Steve Reich

:This article is about the American composer. For information on the U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan, see Steve Reich (Army).

Life and work

Reich is popularly regarded as repetitive and minimalist, but in some works deviates from a purely minimalist style, which shows some connection to Minimalism and the work of Reich's visual artist friends such as Sol Lewitt and Richard Serra.

Related Topics:
Minimalist - Minimalism - Sol Lewitt - Richard Serra

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Reich's music explores such ideas in contemporary music as using tape loops to create phasing patterns — amongst Reich's first works, It's Gonna Rain, Come Out, Drumming, and others — and using processes to create and explore concepts in music (Pendulum Music, Four Organs).

Related Topics:
Contemporary music - Tape loop - Phasing - It's Gonna Rain - Pendulum Music - Four Organs

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Reich achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1957, attended the Juilliard School and, from 1961 to 1963, Mills College in Oakland, California with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud. His works, particularly Drumming (1971), show the influence of African music, Reich being especially influenced by A. M. Jones's Studies in African Music about the music of the Ewe people of Ghana. Eventually he travelled to Ghana to study drumming. He also studied Balinese gamelan in Seattle. Around this time he formed his ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, which was to be the sole ensemble to interpret his works for many years; the group remains together today with many of its original members.

Related Topics:
Bachelor of Arts - Cornell University - 1957 - Juilliard School - Mills College - Oakland, California - Luciano Berio - Darius Milhaud - A. M. Jones - Ewe - Ghana - Gamelan

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After Drumming, Reich moved on from the "phase shifting" technique that he had pioneered, and began writing more elaborate pieces. He investigated other musical processes such as augmentation (the temporal lengthening of phrases and melodic fragments). It was during this period that he wrote works such as Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973) and Four Organs.

Related Topics:
Augmentation - Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ - Four Organs

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Four Organs deals specifically with augmentation, and was based on a piece written in 1967, Slow Motion Sound, which was more of a prototype piece. Having never been performed, the idea of slowing down a recorded sound until many times its original length without changing pitch or timbre was applied to Four Organs. The result was a piece with maracas playing a fast quaver pulse, while the four organs stress certain quavers using an 11th chord. This work therefore dealt with rhythmic change and repetition. It is unique in the context of Reich's other pieces in being linear as opposed to cyclic like his earlier works.

Related Topics:
Four Organs - Slow Motion Sound - Quaver - Pulse - Repetition

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In 1974, Reich began writing what would be classed as his seminal work by most, Music for 18 Musicians. This piece involved a lot of new ideas, although it harked back to earlier pieces. The piece is based around a cycle of eleven chords introduced at the beginning, followed by a small piece of music based around each chord, and finally a return to the original cycle. The sections are aptly named "Pulses", Section I-XI, and "Pulses". This was Reich's first attempt at writing for larger ensembles, and the extension of performers resulted in a growth of psycho-acoustic effects, which fascinated Reich, and he noted that he would like to "explore this idea further". Reich remarked that this one work contained more harmonic movement in the first five minutes then any other work he had written.

Related Topics:
Music for 18 Musicians - Cycle - Eleven chords - Chord - Ensemble

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Later that same year he published a book, Writings About Music, containing essays on his philosophy, aesthetics, and musical projects written between 1963 and 1974. An updated collection, Writings On Music (1965-2000), was published in 2002.

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In 1993, Reich collaborated with his wife, the video artist Beryl Korot, on the opera, The Cave, which explores the roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The two collaborated again on the opera Three Tales, which concerns the Hindenburg disaster, the testing of nuclear weapons on Bikini Atoll, and more modern concerns, specifically Dolly the sheep, cloning, and the technological singularity.

Related Topics:
Beryl Korot - Opera - The Cave - Judaism - Christianity - Islam - Three Tales - Hindenburg disaster - Nuclear weapon - Bikini Atoll - Dolly the sheep - Cloning - Technological singularity

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Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has created choreography to Reich's works which he has expressed admiration for.

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