POX: Steve Reich

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSNV9EGB3s

After composing a series of ground-breaking pieces in 1967 that employed phasing, Steve Reich decided that he wanted to explore phasing past the realms of tape and live performance by experimenting with electronic instrumentation. To that end, with the help of friends at Bell Laboratories, Reich created the Phase Shifting Pulse Gate, a kind of manually-operated sequencer specifically designed to facilitate the phasing technique. Despite having spent a year and a half on the development of the Pulse Gate, Reich quickly grew dissatisfied with its lifeless, mechanical nature and resolved to return to using more performer-dependent instrumentation. This piece, along with its companion 'Four Log Drums', have since been discarded by Reich.

This recording of Pulse Music (excerpted here in a French radio broadcast) was made at the work's second performance on May 27th 1969 at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City.

I went to the recent Reich Richter Pärt show in NYC (new music by Reich, new art by Richter, some slightly older Pärt works) and wrote about it.

your conclusion is one i've heard from everyone who went, though sometimes in much harsher terms

Steve Reich basically all I have listened to for several days now

Just wait until you hear a second composition.

? not sure if that's a joke or not

i listened to 18 musicians continuously for a few days in a row once

That was a total joke. I love Steve Reich.

I don't like all of his stuff - or rather, there's some of it I don't feel like listening to more than once, and then there's some stuff that seems like it should just go on forever (Music for 18 Musicians, Phase Patterns etc.)

Yea I feel the same

Kinda want to do a poll of all his second (slow) movements

Just wait until you hear a second composition.

That was a total joke. I love Steve Reich.

the title of Philip Glass's "Music With Changing Parts" always cracks me up along these lines

(lovingly - but not as much as I <3 Reich, though, xp, same here in that not all of it grabs me; that said, the first few times I put on the Early Works disc I didn't get it at all and then many years later I happened to put on It's Gonna Rain on headphones late at night and was entranced, so maybe the ones I don't care for are just waiting for their moments)

(apologies for mentioning SR's former furniture moving partner here, I gather neither of them would appreciate the crossreference)

I like his percussion/phase music best, not as keen as the pseudo-narrative works he did later on.

i've listened to various other pieces of his music and it's not that i don't find them worthwhile, it's just that i could just as well hear '18' over and over until i die, and can hardly imagine needing to hear anything else in between. which is pretty weird. generally i very much think hearing other work by an artist would be illuminating, more of a good thing, etc., but at best i just suppose that maybe in 30 or 40 years i'll get around to the rest of reich.

Kinda want to do a poll of all his second (slow) movements

― MaresNest, Friday, August 23, 2019 11:53 PM (yesterday)

Electric Counterpoint would get my vote, TBH, I think the slow movements are often the least successful/interesting parts of Reich's pieces, especially the later ones.

I think the key with getting into steve reich’s other pieces is the time it takes to get through them. He’s got lots of great works that take like 15-20 minutes to play (octet, music for a large ensemble, tehellim, electric counterpoint, six pianos). he has a few pieces like one of the genesis tracks on the cave that blow me away in like 3 minutes.

XP - Oh I love most of them, especially those that that start with a big 'event' chord like Double Sextet, the slower and more delicate ones.

There’s something about simplicity of vision that makes it easily mocked, when it’s often a virtue.

otm the man has style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEgrN1QTAqE

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShgWc2OlQdc

Really thought that was going to be a parody using an Eminem acapella

Nice idea, I made one - https://soundcloud.com/nowherians/reich-eminem_1

Very cool.

Haha omg, yes

Please post this on youtube with a serious title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b78wdMc3m7U

i love this

gets to the emotional core that the slow sections of tehillim do so well

also i was playing this and my son goes "this sounds like steve reich" so thats cool

Your son OTM

It's like an extrapolated version of that beautiful second movement of WTC 9-11

By which I mean third movement, duh

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous

Huh, had no idea this was in the works:

https://www.nonesuch.com/journal/steve-reich-release-conversations-book-harpercollins-hanover-square-press-march-8-2022-2021-10-01

it's 'music for 18 musicians' season tbh

always in season imo

yay

I actually played Double Sextet/2×5 on my way to work this morning bc I have a seasonal association with that album.

https://x.com/jmcunning/status/775692655795634176?s=20

i've been listening to music for 18 musicians for years (the grand valley state university new music ensemble recording), and i have NOT checked out any other steve reich pieces. in mf18m, i love the soft and human quality of the propulsion, the surreal quality of hearing what a computer could play very 'well' instead being played by 'imperfect' but beautifully alive human touch, the slow rise and fall and drift of the motifs, which are gorgeous, and just the very time-stopping, mood-capturing magnetism of the whole thing. what steve reich recordings should i look for next?

Hmm. There's a lot of good phase work he did (Drumming, Clapping, Four Organs, Phase Patterns, etc.) that are similar or related, though not always as transformative/transportative. I know it's not what you asked for, but if you haven't heard it maybe give Philip Glass's "Music With Changing Parts" a shot, it's pretty similar.

There's a lot of good phase work he did (Drumming, Clapping, Four Organs, Phase Patterns, etc.) that are similar or related, though not always as transformative/transportative.

yeah, those pieces are more lulling or even nullifying, but i actually like that more a lot of the time

It's nearly all worth your time imho, but I'm especially fond of - Double Sextet, Three Movements, Music For A Large Ensemble, and Drumming.

Taking Josh's lead, give Glass' Music in Twelve Parts a try too.

i'll give these a try. i was just thinking 'maybe i should check out philip glass' so that's perfect. thanks all.

Other recordings of the same piece can be illuminating too. The ECM version of mf18m (feels like a reddit thread) is generally considered definitive (the Nonesuch remake not so good). The Colin Currie Ensemble and Ensemble Signal, younger groups mentored by Reich, have done this and the CCE have also done Drumming, another trance like one. I would try mybe the original Deutsche Grammophone Drumming for a similar thing to what you get from m418m.

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.