Steve Reich

A google search did not turn up a thread devoted solely to Steve Reich oeuvre. Here we can discuss his work.

My favorite Reich pieces are Eight Lines (one of the least discussed Reich works but truly stunning), 18 Musicians, and Electric Counterpoint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbC5zhFX7Kw

I was just listening to Different Trains. I have not always been fond of this piece, but I realize now how important, and beautiful, it is. Especially the last movement. However I do feel like this was his last great work.

Eight lines (octet) is possibly my favorite piece of music ever

I've only heard Music for 18 Musicians, but I fucking love it.

Interesting that this thread popped up today though, I'm actually seeing him in concert tonight, performing Clapping Music, Vermont Counterpoint, Drumming (part one) and Different Trains. Gonna be awesome!

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:42 AM, modey said:

Interesting that this thread popped up today though, I'm actually seeing him in concert tonight, performing Clapping Music, Vermont Counterpoint, Drumming (part one) and Different Trains. Gonna be awesome!

I envy you tremendously!

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:42 AM, modey said:

I've only heard Music for 18 Musicians, but I fucking love it.

 

Interesting that this thread popped up today though, I'm actually seeing him in concert tonight, performing Clapping Music, Vermont Counterpoint, Drumming (part one) and Different Trains. Gonna be awesome!

awesome! I had the pleasure of seeing him in concert too in march. Was incredible! He talked to us, made a couple of jokes a radiohead's expense, then played clapping music perfectly, and was generally very spry and alert for a guy in his mid 70s. What a boss!!

Cool. Yeah the event page says there will be a discussion as well, that should be pretty great.

Can't wait to hear Clapping Music actually, even though the premise is minimal as fuck. Would be good to just appreciate it from a discipline point of view.

I am less of a fan of the earlier concept pieces like clapping music, come out, it's gonna rain, even piano phase (technically astonishing though it is) than I am of the ones I mentioned in the OP. They're important experiments, but he went on to do so much more musically while remaining on the same conceptual foundation

i like the marimba thingy

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:50 AM, modey said:

Cool. Yeah the event page says there will be a discussion as well, that should be pretty great.

Can't wait to hear Clapping Music actually, even though the premise is minimal as fuck. Would be good to just appreciate it from a discipline point of view.

clapping music sounds far cooler than its premise indicates actually.

I had a huge reich phase (no pun) a few years ago and recently pulled out different trains. I have never checked out eight lines though. I should probably get on that.

He doesn't even like one of my favorite pieces by him, Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards. Said he had no emotional attachment to it. Hard to see how someone couldn't. It sound like something straight out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Also Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ is pretty damn amazing.

four organs.

/thread

  On 4/30/2012 at 4:20 AM, dr lopez said:

four organs.

 

/thread

love this bit:

  Quote

A 1973 performance of Four Organs at Carnegie Hall in New York City nearly caused a riot, with "yells for the music to stop, mixed with applause to hasten the end of the piece."^[5] One of the performers, Michael Tilson Thomas, recalls: "One woman walked down the aisle and repeatedly banged her head on the front of the stage, wailing 'Stop, stop, I confess!'"^[6][7]

Sounds a little like Quoth!

i like the one where i had to, like, open the bruise up and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them

come out to show them

come out to show them

camahama shoresho

camahamahama shortyshoreshor

commacamahama shosho

sushisushisushishushi

ammmmmammmmammmm

From what I've heard I reckon Music for 18 musicians is his best.

Tehillim is my absolute favourite. Used it very extensively while sunbathing (no joke). It really have a feeling of giving inner peace.

Ohh and what would most electronic artists be without Steve (Reich, not Jobs)?

I love Steve Reich. I started a thread about Clapping Music a while ago, dunno where it is.

I have many favourites, but I have to say right now that "Music for a Large Ensemble" opens in the most perfect way possible. You only need to hear the first second to know that the entire piece is orgasmically awe-inspiring. The 15 minute performance, in its entirety, delivers exactly what was promised.

"Four Organs" is a breathtaking exploration of a single chord, as every tiny, fertile detail is fully exposed in all its beauty. It almost has the feeling that, not just the chord, but the mood and atmosphere of the piece is being taken apart and examined. Listening to this piece must be how God feels when he imagines his own feeling of peace and serenity, understanding something as complex as emotion with total clarity.

Another little-known piece is "Reed Phase", which is dedicated to Jon Gibson. This piece has a very powerful, energetic feeling. Over the course of the piece, it is strengthened and amplified, to monumental effect, by the simplest of techniques. I know a lot of people find it hard to cope with such overwhelming moods, but I just really love and appreciate music that can express energy in this way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TWMTV2p0n0

There is an exquisite 14 minute recording of this piece on a compilation called "Early American Minimalism - Walls of Sound II".

By the way, did anyone see that documentary about Steve Reich on Sky Arts? Amazing stuff.

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:42 AM, modey said:

I've only heard Music for 18 Musicians, but I fucking love it.

 

Interesting that this thread popped up today though, I'm actually seeing him in concert tonight, performing Clapping Music, Vermont Counterpoint, Drumming (part one) and Different Trains. Gonna be awesome!

I saw him in vermont and the orchestra played vermont counterpoint!! i felt like such a douche though because I had to leave after the first two pieces to study for a final. he was sitting at the back of the hall by the soundboard and i walked right by him out the door, gave me a look like "wtf man you're walking out of my free concert?"

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:50 AM, modey said:

Cool. Yeah the event page says there will be a discussion as well, that should be pretty great.

Can't wait to hear Clapping Music actually, even though the premise is minimal as fuck. Would be good to just appreciate it from a discipline point of view.

oh hey I was actually there too, whadda ya know. Vermont Counterpoint was an amazing piece I'd never heard of. It struck me as interesting that the flutist was dressed relatively casually when everybody else was in concert blacks.

if you saw a weird young guy wandering around alone with a backpack that was probably me.

  On 5/26/2012 at 8:53 AM, Ricky Downtown said:

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:42 AM, modey said:

I've only heard Music for 18 Musicians, but I fucking love it.

 

Interesting that this thread popped up today though, I'm actually seeing him in concert tonight, performing Clapping Music, Vermont Counterpoint, Drumming (part one) and Different Trains. Gonna be awesome!

 

I saw him in vermont and the orchestra played vermont counterpoint!! i felt like such a douche though because I had to leave after the first two pieces to study for a final. he was sitting at the back of the hall by the soundboard and i walked right by him out the door, gave me a look like "wtf man you're walking out of my free concert?"

ahaha amazing.

Love Reich!

This piece is one of my favorites (although there is so much good stuff, I can't say I have "a" favorite)

[youtubehd]I5lgAUHVFC4[/youtubehd]

Ah yes, pre covid times...

I visited this great performance of music for 18 (edit: not 50 lol) musicians in May 2016 in Rotterdam

  On 4/9/2021 at 4:02 PM, Berk said:

Ah yes, pre covid times...

I visited this great performance of music for 18 (edit: not 50 lol) musicians in May 2016 in Rotterdam

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Wonderful! I saw a live performance at UIUC a couple years back -- magical.

I think watching the ensemble really adds something.