Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich (icon; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer who together with
La Monte YoungLa Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
,
Terry RileyTerrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
, and
Philip GlassPhilip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
is a pioneering composer of minimal music. His innovations include using
tape loopIn music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
s to create
phasingIn the compositional technique phasing, the same part is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo...
patterns (examples are his early compositions, "
It's Gonna RainIt's Gonna Rain is a minimalist musical composition for magnetic tape written by Steve Reich in 1965. It lasts approximately 17 minutes and 50 seconds. It was Reich's first major work and a landmark in minimalism and process music.-Analysis:...
" and "
Come OutCome Out is a 1966 piece by American composer Steve Reich. He was asked to write this piece to be performed at a benefit for the retrial of the Harlem Six, six black youths arrested for committing a murder during the Harlem Riot of 1964 for which only one of the six was responsible...
"), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, "
Pendulum Music"Pendulum Music " is the name of a work by Steve Reich, involving suspended microphones and speakers, creating phasing feedback tones. The piece was composed in August 1968 and revised in May 1973....
" and "
Four OrgansFour 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 , dissecting the chord by playing parts of it sequentially while the chord slowly increases in duration from a single 1/8 note...
"). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. 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 the
Grammy AwardThe Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition was first awarded in 1961. This award was not presented from 1967 to 1984.The award has had several minor name changes:...
-winning
Different TrainsDifferent Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.The work's three movements have the following titles:...
.
Reich's style of composition influenced many other composers and musical groups. Reich has been described, in
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
by music critic Andrew Clements, as one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history", and the critic
Kyle GannKyle Eugene Gann is an American professor of music, critic and composer born in Dallas, Texas. As a critic for The Village Voice and other publications he has been a supporter of progressive music including such Downtown movements as postminimalism and totalism.- As composer :As a composer his...
has said Reich "may...be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer." On January 25, 2007, Reich was named the 2007 recipient of the
Polar Music PrizeThe Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international music award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, possibly best known to be the manager of the Swedish pop group ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music....
, together with jazz saxophonist
Sonny RollinsTheodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
. On April 20, 2009, Reich was awarded the 2009
Pulitzer Prize for MusicThe Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...
for his
Double SextetDouble 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...
.
Early life
Reich was born in New York City to the Broadway lyricist
June SillmanJune Carroll was an American lyricist, singer and actress.Born June Sillman in Detroit, Michigan, Carroll appeared in the Broadway musical New Faces of 1952, singing the Murray Grand standard, Guess Who I Saw Today, as well as two songs that she also wrote: Penny Candy and Love is a Simple...
. When he was one year old, his parents divorced, and Reich divided his time between New York and California. 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 periodBaroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
and earlier, as well as music of the 20th century. Reich studied drums with Roland Kohloff in order to play
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. While attending
Cornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, he took some music courses, but he graduated in 1957 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Reich's B.A. thesis was on
Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
; later he would set texts by that philosopher to music in
ProverbProverb is a musical composition by Steve Reich for three sopranos, two tenors, two vibraphones, and two electric organs. It sets a text by Ludwig Wittgenstein. It was written in 1995 and was originally intended for The Proms and the Utrecht Early Music Festival...
(1995) and
You Are (variations) (2006).
For a year following graduation, Reich studied composition privately with
Hall OvertonHall Franklin Overton was an American composer, jazz pianist, and music teacher. He was born in Bangor, Michigan...
before he enrolled at
JuilliardThe Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
to work with
William Bergsma-Biography:After studying piano with his mother, a former opera singer, and then the viola, Bergsma moved on to study composition; his most significant teachers were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. Bergsma attended Stanford University for two years before moving on to the Eastman School of...
and
Vincent PersichettiVincent Ludwig Persichetti was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, Persichetti was a native of Philadelphia...
(1958–1961). Subsequently he attended
Mills CollegeMills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
in
Oakland, CaliforniaOakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, where he studied with
Luciano BerioLuciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
and
Darius MilhaudDarius Milhaud was a French composer 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 are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
(1961–1963) and earned a master's degree in composition. At Mills, Reich composed
Melodica for
melodicaThe melodica, also known as the "blow-organ" or "key-flute", is a free-reed instrument similar to the melodeon and harmonica. It has 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. Pressing a key opens a hole,...
and
tapeAn audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
, which appeared in 1986 on the three-LP release
Music from Mills.
Reich worked with the
San Francisco Tape Music CenterThe San Francisco Tape Music Center was founded in 1962 by composers Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender as a "nonprofit cultural and educational corporation, the aim of which was to present concerts and offer a place to learn about work within the tape music medium"...
along with
Pauline OliverosPauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
,
Ramon SenderRamon Sender Barayón is a composer, writer and the co-founder, with Morton Subotnick, of the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1961. He studied with George Copeland, Elliott Carter, and Robert Erickson....
,
Morton SubotnickMorton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
, and
Terry RileyTerrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
. He was involved with the premiere of Riley's
In CIn C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work"...
and suggested the use of the eighth note pulse, which is now standard in performance of the piece.
1960s
Reich's early forays into composition involved experimentation with twelve-tone composition, but he found the rhythmic aspects of the twelve-tone series more interesting than the melodic aspects. Reich also composed film soundtracks for
Plastic Haircut,
Oh Dem Watermelons, and
Thick Pucker, three films by
Robert Nelson-Selected filmography:*Special Warning *Limitations *Hamlet Act *Deep Westurn *Bleu Shut *War is Hell *The Awful Backlash *Grateful Dead *The Great Blondino *Hot Leatherette...
. The soundtrack of
Plastic Haircut, composed in 1963, was a short tape collage, possibly Reich's first. The
Watermelons soundtrack used two old
Stephen FosterStephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
minstrel tunes as its basis, and used repeated phrasing together in a large five-part
canonIn music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
. 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 RileyTerrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
, whose work
In CIn C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work"...
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 RainIt's Gonna Rain is a minimalist musical composition for magnetic tape written by Steve Reich in 1965. It lasts approximately 17 minutes and 50 seconds. It was Reich's first major work and a landmark in minimalism and process music.-Analysis:...
. Composed in 1965, the piece used a fragment of a
sermonA sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
about the end of the world given by a black Pentecostal 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 which gradually move out of phase with one another.
The 13-minute "
Come OutCome Out is a 1966 piece by American composer Steve Reich. He was asked to write this piece to be performed at a benefit for the retrial of the Harlem Six, six black youths arrested for committing a murder during the Harlem Riot of 1964 for which only one of the six was responsible...
" (1966) uses similarly manipulated recordings of a single spoken line given by Daniel Hamm, one of the falsely accused Harlem Six, 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.
A similar, lesser known example of
process musicProcess 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...
is "
Pendulum Music"Pendulum Music " is the name of a work by Steve Reich, involving suspended microphones and speakers, creating phasing feedback tones. The piece was composed in August 1968 and revised in May 1973....
" (1968), which consists of the sound of several microphones swinging over the loudspeakers to which they are attached, producing
feedbackFeedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
as they do so. "Pendulum Music" has never been recorded by Reich himself, but was introduced to rock audiences by
Sonic YouthSonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
in the late 1990s.
Reich's first attempt at translating this phasing technique from recorded tape to live performance was the 1967
Piano PhasePiano Phase is a piece of music written in 1967 by the minimalist composer Steve Reich for two pianos. It is his first attempt at applying his "phasing" technique, which he had previously used in the tape pieces It's Gonna Rain and Come Out , to live performance.Reich's phasing works generally...
, for two pianos. In
Piano Phase the performers repeat a rapid twelve-note
melodicA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
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.
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 MusicClapping Music is a minimalist piece written by Steve Reich in 1972. It is written for two performers and is performed entirely by clapping....
(1972), in which the players do not phase in and out with each other, but instead one performer keeps one line of a 12-quaver-long (12-eighth-note-long) phrase and the other performer shifts by one quaver beat every 12 bars, until both performers are back in unison 144 bars later.
The 1967 prototype piece
Slow Motion Sound was never performed, but the idea it introduced of slowing down a recorded sound until many times its original length without changing pitch or timbre was applied to
Four OrgansFour 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 , dissecting the chord by playing parts of it sequentially while the chord slowly increases in duration from a single 1/8 note...
(1970), which deals specifically with augmentation. The piece has
maracas playing a fast
eighth notethumb|180px|right|Figure 1. An eighth note with stem facing up, an eighth note with stem facing down, and an eighth rest.thumb|right|180px|Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together....
pulseIn music and music theory, the pulse or tactus consists of beats in a series of identical yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time occurring at the mensural level...
, while the four organs stress certain eighth notes using an 11th chord. This work therefore dealt with
repetitionRepetition is important in music, where sounds or sequences are often repeated. One often stated idea is that repetition should be in balance with the initial statements and variations in a piece. It may be called restatement, such as the restatement of a theme...
and subtle rhythmic change. It is unique in the context of Reich's other pieces in being linear as opposed to cyclic like his earlier works— the superficially similar
Phase Patterns, also for four organs but without maracas, is (as the name suggests) a phase piece similar to others composed during the period.
Four Organs was performed as part of a
Boston Symphony OrchestraThe Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
program, and was Reich's first composition to be performed in a large traditional setting.
1970s
In 1971, Reich embarked on a five-week trip to study music in
GhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, during which he learned from the master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie. Reich also studied
BaliBali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
nese
gamelanA gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
in Seattle. From his African experience, as well as A. M. Jones's
Studies in African MusicStudies 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:...
about the
music of the EweEwe music is the music of the Ewe people of West Africa. Instrumentation is primarily percussive and rhythmically the music features great metrical complexity. Its highest form is in dance music including a drum orchestra, but there are also work, play, and other songs. Despite his title Ewe music...
people, Reich drew inspiration for his 90-minute piece
DrummingDrumming is a piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich, dating from 1970-1971. Reich began composition of the work after a short visit to Africa and observing music and musical ensembles there, especially under the Anlo Ewe master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie in Ghana. His visit was cut short after...
, which he composed shortly after his return. Composed for a nine-piece percussion ensemble with female voices and
piccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
,
Drumming marked the beginning of a new stage in his career, for around this time he formed his ensemble,
Steve Reich and MusiciansSteve Reich and Musicians, sometimes credited as the Steve Reich Ensemble, is a musical ensemble founded and led by the American composer Steve Reich to perform his compositions. This ensemble has premiered many of Reich's works and has performed his works more than any other...
, 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
augmentationIn Western music and music theory, the word augmentation has three distinct meanings. Augmentation is a compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in longer note-values than were previously used...
(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 OrganMusic for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ is a 1973 composition by American composer Steve Reich. The piece is scored for glockenspiels, marimbas, metallophone , women's voices, and organ, and runs about 17 minutes....
(1973) and
Six PianosSix Pianos is a minimalist piece for six pianos composed by Steve Reich in 1973. He also composed a remix for six marimbas, called Six Marimbas, in 1986....
(1973).
In 1974, Reich began writing what many would call his seminal work,
Music for 18 MusiciansMusic for 18 Musicians is a work of musical minimalism composed by Steve Reich during 1974-1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976 at Town Hall, New York. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New Series...
. This piece involved many new ideas, although it also hearkened back to earlier pieces. It is based on a
cycleA music cycle is when a section of a song/music is repeated.In music a cycle is a section which is repeated or repeatable indefinitely, with the end of a preceding repetition leading to the beginning of a succeeding repetition. Cycles may be melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, or based on some other...
of
eleven chordsA chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
introduced at the beginning (called "Pulses"), followed by a small section of music based on each
chordA chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
("Sections I-XI"), and finally a return to the original cycle ("Pulses"). This was Reich's first attempt at writing for larger
ensembleA musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
s. 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.
Reich explored these ideas further in his frequently recorded pieces
Music for a Large EnsembleMusic for a Large Ensemble is a piece of music written by Steve Reich in 1978. It is scored for string instruments, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, pianos, marimbas, vibraphones, xylophones and two female voices....
(1978) and
Octet (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 KeyboardsVariations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards is an orchestral piece composed in 1979 by Steve Reich. The piece is scored for oboes, flutes, full brass , strings, pianos, and electric organs...
(also 1979), Reich's music showed the influence of Biblical
cantillationCantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points...
, which he had studied in
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
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 a book,
Writings About Music (ISBN 0814773583), 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) (ISBN 0195111710), was published in 2002.
1980s
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.
TehillimTehillim is a piece of music by American composer Steve Reich, written in 1981.The title comes from the Hebrew word for "psalms", and the work is the first to reflect Reich's Jewish heritage...
(1981),
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
for
psalms, 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
sopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, two lyric sopranos and one
altoAlto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...
),
piccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
,
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
,
oboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, English horn, two
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s, six percussion (playing small tuned
tambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
s without jingles, clapping,
maracas,
marimbaThe marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
,
vibraphoneThe vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
and
crotalesthumb|right|Crotales are often used with other mallet percussionCrotales , sometimes called antique cymbals, are percussion instruments consisting of small, tuned bronze or brass disks. Each is about 4 inches in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base. They are commonly...
), two
electronic organAn electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
s, two violins,
violaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, cello and
double bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, 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
counterpointIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
and functional
harmonyIn music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
also contrasts with the loosely structured minimalist works written previously.
Different TrainsDifferent Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.The work's three movements have the following titles:...
(1988), for
string quartetA string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
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
NaziNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
rule. The
Kronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
recording of
Different Trains was awarded the
Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary CompositionThe Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition was first awarded in 1961. This award was not presented from 1967 to 1984.The award has had several minor name changes:...
in 1990. The composition was described by
Richard TaruskinRichard Taruskin is an American-Russian musicologist, music historian, and critic who has written about the theory of performance, Russian music, fifteenth-century music, twentieth-century music, nationalism, the theory of modernism, and analysis. As a choral conductor he directed the Columbia...
as "the only adequate musical response—one of the few adequate artistic responses in any medium—to
the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
", and he credited the piece with earning Reich a place among the great composers of the 20th century.
1990s to present
In 1993, Reich collaborated with his wife, the video artist
Beryl Korot-Biography:Beryl Korot has pioneered the field of video art since the early 1970s. She was co-editor of Radical Software , the first publication to discuss the possibilities of the new video medium, and Video Art with Ira Schneider...
, on an opera,
The Cave, which explores the roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam through the words of
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
is,
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
s, and
AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ns, echoed musically by the ensemble. The work, for percussion, voices, and strings, is a musical documentary, named for the Cave of Machpelah in
HebronHebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
, where a mosque now stands and
AbrahamAbraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
is said to have been buried. The two collaborated again on the opera
Three TalesThree Tales is a contemporary video-opera in three acts, composed by American composer Steve Reich in 2002. Beryl Korot, the wife of the composer, created the visuals which accompany the music written for ensemble and pre-recorded audio. Its world premiere was at the Vienna Festival, on May 12, 2002...
, which concerns the
Hindenburg disasterThe Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey...
, the testing of
nuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s on
Bikini AtollBikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....
, and other more modern concerns, specifically
Dolly the sheepDolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in Scotland...
,
cloningCloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
, and the
technological singularityTechnological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
.
As well as pieces using sampling techniques, like
Three Tales and
City Life (1994), Reich also returned to composing purely instrumental works for the concert hall, starting with
Triple Quartet (1998) written for the
Kronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
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
BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
's and
Alfred SchnittkeAlfred Schnittke ; November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Russian and Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony and First Concerto Grosso...
's string quartets, and
Michael GordonMichael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism and post-minimalism.-Early life:...
's
Yo Shakespeare. This series continued with
Dance Patterns (2002),
Cello Counterpoint (2003), and sequence of works centered around Variations:
You Are (Variations) (2004) (a work which looks back to the vocal writing of works like
Tehillim or
The Desert Music),
Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings (2005, for the
London SinfoniettaThe London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
) and
Daniel Variations (2006).
Invited by
Walter FinkWalter Fink is a German retired executive and a patron of Contemporary music. He is mostly known for being a founding member, Executive Committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival.- Biography :...
, he was the 12th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the
Rheingau Musik FestivalThe Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...
in 2002.
In an interview with
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Reich stated that he continues to follow this direction with his piece
Double Sextet (2007) commissioned by
eighth blackbirdeighth blackbird is a Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet based in Chicago. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird...
, an American ensemble consisting of the instrumental quintet (
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
,
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, violin or
violaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, cello and piano) of
SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's piece
Pierrot LunaireDreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire' , commonly known simply as Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 , is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg...
(1912) plus percussion. Reich states that he was thinking about Stravinsky's
Agon (1957) as a model for the instrumental writing.
Reich was awarded the 2009
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for Music, on April 20, 2009, for
Double Sextet.
December 2010
NoneSuchThe word nonesuch means something with nothing like it; an unrivalled thing; a paragon. Nonesuch can also refer to the following:*Nonesuch Press*Nonesuch Records*Nonesuch River*Nonesuch River Golf Course...
and
Indaba MusicIndaba 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 contests with popular artists...
held a community remix contest where 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". 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.
In May 2011, Steve Reich received an honorary doctorate from the
New England Conservatory of MusicThe New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
.
Influence
Reich's style of composition has influenced many other composers and musical groups, including
John AdamsJohn Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
, the
progressive rockProgressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band
King CrimsonKing Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, the new-age guitarist
Michael HedgesMichael Alden Hedges was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.-Background:...
, the art-pop and electronic musician
Brian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, the experimental art/music group
The ResidentsThe Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....
, the composers associated with the
Bang on a CanBang on a Can is a multi-faceted 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...
festival (including
David LangDavid Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
,
Michael GordonMichael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism and post-minimalism.-Early life:...
, and
Julia WolfeJulia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...
), and numerous
indie rockIndie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
musicians including songwriter
Sufjan StevensSufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
and instrumental ensembles
TortoiseTortoise is an American post-rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1990.-Music:Tortoise's almost entirely instrumental music defies easy categorization, and the group gained significant attention from their early career. The members have roots in Chicago's fertile music scene, playing in...
,
The Mercury ProgramThe Mercury Program is an American musical group composed of Dave Lebleu on drums, Sander Travisano on bass guitar, Tom Reno on guitar, and Whit Travisano on vibraphone and piano. They are based in Gainesville, FL. The first three members formed a trio in August 1997 and Whit Travisano joined in...
(themselves influenced by Tortoise),
So Many DynamosSo Many Dynamos is a rock band from St Louis, Missouri, USA. Their music is generally classified as indie rock, combining aspects of pop, dance-punk, and math rock. They take their name from a famous palindrome. The band signed a contract with Vagrant Records in late 2008.-History:So Many Dynamos...
,
Do Make Say ThinkDo Make Say Think is a Canadian instrumental post-rock band from Toronto, Ontario. Their music combines jazz style drums, distorted guitars and wind instruments, as well as a prominent use of the bass guitar.-Biography:...
and A Silver Mt. Zion.
Godspeed You! Black EmperorGodspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock band which originated from Montreal, Quebec in 1994...
composed a song, unreleased, entitled "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 NaumanBruce Nauman is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives in Galisteo, New Mexico....
, and many notable choreographers have made dances to his music,
Eliot FeldEliot Feld is an American modern ballet choreographer, performer and director.-Life and career:Feld was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Alice , a travel agent, and Benjamin Noah Feld, an attorney...
,
Jiří KyliánJiří Kylián is a Czech dance choreographer.Kylián studied in Prague and, at the age of 20, won a scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London. He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1968 and worked under John Cranko, where he began to choreograph. Kylián became Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans...
, Douglas Lee and
Jerome RobbinsJerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...
among others; he has expressed particular admiration of
Anne Teresa De KeersmaekerAnne Teresa, Baroness De Keersmaeker is one of the most prominent choreographers in contemporary dance...
's work set to his pieces.
In featuring a sample of Reich's
Electric CounterpointElectric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition written by American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast", "Slow", and "Fast"...
(1987) the British ambient techno act
the OrbThroughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...
exposed a new generation of listeners to the composer's music with its 1990 production “
Little Fluffy Clouds"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the English ambient house group The Orb. It was originally released in July 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at #87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld...
.” Further acknowledgment of Reich's influence on various electronic dance music producers came with the release in 1999 of the
Reich Remixed tribute album which featured reinterpretations by artists such as
DJ SpookyPaul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
, Kurtis Mantronik,
Ken Ishiiis a Japanese techno DJ and 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....
, and
ColdcutColdcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
, among others.
Reich often cites
PérotinPérotin , also called Perotin the Great, was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style...
,
J.S. BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
,
DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
,
BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, and
StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
as composers he admires, whose tradition he wished as a young composer to become part of. 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 FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
and
Alfred DellerAlfred George Deller CBE , was an English singer and one of the main figures in popularizing the return of the countertenor voice in Renaissance and Baroque music during the 20th Century....
, whose emphasis on the artistic capabilities of the voice alone with little vibrato or other alteration was an inspiration to his earliest works.
John ColtraneJohn William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
'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-Personnel:* John Coltrane — soprano and tenor saxophone* Booker Little — trumpet* Freddie Hubbard — trumpet on May 23 session only* Britt Woodman — trombone on June 4 session only* Charles Greenlee — euphonium on May 23 session only...
, which "was basically a half-an-hour in F." 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 ClarkeKenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
and
Miles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, and visual artist friends such as
Sol LeWittSolomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
and
Richard SerraRichard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...
. Reich recently contributed the introduction to
Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller, a.k.a.
DJ SpookyPaul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
.
Recent projects
Reich has the world premiere of a piece,
WTC 9/11WTC 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 Barbican Centre, Carnegie Hall, Duke University, the University...
, written for String Quartet and Tape, a similar instrumentation to that of
Different TrainsDifferent Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.The work's three movements have the following titles:...
. It premiered in March 2011 by the
Kronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, at
Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, North Carolina, USA.
Quotations
Works
- Soundtrack for The Plastic Haircut, tape (1963)
- Music for two or more pianos (1964)
- Livelihood (1964)
- It's Gonna Rain
It's Gonna Rain is a minimalist musical composition for magnetic tape written by Steve Reich in 1965. It lasts approximately 17 minutes and 50 seconds. It was Reich's first major work and a landmark in minimalism and process music.-Analysis:...
, tape (1965)
- Soundtrack for Oh Dem Watermelons, tape (1965)
- Come Out
Come Out is a 1966 piece by American composer Steve Reich. He was asked to write this piece to be performed at a benefit for the retrial of the Harlem Six, six black youths arrested for committing a murder during the Harlem Riot of 1964 for which only one of the six was responsible...
, tape (1966)
- Melodica, for melodica and tape (1966)
- Reed Phase, for soprano saxophone and tape (1966)
- Piano Phase
Piano Phase is a piece of music written in 1967 by the minimalist composer Steve Reich for two pianos. It is his first attempt at applying his "phasing" technique, which he had previously used in the tape pieces It's Gonna Rain and Come Out , to live performance.Reich's phasing works generally...
for two pianos, or two marimbas (1967)
- Slow Motion Sound concept piece (1967)
- Violin Phase
Violin Phase, written by minimalist composer Steve Reich in October 1967, is an example of his phasing technique previously used in Piano Phase in which the music itself is created not by the instruments but by interactions of temporal variations on an original melody...
for violin and tape or four violins (1967)
- My Name Is for three tape recorders and performers (1967)
- Pendulum Music
"Pendulum Music " is the name of a work by Steve Reich, involving suspended microphones and speakers, creating phasing feedback tones. The piece was composed in August 1968 and revised in May 1973....
for 3 or 4 microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers (1968) (revised 1973)
- 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 , dissecting the chord by playing parts of it sequentially while the chord slowly increases in duration from a single 1/8 note...
for four electric organs and maracas (1970)
- Phase Patterns for four electric organs (1970)
- Drumming
Drumming is a piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich, dating from 1970-1971. Reich began composition of the work after a short visit to Africa and observing music and musical ensembles there, especially under the Anlo Ewe master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie in Ghana. His visit was cut short after...
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....
for two musicians clapping (1972)
- Music for Pieces of Wood for five pairs of tuned claves (1973)
- Six Pianos
Six Pianos is a minimalist piece for six pianos composed by Steve Reich in 1973. He also composed a remix for six marimbas, called Six Marimbas, in 1986....
(1973) – transcribed as Six Marimbas (1986)
- 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 , women's voices, and organ, and runs about 17 minutes....
(1973)
- Music for 18 Musicians
Music for 18 Musicians is a work of musical minimalism composed by Steve Reich during 1974-1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976 at Town Hall, New York. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New Series...
(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 string instruments, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, pianos, marimbas, vibraphones, xylophones and two female voices....
(1978)
- Octet
Octet is a work by American minimalist composer Steve Reich. It was originally scored for string quartet, two pianos, and two clarinets doubling both bass clarinet and flute as well as piccolo. It was completed in April 1979, and was premiered on June 21, 1979, by members of the Netherlands Wind...
(1979) – withdrawn in favor of the 1983 revision for slightly larger ensemble, Eight LinesEight Lines, a work by American minimalist composer Steve Reich, is a rescoring of his earlier Octet. In addition to the original scoring for Octet , Reich added another string quartet...
- 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 , strings, pianos, and electric organs...
for orchestra (1979)
- Tehillim
Tehillim is a piece of music by American composer Steve Reich, written in 1981.The title comes from the Hebrew word for "psalms", and the work is the first to reflect Reich's Jewish heritage...
for voices and ensemble (1981)
- Vermont Counterpoint
Vermont Counterpoint for amplified flute and tape is a minimalist composition written by American composer Steve Reich.Composer's Notes...
for amplified flute and tape (1982)
- The Desert Music
The Desert Music is a work of music for voices and orchestra composed by Steve Reich based on texts by William Carlos Williams. It consists of five movements, and in both its tempi and arrangement of thematic material, the piece is in a characteristic arch form...
for chorus and orchestra or voices and ensemble (1983, text by William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
)
- Sextet
Sextet is a composition by Steve Reich. As the title indicates, it is written for an ensemble of four percussionists and two keyboardists. The percussionists play three marimbas, two vibraphones, two bass drums, crotales, sticks, and tam-tam. The keyboardists play both pianos and synthesizers set...
for percussion and keyboards (1984)
- New York Counterpoint for amplified clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and tape, or 11 clarinets and bass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
(1985)
- Three Movements for orchestra (1986)
- Electric Counterpoint
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition written by American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast", "Slow", and "Fast"...
for electric guitar or amplified acoustic guitar and tape (1987, for Pat MethenyPatrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
)
- 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. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.The work's three movements have the following titles:...
for string quartet and tape (1988)
- The Cave for four voices, ensemble and video (1993, with Beryl Korot
-Biography:Beryl Korot has pioneered the field of video art since the early 1970s. She was co-editor of Radical Software , the first publication to discuss the possibilities of the new video medium, and Video Art with Ira Schneider...
)
- Duet for two violins and string ensemble (1993)
- Nagoya Marimbas for two marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
s (1994)
- City Life for amplified ensemble (1995)
- Proverb
Proverb is a musical composition by Steve Reich for three sopranos, two tenors, two vibraphones, and two electric organs. It sets a text by Ludwig Wittgenstein. It was written in 1995 and was originally intended for The Proms and the Utrecht Early Music Festival...
for voices and ensemble (1995, text by Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
)
- Triple Quartet
Triple Quartet is a piece written by Steve Reich in 1998. It was commissioned by and is dedicated to the Kronos Quartet, and was premiered by them on May 22, 1999 in the Kennedy Center, Washington DC....
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 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 to ensure a high, sharp timbre and a minimum of sustain...
s (1999)
- Three Tales
Three Tales is a contemporary video-opera in three acts, composed by American composer Steve Reich in 2002. Beryl Korot, the wife of the composer, created the visuals which accompany the music written for ensemble and pre-recorded audio. Its world premiere was at the Vienna Festival, on May 12, 2002...
for video projection, five voices and ensemble (1998–2002, with Beryl Korot-Biography:Beryl Korot has pioneered the field of video art since the early 1970s. She was co-editor of Radical Software , the first publication to discuss the possibilities of the new video medium, and Video Art with Ira Schneider...
)
- Dance Patterns for 2 xylophones, 2 vibraphones and 2 pianos (2002)
- Cello Counterpoint 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
Daniel Variations is a composition by Steve Reich written in 2006. It is scored for two each of soprano and tenor voices, clarinets, four pianos, string quartet and percussion...
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...
for 2 violins, 2 cellos, 2 pianos, 2 vibraphones, 2 clarinets, 2 flutes or ensemble and pre-recorded tape (2007)
- 2x5
2x5 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...
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; four marimbas; or one percussionist and tape. It was co-commissioned by the Amadinda Quartet in Budapest, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, by Nexus in Toronto, So Percussion in New York, and Synergy...
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 Barbican Centre, Carnegie Hall, Duke University, the University...
for String Quartet and Tape (2010)
Selected discography
- Drumming
Drumming is a piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich, dating from 1970-1971. Reich began composition of the work after a short visit to Africa and observing music and musical ensembles there, especially under the Anlo Ewe master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie in Ghana. His visit was cut short after...
. Steve Reich and Musicians (Two recordings: Deutsche GrammophonDeutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
and NonesuchNonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
) So PercussionSo Percussion is an American percussion quartet based in New York City.Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for its work with composers such as Steve Reich, David Lang, Paul Lansky, Martin...
(Cantaloupe)
- Music for 18 Musicians
Music for 18 Musicians is a work of musical minimalism composed by Steve Reich during 1974-1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976 at Town Hall, New York. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New Series...
. Steve Reich and Musicians (Two recordings: ECMECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
and Nonesuch), Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble (Innova), Ensemble ModernEnsemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to 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....
(RCA).
- Octet/Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase
The album consists of commissioned works by Steve Reich. Music for a Large Ensemble was commissioned by the Holland Festival, Violin Phase was an earlier work that dealt with repetition.-Tracks:#Music for a Large Ensemble#Violin Phase#Octet...
. Steve Reich and Musicians (ECMECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
)
- Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards/Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ/ Six Pianos. San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart is a Dutch conductor, and the Music Director of both the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra....
, Steve Reich & Musicians (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Tehillim
Tehillim is:*The Hebrew name of the biblical Book of Psalms*A piece of music by Steve Reich, see Tehillim...
/The Desert MusicThe Desert Music is a work of music for voices and orchestra composed by Steve Reich based on texts by William Carlos Williams. It consists of five movements, and in both its tempi and arrangement of thematic material, the piece is in a characteristic arch form...
. Alarm Will SoundAlarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the Financial Times and as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the San Francisco...
and OSSIA, Alan Pierson (Cantaloupe)
- Different Trains
Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.The work's three movements have the following titles:...
/Electric CounterpointElectric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition written by American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast", "Slow", and "Fast"...
. Kronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, Pat MethenyPatrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
(Nonesuch)
- You Are (Variations)/Cello Counterpoint. Los Angeles Master Chorale
The Los Angeles Master Chorale is a professional chorus in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1964 by Roger Wagner to be one of the three original resident companies of the Music Center of Los Angeles County...
, Grant Gershon, Maya Beiser (Nonesuch)
- Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995
Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995 is a 1997 10-CD box set of compositions by composer Steve Reich released by Nonesuch Records as part of Reich's 60th birthday celebration. Described as, "monumental... essential.....
. Various performers (Nonesuch).
- Daniel Variations
Daniel Variations is a composition by Steve Reich written in 2006. It is scored for two each of soprano and tenor voices, clarinets, four pianos, string quartet and percussion...
, with Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings. London SinfoniettaThe London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
, Grant Gershon, Alan Pierson (Nonesuch)
- Double Sextet/2x5
The album consists of two works composed by Steve Reich, the first being Double Sextet, the piece which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music, written for two identical sextets of flute, clarinet, vibraphone, piano, violin and cello. It has been recently quoted as being "among the finest pieces of...
, Eighth Blackbirdeighth blackbird is a Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet based in Chicago. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird...
and Bang on a CanBang on a Can is a multi-faceted 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...
(Nonesuch)
- Piano Phase
Piano Phase is a piece of music written in 1967 by the minimalist composer Steve Reich for two pianos. It is his first attempt at applying his "phasing" technique, which he had previously used in the tape pieces It's Gonna Rain and Come Out , to live performance.Reich's phasing works generally...
, transcribed for guitar, Alexandre Gérard (Catapult)
- Phase to Face, a film documentary about Steve Reich by Eric Darmon & Franck Mallet (EuroArts) DVD
Further reading
- D.J. Hoek. Steve Reich: A Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 2002.
- Steve Reich. Writings about Music. Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1974.
- K. Robert Schwarz. Minimalists. Phaidon Press, 1996.
External links
Interviews
- A Steve Reich Interview with Christopher Abbot
- Two interviews with Steve Reich by Bruce Duffie (October, 1985 & November, 1995)
- Steve Reich Interview (7/98) with Richard Kessler
- Time and Motion: an interview with Steve Reich, by Robert Davidson, 1999
- A Steve Reich Interview with Marc Weidenbaum, 1999
- "Drumming" – Interview & analysis, selected as one of the NPR 100 most important musical works of the 20th century. Realaudio
RealAudio 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-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...
format, timing: 12:46, July, 2000
- Steve Reich Interview with Jakob Buhre, August 2000
- In Conversation with Steve Reich, by Molly Sheridan, June 2002
- Steve Reich and Beryl Korot interviewed by David Allenby, 2002
- An interview in The Guardian, January 2, 2004
- The Next Phase: Steve Reich talks to Richard Kessler About Redefinition and Renewal, 2004
- "How Small a Thought it Takes to Fill a Whole Life" – An Interview with Not-So-Minimalist Composer Steve Reich on AdventuresInMusic.biz, 2005
- A Steve Reich Interview with Hermann Kretzschmar on You Are (Variations), 2005
- The beaten track, an interview with Reich, by Andrew Clements, The Guardian, October 28, 2005
- 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
- Interview: Steve Reich, by Joshua Klein, November 22, 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)
- "Video Interview (Feb. 2006)", 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
Listening
Others