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In Focus: Steve Reich
Focus on Steve Reich
CONTENT WARNING: Racism
Doubtless the most influential living American composer, Steve Reich shattered the conventions of the classical music establishment almost by accident. Taking a recording of a San Francisco street preacher, Reich played two reels simultaneously in a round, but soon discovered one machine played slower than the other, creating an endlessly complex series of irrational and rational harmonies between the two tapes.
This phasing effect discovered on "It's Gonna Rain", would define Reich's career - transferring the technique into the human realm with repetitious, hypnotic and deceptively intricate minimalist compositions that would alter attitudes to music, both popular and avant-garde.
This special three-hour In Focus, selected and mixed by Cameron Cullen." "Radical, euphoric and transcendent — listen as Reich stretches time”
CW: The tracklist features "Oh Dem Watermelons", a song Reich composed for Robert Nelson’s experimental film, originally made for the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s A Minstrel Show, or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel. The production used satire to confront American racism, drawing on racist nineteenth-century minstrel material.
It has been included as a lesser known example of Reich’s early experiments with repetition and layered voices.
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Tracklist
- Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, Clytus GottwaldMein Name Ist... 1981
- Peter GregsonCello Counterpoint: I. Fast
- Steve ReichLivelihood
- Steve ReichOh Dem Watermelons
- Steve ReichIt’s Gonna Rain
- Alain DamiensNew York Counterpoint
- International Contemporary EnsemblePulse
- Group 180Music For Pieces Of Wood
- Philippe AzoulayNagoya Guitars
- Lorelei EnsembleKnow What Is Above You
- Daniel HopeDuet (For Two Violin And Strings)
- Mika YoshidaTokyo / Vermont Counterpoint
- San Francisco SymphonyVariations For Winds, Strings And Keyboards
- Third Coast PercussionMallet Quartet: II. Slow
- Tatjana KukoçElectric Counterpoint: II. Slow
- Art Murphy, Jon Gibson, Steve Chambers, Steve ReichPhase Patterns
- The Steve Reich Ensemble, Paul HillierThe Cave, Act 1 Scene 9: Who Is Isaac?
- Steve ReichTehillim
- Steve Reich, Bang On A Can2x5: III. Fast
- Steve Reich, Ensemble ModernEight Lines (Octet)
- Steve ReichPart IV
- James Preiss, Thad Wheeler, Frank Cassara, Garry Kvistad, Edmund Niemann, Nurit Tilles, Steve ReichDance Patterns
- Orchestre National De Lyon / David RobertsonDifferent Trains: III. After The War