POX: Steve Reich

Alas, I'm at the wrong end of the country.

Disc: 1
1. Music For 18 Musicians

Disc: 2
1. Different Trains
2. Tehillim
3. Eight Lines

Disc: 3
1. You Are
2. New York Counterpoint
3. Cello Counterpoint
4. Electric Counterpoint
5. Triple Quartet

Disc: 4
1. Come Out
2. Proverb
3. Desert Music

Disc: 5
1. Music For Mallet Instruments Voices And Organ
2. Drumming

this set is for us jews.

Anyway, my POX:

1. Eight Lines (Octet)
2. Four Organs (Bang on a Can) *
3. Four Organs (Reich/Gibson/Murphy/Chambers/Glass)
4. Music for 18 Musicians
5. Music for a Large Ensemble (12 78)
6. The Four Sections (Winds & Brass)
7. Phase Patterns
8. Piano Phase
9. Six Marimbas
10. Violin Phase (10 67)

(* Four Organs is my favorite Reich piece, but I haven't gotten around to collecting all the versions yet. Some purists seem to have a grudge against Bang on a Can's performance, so I'm assuming there are better versions that will take its place someday. In the meantime, though...)

http://www.archive.org/details/ReichBerkeleyMuseum

FREE STEVE REICH RINGTONE!!
Current mood: excited
Category: Music

Hello all-

To celebrate Steve's 70th birthday, we are very happy to offer all Barbican subscribers, Reich festival ticket holders and you, Steve's loyal MySpace friends, an exclusive Steve Reich ringtone absolutely free!

You can choose from the following works:

Different Trains – After the War
Different Trains – Before the War
Duet
Electric Counterpoint – Fast I
Electric Counterpoint – Fast III
Electric Counterpoint – IIIb
New York Counterpoint – I
New York Counterpoint – III
Triple Quartet – 3rd Movement

To claim your free ringtone, simply visit www.booseytones.com and enter the following code: REICH 70.

Verizon users beware! Verizon does NOT allow any outside content on their phones. Please complain!

1. Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards
2. 'The Cave of Machpelah' from the Cave
3. Different Trains
4. Vermont Counterpoint
5. Electric Counterpoint
6. Music for 18 Musicians
7. Duet for Two Violins and String Orchestra
8. Six Marimbas
9. 'Check it Out' (first movement of 'City Life')
10. Eight Lines

Reich is someone who I always thought didn't really have that extensive a back catalogue, but POX made me realise how much I had to leave out. Honourable mention for 'Electric Guitar Phase' though which has the same kind of visceral thrill as Branca's 'Lesson for Electric Guitar no.1'

Massive reception for the performance of '18' at the Barbican last night BTW.

Would you care to expand, toby? What's the set up, instrumentation etc? Does Reich try any new ideas out?

Actually, instead of trying to describe this from memory, maybe I should dig out the programme and post the notes from there.

About Daniel Variations, the composer writes:

The piece is in four movements using texts from the Biblical book of Daniel for the first and third movements and from the words of Daniel Pearl, the American Jewish reporter, kidnapped and murdered by Islamist extremists in Pakistan in 2002, for the second and fourth movements.

The first text, from the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel, is spoken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (modern-day Iraq). He is asking Daniel to interpret his dream of terror Right now it is unfortunately possible to feel a chill of identification with these words.

The second text was spoken by Daniel Pearl while his captors videotaped him: 'My name is Daniel Pearl. I'm a Jewish American from Encino California.' I use only the first five words in the music itself since the statement is so emblematic of this remarkable person. In Jewish tradition, and in many others, names are indicative of character.

The third text is the Biblical Daniel's response to Nebuchadnezzar.

The last text is a bit of a surprise and s explained by a friend of Daniel Pearl as follows: 'Once during a two day bike trip up the Potomac River, his friend Tom Jennings asked about his belief in an afterlife. "I don't know" Danny replied. "I don't have answers, mainly just questions." Then he added. But I sure hope Gabriel likes my music." After Danny died Tom was going through his friend's vinyl collection (Dvorak, Liszt, Miles Davis, REM) and stumbled across this album: Stuff Smith and the Onyx Club Orchestra. "Danny loved Stuff Smith - a great jazz violinist" Tom says. "Here on side A, track 3, I found this: Stuff Smith playing I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music." '

I have not used any of the music or lyrics of the song and have even added to the title. I hope Danny would approve.

Musically, Daniel Variations has two related harmonic ground plans. One for the first and third movements uses four minor dominant chords a minor third apart, in E minor, G minor, B flat minor and C sharp minor. The other harmonic plan is for the second and fourth movements and uses four major dominant chords in the relative major dominant keys, G, B flat, D flat and E. This gives a darker chromatic harmony to the first and third movements and a more affirmative harmonic underpinning to the second and fourth. Since Daniel Pearl was not only reporter, but also played the fiddle - particularly jazz and blue grass - the strings take the lead melodically in the second and fourth movements, sometimes doubled by the two clarinets.

The piece is scored for two sopranos and two tenors with two B flat clarinets, four vibes, bass and kick drum, tam-tam, four pianos and string quartet. The London performance is dedicated to the 5th Daniel Pearl World Music Days, 6-15 October.

Text
1. I saw a dream. Images upon my bed and visions in my head frightened me.
2. My name is Daniel Pearl. I'm a Jewish American from Encino, California.
3. Let the dream fall back on the dreaded
4. I sure hope Gabriel likes my music, when the day is done.

that said, i've had the "my name is daniel pearl" part stuck in my head ever since.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/freakzone/tracklisting_20061022.shtml

TWO HOUR STEVE REICH SPECIAL
Steve Reich - It's Gonna Rain
Junior Walker & The All Stars - Shotgun
John Coltrane - Africa
John Coltrane - Brass
Steve Reich - Four Organs
Steve Reich - Drumming (parts 4 and 5)
Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
Steve Reich - Tehillim
Steve Reich - Different Trains
Steve Reich - You Are Wherever Your Thoughts Are

http://whitney.org/www/exhibition/stevereich.jsp

Some annoying commentary between tracks, but great performances. All recorded from the recent 70th birthday Reich-athon at the Whitney.

This really deserves to be seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wkVXxRf8Pw

Piano Phase pt. 1 with choreography. I'm sure it's not everyone's thing, but watching 7:50-8:15 (that smile!) after all that came before it is really moving.

There is a pt. 2 as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpURYG2F2ug

I would love a DVD of this.

that said, i've had the "my name is daniel pearl" part stuck in my head ever since.

still stuck in there! i think about this piece several times most weeks, it just randomly comes to me. really wish there was a recording so i could hear it a second time.

Starting to think Four Organs is my favourite. I know what Toby means, I had the "From Chicago" bit of Different trains in my head for months

so, i entered a steve reich remix context, and NOW the voting starts:

http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions/show/32325

please check it out, and if you like, vote for mine!!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w50ULeH-wS0/SRCTaIqljdI/AAAAAAAAAbY/LiNXrfVzJQ0/s400/vote.jpg

thanks!!!

us too

http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions/show/33104

congrats dominique

awesome

how'd that BBC interview go

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

Phase Patterns is the one that was a couple rungs below damn near life changing for me, I like almost everything I’ve heard by him but it all ends up paling in comparison just because that was such a mind shattering event hearing it for the first time. If you’ve heard anything else by him it probably wouldn’t have the same impact though.

Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ & Music for a Large Ensemble were written around the same time and share a lot of the same vibe as Music for 18 musicians

"Octet / Music For A Large Ensemble / Violin Phase" on ECM is up there with M418M for me.

another vote for Drumming

yeah Drumming is 'the one' for me also

Besides MF18M, the albums I return to are Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint (the latter is the one that the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" samples) and Double Sextet/2x5.

‘eight lines’ is gorgeous

Some of his pieces have a musical documentary feel about them, most of these feature a clever device in which he transcribes short clips of speech into notes to be tracked alongside with an instrument, cello, or violin usually.

You realise how much music is embedded in our everyday speech patterns, Different Trains and the startling WTC 9/11 are great examples of that method.

I would like to recommend Tehillim, I feel it's where you can hear his 'human' touch the most; it's also available as the full ECM Recordings boxset with Mf18M, Octet, Violin Phase & MfLE.

Oh Tehillim is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, it can drive me to tears. But I think Map was looking for the more long-form trancelike world of Reich.

Anyhoo, Steve Reich is the guest of honor at this year’s Long Play Festival in Brooklyn, put on by the Bang on a Can organization. Among other works, including M418M, the Mivos Quartet will do his complete works for string quartet, including Different Trains.

Oh and Drumming will be performs too. I’ve never seen that one performed live. (I saw a local new music group in DC perform M418M several years ago).

A great in-depth interview with @SteveReich in @FT @FinancialTimes today, in which the composer talks about his early life, obsession with Stravinsky, and recent inspirations.
Read here: https://t.co/GX2l9XcYTO pic.twitter.com/4zD8Gjc1qg

— Steve Reich (@SteveReich) February 2, 2024

"There is brunch-friendly soft rock music being piped in, and on the pre­vi­ous even­ing the mall hos­ted a live per­form­ance by an Eagles cover band. But Reich, dressed in dark tones and wear­ing his sig­na­ture dark base­ball cap, has come for the waffles, not the music."

It would be funny if he refused to talk about anything but waffles

Glad the article clarified that point, would have definitely expected him to be the type of guy who goes out to breakfast for the soft rock soundtrack and the lore of yesterday’s Eagles cover band

“What do I want? I want life, I want the music to be played, I want the music to be listened to. I want to know people have felt things,” he says. “I’m very grateful that my music has been listened to and appreciated. It’s a great source of happiness.”

Damn I guess success does bring happiness, get stuffed 'making art should be its own reward' people.