Steve Reich revolutionized the world of minimalism with the percussive phasing patterns of this musical moiré. After studying music at Cornell University and Mills College in Oakland, he became interested in the rhythmic aspects of composition. He also worked with Terry Riley whose 'In C' became a major touchstone. Reich created elaborate tape loop experiments with 'It's Gonna Rain' which used a bit of a sermon about the end of the world and 'Come Out' which utilized a snippit of dialogue from one of the Harlem Six. After a short visit to Ghana, he was influenced by the complex drum patterns and sought to unravel them.
Reich reveals: "I was much more extreme in my outlook at that time because I was trying to clarify something for myself and getting everything out of the way that didn’t fit into that model, which was, basically, there’d be no change of pitch, there’d be no change of tambour, and everything would be accomplished rhythmically. Well, I did. And then after a while I said, 'Well okay, now what? How ‘bout some harmony? How ‘bout some orchestration?' Starting with the end of 'Drumming', the fourth movement where everybody plays the drums, the marimbas, the glockenspiels, [combining all instruments and voices] together, it’s been in a sense one step forward and two steps back. But back into an area where, really, no one had ever been. So yes, the audience in those days, the art audience, was an audience that had been listening to Cage, Feldman, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, and that whole neck of the woods. They were more disposed to something that had never been heard before and was really new...Coltrane was the model. When I went to graduate school at Mills, there were people who were on these incredibly complex pieces. But no one sat down at the piano and played the piece. I’m not really sure if they heard it in their heads or not. Coltrane would just get up and the music would come out. So it’s not just a musical contrast; it’s almost an ethical/moral contrast. And I felt, whatever my limitations, I’m going to be in my own pieces and I’ll make the pieces spit what I can do. And that was pretty much the guiding principle from that point...and I was in every piece. And starting an ensemble meant I was working with people...Nobody had any money; they played because they were interested in what I was doing. Once we started having gigs, people had to be paid. But the bedrock was, 'We’re committed and we want to see what you come up with.' When I did 'Drumming' in 1970, there was a huge change because the piece required more musicians. I first came in contact with James Price--who’s up at the Manhattan School of Music, and then Russ Hartenberger--who I met through Richard Teitelbaum because Russ was at Wesleyan studying the South Indian mridangam. But Russell had been an incredible percussionist for four years before I ever got there. And through Russ, we got a hold of Bob Becker, who was already a legend back in the ‘70s, one of the greatest mallet players alive today. And then suddenly all these percussionists began coming into the group."
http://www.stevereich.com/
'Drumming'
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/reich-drumming/id68982599
http://www.amazon.com/Reich-Drumming-20C-Russ-Hartenberger/dp/B007TW7BJ0/ref=sr_1_16?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1404536856&sr=1-16
http://www.discogs.com/Steve-Reich-Drumming-Music-For-Mallet-Instruments-Voices-And-Organ-Six-Pianos/release/249712
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrQCYW6fv60
'Drumming'
1987 version
https://myspace.com/stevereichmusic/music/album/drumming-8521809
'Drumming'
part one
4 pairs of tuned bongo drums, played with double-ended wooden sticks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EgT-uwzCSM
'Drumming'
part two
3 marimbas, 2 or 3 female voices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-woRXwY-Q
'Drumming'
part three
3 glockenspiels, whistler, and piccolo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvnWdpIWiTY
'Drumming'
part four
complete ensemble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECWlPBq8VhQ
Reich remembers: "I think at that time that, and I’m talking the late ‘60s early ‘70s, a number of people became aware that non-western music was a way of getting to something that we wanted to get to in our own music. I think there were two ways of getting there, and this has been parting of the ways for some people. I think imitating the sound of non-western music may not be the most interesting way to pursue it, like sitar in a rock band or singing electronic drones. I always wondered about that. What interested me--or what seemed to really open up possibilities--was figuring out how the music was put together, how it was structured. It sounds very cold and clinical, but think about it. Well, I’ll tell you. See those bells behind you, sticking up in the air? Those gong-gongs? I brought those back from Ghana when I came back, along with some others and I thought, 'I’ll put them in a piece of mine.' And I got them back, and I don’t have perfect pitch, so I went to the piano and said, 'Oh, it’s not in tune.' And I thought, 'Well, I’ll go to the hardware store.' I held the gong-gong and it’s as if it said, 'How do you do? I’m a gong-gong. I come from Ghana. You know what I do.' So instead of putting the gong-gong in my piece, I just started teaching the patterns to the people in my ensemble … There were four-part things that worked out very well and we’d go to parties, sit on the floor of a loft, and play patterns from “ha-cha-cha” songs, which is what they were actually called. And people said, 'Oh! That’s really far out, really great! What is that?' In the process of doing that, I began thinking, 'This satisfies my desire to play with these things. And it’s much more straightforward and real than figuring out, at least for me, than trying to get a metal file out or having it detuned and playing with electronic instruments so you can sort of make it all work out. What’s more interesting is, let’s see, these things are playing patterns of different lengths, they’re repeating, and they’re superimposed so that their downbeats do not coincide. Hey, there’s a thought.' This is a radically different approach and that’s what’s interesting. That’s what pushes you. I think that structural ideas are generally ideas that come to musicians somewhat later in their lives. They start by playing an instrument. After awhile, they begin to realize that certain things are happening technically, formally. That information, it seems to me, travels more easily through customs as it were. Because, in a sense, it’s completely neutral information. Patterns of different length--patterns of what? I don’t know, I don’t care--superimposed so their downbeats don’t coincide. Very interesting. Don’t tell me what it sounds like. Canons? Okay, you have some musical material followed by itself at some rhythmic interval. Well, what is that? I’ll tell you what that is... That’s Johann Sebastian Bach, that’s Bartók...that’s 85 percent of everything I’ve ever written. So the answer to 'What does it sound like?' is: 'What century are we in?' This structure is so evergreen that it survives and mutates into completely unforeseen possibilities. That’s why I think rhythmic structures--which is what I was getting out of studying Balinese music, which is this guy playing once every 64 beats on this gong--what an experience that is, every eighth note is laid out, the music is going by very, very fast, music is going by moderately, music is going by incredibly slowly at the same time. Wherever your attention goes is the experience of the music that you have. But they’re all sort of sitting there on a plate for you. Do you want to go fast, medium or slow? That’s something you can find in western music, but it’s really laid out very clearly in ... that idea is communicated. So that’s what I found was useful for me in studying non-western music. But again, as I say, it’s really become something that I don’t think about much anymore. It’s just there."
'Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ'
'Six Pianos'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uFOlkapDMg
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