POX: Steve Reich

hey thanks!

milton, got andrea w to help

whoa fuckin a dude congrats!

we came 34th haha

the 75th birthday concert at carnegie hall was short but sweet. so percussion did "mallets," kronos quartet did "wtc 9/11," bang on a can did an awesome "2 X 5," and eighth blackbird closed out with a not so bad "double sextet." the only thing that put me to sleep was "wtc 9/11," which is a shame since it was a premiere. oh well. sometimes i couldn't help wondering either why every piece has to have a slow middle movement, and what mike oldfield makes of reich. anyways it felt good to applaud the old fella applauding us back at the end of the show

>what mike oldfield makes of reich

1978's 'Incantations' was pretty much an answer record to Oldfield discovering Reich. And then the next record had that disco cover of Glass' 'North Star'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyjPL_o0fjc

I heard an interview with Reich this week and he said the premier of WTC 9/11 was in North Carolina but this was to be the first performance in NYC.

milton that song is bizarre! thanks for posting it. i wonder where "2 X 5" premiered. this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fapq0H--lME
kinda gives an idea of how frippy a guitar symphony can be. nothing like seeing it live though. all sorts of crusty oldsters were rocking out. can't believe the guy's in his 70s and making music that sounds a little like battles

Not going to Sonar this year, but man, this sucks: Steve Reich just pulled out of the festival due to health problems.

"Steve Reich will be unable to travel to Barcelona for his performance at Sonar festival this year due to health issues. Sonar says that 74 year old Reich is "obliged to remain at home under medical orders".

http://thewire.co.uk/articles/6768/

Knew he shouldn't have been hugging all those strangers at his birthday party. Hugging randoms, sure way to pick up nasty germs.

(Kidding. Get well Steve Reich!)

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lptkt40Rxc1qap6kyo1_500.jpg
hmm, this cover has apparently been pulled by nonesuch because people were offended. i'm not offended, it's just kind of cruddy.
Minimalist composer Steve Reich made waves a few weeks ago when his record label, Nonesuch, unveiled the cover art for his new album, WTC 9/11: a darkened, dirtied version of a photograph taken on the tragic day, featuring the second hijacked plane just moments before it hit the second tower.
Reaction was swift and fierce, as Seth Colter Walls detailed in a piece for Slate. Critics said that the commercial repurposing of such an image was insensitive and inappropriate; a fellow composer called it “the first truly despicable classical album cover that I have ever seen.” …

Now, the mini-tragedy has been avoided: Nonesuch just announced that it will replace the cover art for the album’s Sept. 20 release.

It's strange that he couldn't come up with a more artistic or abstract representation of 9/11 and instead chose the most iconic image.

yeah. here's reich's statement
As a composer I want people to listen to my music without something distracting them. The present cover of WTC 9/11 will, for many, act as a distraction from listening and so, with the gracious agreement of Nonesuch, the cover is being changed.

When the cover was being designed, I believed, as did all the staff at Nonesuch and the art director, that a piece of music with documentary material from an event would best be matched with a documentary photograph of that event. I felt that the photo suggested by our art director was very powerful, and Nonesuch backed me up. All of us felt that anyone seeing the cover would feel the same way.

When the cover was released on the Nonesuch site and elsewhere, there was, instead, an outpouring of controversy mostly by people who had never heard the music.

When WTC 9/11 was performed by the Kronos Quartet, first in Durham, North Carolina, at Duke University and then shortly afterwards outside of Los Angeles and then at Carnegie Hall and again at the Barbican Centre in London, the reaction of the public and press was extremely thoughtful and moving. To have this reaction to the music usurped by the album cover seemed completely wrong. Accordingly, the cover is being changed.

I want to thank Nonesuch for backing up my original decision about the cover and for backing up my decision now to change it so we can put the focus back where it belongs, on the music.

I mean, there's is so much potential for artistic interpretation around this enormous earth-shattering event and so many powerful existing images.

a fellow composer called it “the first truly despicable classical album cover that I have ever seen.” …

truly despicable classical album covers i have known

I am going to fathom a guess that the fellow composer was not Karlheinz Stockhausen...

has he seen this one?
http://forums.kickassclassical.com/download/file.php?id=57&sid=1230858b777c644635f6a417935a3bec

i don't find it offensive but it does seem like its being turned into album cover art twisted something about the way the image would be seen that would be unacceptable to people who are probably within their rights.

i'm not even sure it could be pulled off without lettering, but lettering automatically makes an image read, somehow, as if someone is saying 'awesome' about it, or as if the name above it is proud of it.

Or like, in terms of a musician, "I am this - it represents me."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg4-AtqhKh8

hey i like the johnny greenwood electric counterpoint

http://clappingmusicapp.com/

came up on my Facebook today but only for iphone, screw you Reich

NYC Aug 5

http://www.lcoutofdoors.org/events/full-band-electric-counterpoint-dither-and-friends-featuring-lee-ranaldo-yo-la-tengo-and-mark-stewart-matmos

Am I a rhythmical klutz or is the clapping music app hard mode really fucking hard?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhMiuzyU1ag

Am I a rhythmical klutz or is the clapping music app hard mode really fucking hard?

Braggin'

http://i66.tinypic.com/28aurle.jpg

Tonight at 7:30 (UK time) The Royal College of Music are livestreaming a concert of and Reich will be there too.

The program is Clapping Music, Double Sextet, Three Movements and Quartet.

http://www.rcm.ac.uk/live/

https://twitter.com/MrJamesMay/status/708045234668773376

Yeah, I saw him at the interval, he was up in the balcony/area with the hob nobs, like the big berry faced wanker he is.

What was the girl miming with sound effects all about? Is there a compulsory bit where someone must abase themselves for the amusement of royalty, lest the high minded art lend the occasion too much dignity.

Yeah, no idea what that was all about, it was earlier in the day I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ib8Fdmp1hE

i know this is insane but now i can't help but hear one of the street recording snippets in the first movement of "different trains' "trump's the problem. from new york. trump's the problem. from new york" instead of "from chicago. to new york." trump has infiltrated and ruined every part of me

see also: nellie the elephant

Live in a couple of hours: clapping music, quartet, drumming.

https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/079679-001-A/weekend-steve-reich-a-la-fondation-louis-vuitton-concert-1/

Thank you!

^^^ OTM

even better: it's three concerts in a row - tomorrow as well

http://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/expositions/exposition-moma0/weekend-special-steve-reich.html

http://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/expositions/exposition-moma0/weekend-special-steve-reich.html <- in English

Reich always gets namechecked in pieces about artists I really like (Tangerine Dream, Tortoise, Nik Bartsch) but I guess I've only heard the "wrong" stuff because I don't especially like anything I've heard. Clapping and Four Organs grate on me; I have a soft spot for It's Gonna Rain but a little of that phasing fuckery goes a long way. Guessing I need to hear Drumming or MF18M to get the polyrhythmic zen funk marimba jams? What else?

Music For A Large Ensemble. Go!

Although I wouldn't call it Zen funk, it's more lush than that suggests, I believe that is the marimba hit you seek / require.

clapping and four organs are definitely not going to hit your emotional core as well as some of his other pieces. likewise drumming as a whole (honestly, part iv is the best once all the instruments come together).

for stuff to feel deep-ass feelings to:
music for 18 musicians
tehillim (and in this vein, genesis xxi from the cave)
octet/music for a large ensemble
six pianos
electric counterpoint

Excellent. Thanks, all. Lots to check out here.

Different Trains

Drumming is fkn awesome.

There are multiple versions of Music for 18 Musicians; a lot of people prefer the ECM version, but I like the Nonesuch version better because that's the one I heard first.

they both slap afaic

yep

the fast section of Electric Counterpoint is a surprisingly effective DJ drop in the right circumstances.