 29, 2006
An interview with Steve Reich on musicOMH.com, October 2006
*
"Steve Reich at 70"
from NPR ''Fresh Air'' broadcast October 6, 2006, includes interview about ''It's Gonna Rain'', ''Drumming'', and ''Tehillim'' that first aired in 1999 and another on ''Different Trains'' from 1989 (RealAudio format, timing: 39:25)
Cité de la musique, Paris, France
"Two Arts Beating As One"
– Interviews with Steve Reich and his wife Beryl Korot with video and audio clips, May 2009
"Unexplored terrain"
Composer Steve Reich draws out Radiohead's melodic fragments for new work – Interview with Steve Reich about his new work, March 2013
*
*
"Steve Reich: the composer with his finger on the pulse"
– An interview with David Shariatmadari of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' to mark Reich's 80th birthday, October 2016
"Steve Reich: rebelión minimalista" at El País
June 2014
February 2014
Listening
Steve Reich at UC Berkeley University Museum
(November 7, 1970) Streaming audio
*
*
Others
*
*
*
''Steve Reich'' by Roger Sutherland
by Steve Reich
Steve Reich: You Are (Variations) premiere in LA (October 2004)
New York Fetes Composer Steve Reich at 70
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
"Fascinating rhythm. Celebrating Steve Reich."
by Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which he collaborated wi ...
, ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''.
Steve Reich & Sonny Rollins winners of the Polar Music Prize for 2007
Press release of Polar Prize announcement
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reich, Steve
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Postmodern composers
Minimalist composers
American opera composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Jewish American classical composers
Jewish American artists
Nonesuch Records artists
Grammy Award winners
ECM Records artists
Deutsche Grammophon artists
People from New York City
Pulitzer Prize for Music winners
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Juilliard School alumni
Cornell University alumni
1936 births
Living people
Pupils of Darius Milhaud
Pupils of Vincent Persichetti
21st-century American composers
Male opera composers
20th-century American composers
Sub Rosa Records artists
Jewish classical composers