INCHOATE THOUGHTS
Steve Reich
I was thrilled to learn that at the age of 72, Steve Reich has finally
been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 2007 composition, Double Sextet, commissioned by the
ensemble, eighth blackbird (yes, no typos).
I live in Greater Boston, so I’m proud that Michael Tilson
Thomas, when assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was the
first to bring Reich’s music to a large-scale venue. He arranged a performance
in Boston’s Symphony Hall of Four Organs
(1970) soon after its completion. I was still in England then, aged 15, but,
with my musical friends, already interested in Reich’s work. However, my
fascination truly coalesced on hearing a live performance of Clapping Music (1972)—several performers
clapping their hands, but what clapping!—in Cambridge, England a few years
later.
Much of Reich’s work is disarmingly complex, exploiting
augmentation (the temporal lengthening of phrases) and, in his earlier music, phasing
(identical phrases performed simultaneously but in different tempi so that they
diverge, then converge). Although bebop informs his music, it is not about
improvisation, rather highly controlled rhythmic and harmonic interaction. “I
know when I have truly learned your pieces,” said Tilson Thomas in 2006,
“because they stop hurting.”
Music for 18 Musicians (1976) found Reich going beyond
phasing to create an amazing hovering soundscape using pianos, marimbas,
xylophones, metallophone, maracas, strings, clarinets, base clarinets, and
amplified women’s voices. He has written for the great Kronos Quartet—Different Trains (1988) for string
quartet and taped voices—and especially for his own group, Steve Reich and
Musicians. But as a former percussionist, I treasure his most rhythmically
challenging works, which induce a deer-in-the-headlights effect on the
listener. Just try Drumming (1971),
which Reich wrote after a study visit to Ghana, or Music for Pieces of Wood (1973). Check out the performance of the
latter by the virtuoso Tetraktis-percussioni at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCI6z0mU__0.
Congratulations, Steve Reich! Keep throbbing!