Steve Reich: News

Several new videos have been added to the Multimedia/video page including the complete South Bank Show from the Steve Reich Festival in London in 2006. Also added are videos of Steve Reich and David Cossin's 'Piano/Video Phase', a performance of part of 'City Life' by the Ensemble Modern and a performance of 'Eight Lines' by the London Steve Reich Ensemble.

The Paul Sacher Foundation has entered into an agreement with the American composer Steve Reich (b. 1936) to take over his musical archive. The working papers of this internationally renowned artist will shortly be made accessible to scholars at the Foundation's premises in Basel. Other composers whose musical archives are in the Paul Sacher Foundation collection include Stravinsky, Bartók, Webern, Ligeti, Berio, Boulez, Varese, Carter, Feldman, Nancarrow and Andriessen among many others.

As of August 9, 2008 there are now eleven articles by Alex Ross, Richard Serra, John Adams, Michael Tilson Thomas and others as well as two new interviews with Jonathan Cott and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in the Article section of this site.
Click here for the new articles and interviews.

Daniel Variations (2006) combines text by Daniel Pearl, the American Jewish reporter and violinist murdered by Islamic fundamentalists in Karachi in 2002 together with text from the Biblical book of Daniel. This premiere recording of Daniel Variations is performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted by Grant Gershon. This new Nonesuch CD also includes the first recording of Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings (2005) performed by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Alan Pierson.

In October and November 2007 two new CDs of music by Steve Reich were released. One is the premiere recording of the London Steve Reich Ensemble performing Sextet, Piano Phase and Eight Lines conducted by Kevin Griffiths, piano and artistic director, Vincent Corver, on the German CPO label. The other is the premiere recording of the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble performing Music for 18 Musicians directed by Bill Ryan on the American Innova label.

On May 21, 2007 Steve Reich was awarded The Polar Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The prize was presented by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. The Swedish Academy said: "...Steve Reich has transferred questions of faith, society and philosophy into a hypnotic sounding music that has inspired musicians and composers of all genres." Each year both a classical and a pop or jazz musicians are chosen. Former winners of the Polar Prize have included Pierre Boulez, Bob Dylan, Gyorgi Ligeti and Sir Paul McCartney. This year the prize for jazz was awarded to Sonny Rollins

Nonesuch records has released its second boxed set of music by Steve Reich entitled 'Phases - A Nonesuch Retrospective', and sold at a special reduced price. Included in the 5 CD box are a large number of Steve Reich's best know works including, Music for 18 Musicians, Drumming, You Are (Variations), Different Trains,Tehillim, The Desert Music, Cello Counterpoint, Eight Lines, Proverb, Come Out, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, Electric Counterpoint, New York Counterpoint and Triple Quartet. Various Artists include Pat Metheny, Kronos Quartet, Michael Tilson Thomas, Steve Reich & Musicians and Evan Ziporyn.

On October 18, 2006 Steve Reich was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for his contribution to the arts. The award was presented by Prince Hitachi at the Meiji Hall in Tokyo . The Praemium Imperiale awards are given annually by the Japan Art Association in five fields not covered by the Nobel Prizes: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film. Previous recipients of Praemium Imperiale include Willem de Kooning, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Gyorgy Ligeti, Frank Gehry, Richard Serra and Stephen Sondheim.

Celebrations of Steve Reich’s 70th birthday on 3 October 2006 are already underway, with surveys of his output around the world.

Boosey & Hawkes has worked closely with performing organisations and venues to co-ordinate Reich@70 events. The calendar includes a London retrospective, a rare celebratory collaboration between presenters in his hometown of New York, and a collection of concerts in Los Angeles.

If you are planning Reich events and would like them included in our calendar please email your local B&H office:
North America: composers.us@boosey.com
Europe, Far East and Australasia: composers.uk@boosey.com
German speaking territories: composers.germany@boosey.com

Please visit our new website at www.reich70.com

Performance highlights include:

Denver
5 January 2006
To inaugurate the birthday year, Marin Alsop leads members of the Colorado Symphony in an all-Reich program featuring Tehillim and Different Trains.

Dublin
17-19 February 2006
Reich is featured composer at RTE's Living Music Festival, including Three Movements and Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards, a Reich Marathon with six concerts on one day, and the Irish premiere of You Are (Variations) with Ensemble Modern.

Barcelona
1/4 March 2006
Reich feature at Festival des Musiques Contemporanies including Music for Eighteen Musicians performed by Barcelona 216. Concerts take place in Barcelona's L'Auditori.

European Tour (ECHO)
18 March – 3 April 2006
New collaboration between Steve Reich and choreographer Akram Khan, Variations for Vibes, Piano and Strings, features the London Sinfonietta conducted by Bradley Lubman. European Concert Halls Organisation (ECHO) venues include Philharmonie Cologne (18 March), Cité de la Musique Paris (22 March), Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels (23 March), Konzerthaus Vienna (26 March), Concertgebouw Amsterdam (29 March), Symphony Hall Birmingham (30 March), Megaron Athens (3 March). The tour programme also includes Sextet and Different Trains .
Visit our News Centre for further details.

Los Angeles
25-30 March 2006
Reich works at Los Angeles Philharmonic's Minimalist Jukebox festival, curated by John Adams, include Variations for winds, strings and keyboard, Three Movements and Tehillim .

Copenhagen
28 March 2006
Tivoli Hall plays host to all-Reich programme including the Scandinavian premiere of You Are (Variations)

Baden-Baden
7/9 April 2006
Three programmes by Ensemble Modern at the Festspielhaus include City Life, Tehillim, Triple Quartet, Clapping Music, Violin Phase, Music for Pieces of Wood, New York Counterpoint and Music for Eighteen Musicians. The composer himself will take part in the lecture concert on 9 April (11.30 am)

London
28 September – 8 October 2006
Phases: the Music of Steve Reich at Barbican features Steve Reich & Musicians, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Kronos Quartet and Bang on a Can. Highlights includes staging of The Cave, a dance triple bill and the world premiere of Daniel Variations for ensemble.
For full details visit the Barbican website

Helsinki
30 September/3 October 2006
The Sibelius Academy presents a pair of all-Reich concerts featuring Music for 18 Musicians, Eight Lines, the orchestral version of Tehillim, and the rarely heard Six Pianos.

Vienna/Graz/Innsbruck
2-4 October 2006
Graz Studio Percussion tours an all-Reich program to three Austrian cities, performing City Life, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ, Sextet, and Electric Counterpoint in Vienna (2 Oct.), Graz (3 Oct.), and Innsbruck (4 Oct.).

New York
3 October – 4 November 2006
Concerts at BAM Next Wave festival, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center featuring Steve Reich & Musicians, Kronos Quartet, London Sinfonietta. Whitney Museum to show Three Tales and present program on 15 October featuring Alarm Will Sound, So Percussion, Prism Sax Quartet, and Tactus.
For full details read the Press Release .

Freiburg
3/5 October 2006
Reich festival with Klaus Simon's Holst-Sinfonietta and VOCALS 12/21, featuring Know What Is Above You, Vermont Counterpoint, Come Out, City Life and Music for 18 Musicians, in connection with a new Naxos recording

Portugal/France
12-18 November 2006
Steve Reich and Musicians tour of Daniel Variations and Music for Eighteen Musicians, including Casa da Musica in Porto and Cité de la Musique in Paris.

Budapest
7 December 2006
The Amadinda percussion ensemble and the Uzme ensemble present an all-Reich program featuring You Are (Variations) and Electric Counterpoint at Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.

Los Angeles
28/29 January 2007
LA Master Chorale performs the West Coast premiere of Daniel Variations, paired with You Are (Variations), 28 January at Disney Hall; University of Southern California hosts all-Reich concert at Thornton School of Music, 29 January.

Please visit our Performances area for a detailed calendar of Reich events over the coming months.

Reich photo © Jeff Herman

Read the press release

Named on Best of 2005 Classical CDs by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, New York Newsday, BBC Radio 3 CD Review, San Jose Mercury News and Amazon,com, 'You Are (Variations)' recorded by the Los Angeles Master chorale conducted by Grant Gershon for Nonesuch has also received exceptionally positive international press and web coverage. Some samples:

"Mozart's 250th birthday and Steve Reich's 70th birthday will take up a lot of 2006's musical oxygen, and welcome they are to it.

As for Reich, turn to "You Are (Variations)," a modern masterpiece by a composer with a downright Mozartean command of Minimalism. He wrote the piece in 2004 for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which has recorded it for Nonesuch. It begins with a text by a Jewish mystic -- "You are wherever your thoughts are" -- which, like this exciting music, cuts through the holiday season hooey like a knife through soft butter."
Los Angeles Times Dec. 8, 2005

''Say little and do much,'' the final Hebrew text of the four-part ''You Are (Variations)'' advises. It could be an epigram for Steve Reich, who, with this work, achieved a particularly felicitous synthesis. All that was lacking, once again, was the Pulitzer Prize.
New York Times Dec. 16, 2005

"The aphoristic nature of the texts and their accompanying musical ideas give the work its power. The performance positively glitters...Cello Counterpoint, which rounds off the disc sounds very often as though there were one gigantic humming, strumming instrument. There's no doubt that this is a work of real substance."
Gramophone - UK, October 2005

In terms of its style, Steve Reich's You Are (Variations) (Nonesuch 7559 79891-2 ) (5 stars) represents both recollection and rejuvenation. There are echoes of his Minimalist phase, of Sextet's dense harmonies, Tehillim's high-flying vocal lines, the word based drama of Different Trains and the world of early music. Reich's textual prompts were Wittgenstein and Jewish religious sources, his responses gritty, urgent, organic, wildly dancing - and strangely beautiful. The forces called for - here, members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale under Grant Gershon - include voices, woodwinds, pianos and marimbas. It's the sort of music Reich does best, intimate yet outgoing, and surely his most compelling piece since Different Trains.
The Independent - UK, September 27, 2005

You Are (Variations), his newest major work and the centrepiece of his latest CD on Nonesuch, is an austere and beautiful setting of four short statements, three from Hebrew texts and one from the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The rhythm of the words is reflected in the whole structure of the piece, whose canonic repetitions of the texts is a form of active meditation on what they mean and also how they feel as verbal or ritual actions.
The Globe and Mail - Canada- October 29, 2005

You Are (Variations) is fascinating, the textures unique and fresh, the experience haunting and captivating... This is undoubtedly some of Reich's finest work in years.
Amazon.com editors

You Are is prime Reich, using choral and orchestral elements similarly to Tehillim and The Desert Music, but as rhythmically driven as anything he's done in years....The closing track, Cello Counterpoint, featuring cellist Maya Beiser (Bang On a Can) overdubbed eight times to create a surprisingly dense string ensemble. Its marked accents and interweaving melodies sound great all performed by one person...I read someone call him the "greatest living American composer," and though any all encompassing title is debatable, you'd be hard pressed to find a more fitting example of individualism and stubborn will so often identified with this place.
Pitchfork.com - 1/10/06

''You Are (Variations)' (2004), performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted by Grant Gershon and 'Cello Counterpoint' (2003) performed by Maya Beiser have been released by Nonesuch Records. The critical response to performances of 'You Are (Variations)', premiered by the LA Master Choral under Grant Gershon at Disney Hall in Los Angeles in October 2004 and then later by the Ensemble Modern and Synergy Vocals under Stefan Asbury in Frankfurt and London have been unanimously positive:

"With "You Are," the Master Chorale got a masterpiece."
Los Angeles Times - Oct. 26, 2004

"As beautiful a piece as Reich has ever written."
Telegraph -UK - January 20, 2005

"The music is in every case rich and challengingly complex too, constantly coming up with fresh angles to the composer's trademark rhythmic energy and contrapuntal complexity."
The Independent - UK - January 25, 2005

'Cello Counterpoint' has been frequently performed by Maya Beiser in America and Europe since 2003 and critical reaction has been similarly
unanimous:

"The piece's thematic transformation is so inventive and organic that it easily takes its place among Reich's best"
The Philadelphia Inquirer - February 13, 2005

"The work is abuzz with undulant rhythmic syncopations and spiraling counterpoint."
The New York Times - November 1, 2003

"Cello Counterpoint's rhythmic intensity and intricate interaction between live and prerecorded parts is intoxicating, with all that rich cello sound." The Los Angeles Times - February 7, 2005

Upcoming performances of 'You Are (Variations)':
October 29, 2005 - Netherlands Premiere - Ensemble Modern and Synergy vocals conducted by Stefan Asbury - Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
October 30, 2005 - Canadian Premiere - Soundstream Ensemble, MacMillan Theater - Toronto
November 16, 2005 - French Premiere - Ensemble Modern and Synergy Vocals conducted by Stefan Asbury- Festival d'Automne a Paris - Theatre du Chatelet
November 17, 2005 - Ensemble Modern and Synergy Vocals cond. by Stefan Asbury - Theatre de Caen, Caen, France
March 28, 2006 - Scandinavian Premiere - Ars Nova, Copenhagen & Athelas Sinfonietta, Paul Hillier, Cond., Copenhagen, Denmark
October 28, 2006 - New York Premiere - Los Angeles Master Choral conducted by Grant Gershon - Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, New York City.

Upcoming performances of 'Cello Counterpoint':
November 9, 2005 - Slovak cello octet Cellissimo, Theater Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia October 22, 2006 - Maya Beiser - Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, New York City

The annual MacDowell Colony Arts Award, which in past years has been awarded to Aaron Copland, Willem deKooning, Jasper Johns and many other great artists, was presented to Steve Reich for 'his outstanding contribution to music' on August 14, 2005 at the Colony in Peterborough, NH. Sculptor Richard Serra and composer David Lang spoke about Reich's music before the presentation. The president of the Colony, Robin Mac Neil presented the award. The So Percussion ensemble performed two of Mr. Reich's works to close the ceremony.

Steve Reich receives MacDowell medal from Robin Mac Neil

photos by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey

On May 10th, 2005 'Steve Reich & Musicians Live 1977' performing at the Kitchen in New York City will be released

It includes live and unedited performances of 'Six Pianos', 'Pendulum Music', 'Violin Phase', 'Music for Pieces of Wood' and 'Drumming-Part IV'. These are not studio recordings. There is background traffic noise on 'Violin Phase' and 'Music for Pieces of Wood', and yet there is the real musical energy of intense young performers including the composer.
Released by Orange Mountain Music 0018.

New 'Drumming' CD performed by
So Percussion released by Cantaloupe
Records March 8, 2005

"When I moved to NYC at the end of the 1970s, Steve Reich's music hit me with a ferocity equal to that of all the exciting rock-based music (from Television to Glenn Branca to DNA) being made at the time. My admiration for and inspiration from his music has not let up ever since. His is some of the most important music to be made in the twentieth century, and to read him write about it with such clarity sheds new light on it."
– Lee Ranaldo, guitarist, Sonic Youth

"At last — an indispensible glimpse into the mind of one of the most significant composers of the late 20th century. Steve Reich's 1968 text 'Music as a Gradual Process' was a statement as revolutionary as the musical practice it describes."
– Michael Nyman, composer

The Great Hall at Cooper Union (7th Street and Third Avenue) All tickets $30 general admission (students/seniors $15 at the door only, subject to availability) House opens at 7pm sharp Advance tickets on sale 13 September via www.TicketCentral.org or by calling 212.279.4200 (1-8pm daily)

The first, 'Clapping Music' (1972) is an archive video tape made by the composer in 1974 of Russell Hartenberger and himself performing the piece.

image: Beryl Korot

The second, 'Nibelung Zeppelin' is from the video opera 'Three Tales' (2002) by video artist Beryl Korot and composer Steve Reich. It is the second scene of Act I, 'Hindenburg'. The basic musical material is the Nibelung leitmotif from Wagner's 'Das Rheingold' completely recast in percussion and string canons. The visual material, highly edited, is taken from the construction of the Hindeburg Zeppelin in 1935 in Frerickshaven, Germany. At the end one sees the gigantic completed machine, enormous Swastikas on its tail fins - a flying monument to the Germany of Wagner and Hitler. The DVD & CD package of 'Three Tales' is on Nonesuch records 79662.

Available at Amazon.com

Both pieces are in the Video section.

The works to be recorded by the Alarm Will Sound Ensemble are "Violin Phase", "Sextet", "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ", and vocal music from "The Cave".

The $20 price of admission includes a free copy of the DVD when it is released (projected release in 2004).

The Roxy (www.roxynyc.com)is located at 515 West 18th Street, near 10th Ave.
(Doors close 15 minutes before each show.)

For more information:
www.sweetspotdvd.com or www.alarmwillsound.com

Three Tales is being broadcast on the IFC channel starting Monday January 12th at 12:45 pm (Eastern) and again the same day at 11:30pm (Eastern). It will be re-broadcast on IFC throughout the months of January and February and possibly into March. Consult your channel guide for further info.

The New York Times - Best Classical CD's of 2003
REICH: 'THREE TALES'
Steve Reich Ensemble, Synergy Vocals, conducted by Bradley Lubman (Nonesuch; CD and DVD) For those who think art has to be about something, "Three Tales" offers satisfaction on many levels, using words as both sound and meaning, political statements backed up by Mr. Reich's driving rhythms. It stands just fine as an aural experience, but Nonesuch's package includes a DVD, so the work can be seen as conceived: with Beryl Korot's visuals, a video opera.
ANNE MIDGETTE - 21 December 2003

The Guardian - UK
5 December 2003
critics bring you the best CDs, films, DVDs and games for the festive season
Reich/Korot
Three Tales (Nonesuch 7559798352)
If ever a work was made for DVD it is Steve Reich and Beryl Korot's 2002 video opera, which examines the impact of technology on 20th-century life through three case studies - the Hindenburg airship disaster, the H-bomb tests on Bikini Atoll and the cloning of Dolly the sheep. Reich's music and Korot's visuals are deftly enmeshed, and the work moves steadily from historic newsreels and reportage to ever more exuberant images and clips of polemical talking heads. It's unclassifiable and absolutely compelling.

Time Out - London - The Best Classical CDs for 2003
Steve Reich's multi-media collaborations with his artist wife, Beryl Korot, are meaty, serious(in the best sense) and musically intriguing. Nonesuch's issue of 'Three Tales' respectively 'Hindenburg', 'Bikini' and 'Dolly' make a fascinating earful, even for those who missed the staged events in London.
Martin Hoyle - 17 December 2003

A two disk set containing both a DVD and a CD of the video opera ‘Three Tales’ by composer Steve Reich and video artist Beryl Korot was released in August 2003 by Nonesuch Records in the USA. and Holland. Release for the rest of Europe except France is September, the UK and Japan in October and France in November. Nonesuch is introducing the release at a specially reduced price. The work is performed by The Steve Reich Ensemble with Synergy Vocals conducted by Bradley Lubman. The 65 minute work has been performed in Vienna, London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Perth, Turin, Lisbon and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival and the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. It will be performed at the Krannert Auditorium of the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana on October 2, 2003 and then at the AtheneumTheater in Chicago October 3 & 4. Critics have written:

“The visual effects are thrillingly virtuosic...The whole 65-minute piece is a huge achievement, visually and musically, which gets more and more engrossing as it goes on.” - The Guardian - London

“So vivid in its aesthetic presentation that it made these historical events as threateningly immediate as a blasting boombox on a subway car. It is physically eerie and beautiful.” - The New York Times

“It is a major work, a sneaky sort of tragic masterpiece, whose sounds and images haunt the mind for days... Reich is the most original musical thinker of our time.” – The New Yorker

Available at amazon.com

For further information visit www.nonesuch.com

BMG records has just released, in October 2002, new recordings of City Life,
Eight Lines, New York Counterpoint and Violin Phase, all performed by the
famous Frankfurt based Ensemble Modern. City Life is conducted by Peter
Rundel while Bradley Lubman conducts Eight Lines. Clarinetist Roland Diry
performs New York Counterpoint. Violin Phase is performed by Jagdish Mistry.
The new recordings is BMG/RCA Victor 74321-66459-2

Available at amazon.com

Reich will read from his new book, WRITINGS ON MUSIC, and take part in a discussion with composer Ingram Marshall. A book signing will follow event. No tickets required. The
Great Hall at Cooper Union, Third Avenue and Seventh Street. Doors open at
7pm.

New CD on Cantaloupe: TEHILLIM & THE DESERT MUSIC performed by ALARM WILL SOUND and OSSIA conducted by Alan Pierson

Cantaloupe Records, produced by Bang on a Can have released a CD with new recordings of Tehillim and The Desert Music in September 2002.

Cantaloupe describes the new disk as follows:

Two Reich masterpieces, definitively recorded, featuring the only recording of the newly revised version of The Desert Music, coupled with a crystalline, high-energy Tehillim. And introducing a brilliant young American conductor, Alan Pierson, who has molded an energetic, tight, optimistic, rhythmic, and memorable sound out of these monumental works.

Oxford University Press to issue WRITINGS ON MUSIC (1965-2000) in May 2002.

From the bookjacket:

In the mid-1960s, Steve Reich radically renewed the musical landscape with a back-to-basics sound that came to be called Minimalism. These early works, characterized by a relentless pulse and static harmony, focused single-mindedly on the process of gradual rhythmic change. Throughout his career, Reich has continued to reinvigorate the music world, drawing from a wide array of classical, popular, sacred, and non-western idioms. His works reflect the steady evolution of an original musical mind.

Writings on Music documents the creative journey of this thoughtful, groundbreaking composer. These 64 short pieces include Reich's 1968 essay "Music as a Gradual Process," widely considered one of the most influential pieces of music theory in the second half of the 20th century. Subsequent essays, articles, and interviews treat Reich's early work with tape and phase shifting, showing its development into more recent work with speech melody and instrumental music. Other essays recount his exposure to non-western music — African drumming, Balinese gamelan, Hebrew cantillation — and the influence of these musics as structures and not as sounds. The writings include Reich's reactions to and appreciations of the works of his contemporaries (John Cage, Luciano Berio, Morton Feldman, Gyorgy Ligeti) and older composers (Kurt Weill, Schoenberg). Each major work of the composer's career is also explored through notes written for performances and recordings.

Paul Hillier, himself a respected figure in the early music and new music worlds, has revisited these texts, working with the author to clarify their central narrative: the aesthetic and intellectual development of an influential composer. For long-time listeners and young musicians recently introduced to his work, this book provides an opportunity to get to know Reich's music in greater depth and perspective.

* * *

"Steve Reich's music struck me by its originality, directness and ingenuity. Its very simple building principles lead to a highly complex and rich music. Utterly enjoyable, it is by no means simple. On the contrary, it is in a very elegant way surprisingly sophisticated."
– György Ligeti, composer

"When I moved to NYC at the end of the 1970s, Steve Reich's music hit me with a ferocity equal to that of all the exciting rock-based music (from Television to Glenn Branca to DNA) being made at the time. My admiration for and inspiration from his music has not let up ever since. His is some of the most important music to be made in the twentieth century, and to read him write about it with such clarity sheds new light on it."
– Lee Ranaldo, guitarist, Sonic Youth

"At last — an indispensible glimpse into the mind of one of the most significant composers of the late 20th century. Steve Reich's 1968 text 'Music as a Gradual Process' was a statement as revolutionary as the musical practice it describes."
– Michael Nyman, composer

"Steve Reich's 'voice' is unmistakable — whether in his compositions, his conversations, or his writings on music. Energetic, erudite, often wittily self-referential, Reich's texts offer the same headlong rush of ideas that makes his compositions so breathtaking. This book gives us a unique insight into one of the most eloquent and important composers of our time."
– John Schaefer, host of "New Sounds"

"Steve Reich changed music, across the board, and every thinking musician is in his debt. From Arvo Part to David Bowie, from Ligeti to U2, from the concert hall to the midnight rave — Reich has changed the way we make music. His trademark sound — formal clarity and rigor, manifested in terms of simple beauty — is reflected in these articles and interviews. His writing resonates as deeply as his music."
– Evan Ziporyn, Professor of Music, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and clarinetist, Bang on a Can All Stars

Table of Contents

Steve Reich Foreword
Steve Reich Foreword to Writings about Music 1974
Paul Hillier Foreword
Paul Hillier Introduction

Writings 1965-2000
1. Early Works 1965-68
      It's Gonna Rain 1965
      Come Out - Melodica - Piano Phase 1966-7
      Violin Phase 1967
      Slow Motion Sound 1967
      My name is... 1967
      Pendulum Music 1968
2. Music as a Gradual Process 1968
3. Wavelength 1968
4. The Phase-Shifting Pulse Gate - Four Organs - Phase Patterns -An End to Electronics 1968-70 5. Some Optimistic Predictions 1970
6. First Interview with Michael Nyman 1970
      Early Works - African drumming
7. Gahu 1971
8. Drumming 1971
9. Clapping Music 1972
10. Postscript to a brief study of Balinese and African music 1973
11. Notes on Music and Dance 1973
12. Six Pianos 1973
13. Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ 1973
14.Music for Pieces of Wood 1973
15. Steve Reich and Musicians 1973
16. Music and Performance 1969-74; 1993
17a. Videotape and a Composer 1974
      b. Dachau 1974 - by Beryl Korot
18. Music for 18 Musicians 1976
19. Second Interview with Michael Nyman 1976
      Music for 18 Musicians
20. Music for a Large Ensemble 1978
21. Octet 197
22. Variations 1979
23. Tehillim 1981
24. Hebrew Cantillation 1982
25. Vermont Counterpoint 1982
26. Eight Lines 1983
27. The Desert Music 1984
      Note by the composer
      Text
28. The Desert Music - Steve Reich in conversation with Jonathan Cott 1984
29. Sextet 1985
30. New York Counterpoint 1985
31. Three Movements 1986
32. Six Marimbas 1986
33. Tenney 1986
34. Texture-Space-Survival 1987
35. The Four Sections 1987
36. Electric Counterpoint 1987
37. Non-Western Music and the Western Composer 1988
38. Different Trains 1988
39. Chamber Music- An expanded view 1989
40. Questionnaire 1989
41. On the size and seating of an orchestra 1990
42. Aaron Copland 1990 43. John Cage 1992
44. Kurt Weill, the orchestra and vocal style - An Interview with K. Robert Schwarz 1992
45. The Cave 1993
      A new type of Music Theater
      Synopsis
46. Jonathan Cott interview - The Cave 1993
47. Thoughts about the Madness in Abraham's Cave 1994
48. Answers to Questions about Different Trains 1994
49. Duet 1994
50. Nagoya Marimbas 1994
51. The Future of Music 1994
52. Beautiful/Ugly 1994
53. Re: Schoenberg 1995
54. City Life 1995
55. Proverb 1996
56. Music and Language 1996
57. Morton Feldman 1997
58. Berio 1997
59. Three Tales 1998-2002
60. Triple Quartet 1999
61. Know what is above you 1999
62. Two Questions about Opera 1999
63. Ligeti 2000
64. De Keersmaeker, Kylian and European Dance 2000
65. In conversation with Paul Hillier 2000 Bibliography Index

Pre-Order it now from Amazon.com

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING OF STEVE REICH'S TRIPLE QUARTET ON NONESUCH

"Arresting, complex and provocative ... the effect is haunting ..."
The New York Times, on Kronos Quartet's debut performance of Triple Quartet

Nonesuch Records is pleased to announce the release of the World Premiere Recording of Steve Reich's Triple Quartet performed by Kronos Quartet, who commissioned the work and in whose honor it has been written. This new disc, the first to include a new work by Reich since the 1996 release City Life, will also feature first recordings of Electric Guitar Phase and Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint, as well as the first recording of a newly revised edition of Music for Large Ensemble.

Triple Quartet (1999) is a three-movement work written for three string quartets, and exists in three versions for performance: one for string quartet and pre-recorded tape, another for three string quartets (12 players) and the third for part of an orchestral string section of 36 players. On this recording Kronos pre-recorded quartets two and three and played the quartet one part along with the tape, as they do in live performance.

According to Reich, the initial inspiration for the piece came from the last movement of Bartók's Fourth Quartet. "Its energy was my starting point," he says. While working on the piece, he heard the music of Alfred Schnittke for the first time, specifically his string quartets, which deeply affected his writing, as did Michael Gordon's Yo Shakespeare. Reich says, "the piece became considerably more dissonant and expressionistic than expected," as a result of these influences.

Electric Guitar Phase (2001), performed by the young guitarist Dominc Frasca, is a new version of the 1967 work Violin Phase. It is written for four electric guitars, and on this recording Frasca performs all four parts, which are then overdubbed. The layers create a number of melodic patterns that develop from the combination of two or three electric guitars playing the same repeating pattern slightly out of phase with one another. Key melodic material is played softly at first and then at gradually increased volume, bringing it to the surface of the music and making the listener more aware of how the melodic pattern helps to create texture.

Alan Pierson, director of Alarm Will Sound and the Ossia ensemble from the Eastman School of Music, worked on reconstructing the original score of Reich's Music for Large Ensemble, adding two extra violins to the string ensemble and making the saxophone and voice parts optional. The work was originally written in 1977 and revised for its first recording in 1979. Another reworked version of an older piece is Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint (2000) for MIDI marimbas (KAT controllers), a new version of Vermont Counterpoint (1981), originally scored for flutes, alto flutes and piccolos. According to Reich it is not only a radically different version than the original, but is clearly "one with a sense of humor."

ALBUM RELEASE DATE: October 16, 2001

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Nonesuch Records
www.nonesuch.com

New York Premiere of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's choreography of DRUMMING at Brooklyn Academy of Music October 16, 18-20, 2001.

Drumming will be played live by the Ictus Ensemble from Brussels all performances in the Gillman Opera House at 7:30pm

Brooklyn Academy of Music
Next Wave Festival
30 Lafayette Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1486
tickets: 718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Co-commissioned by the Lyon Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Lyon premiere, also conducted by David Robertson will be on 18 April 2002 (part of a Reich Weekend).

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Academy of Music, Philadelphia PA

October 25 at 8:00 p.m. - Thursday evening
October 26 at 2:00 p.m. - Friday afternoon
October 27 at 8:00 p.m. - Saturday evening

The Philadelphia Orchestra
David Robertson, conductor
Camilla Tilling, soprano

REICH Different Trains
World Premiere of String Orchestra Version
MAHLER Symphony No. 4

For tickets see the Orchestra's web site http://www.philorch.org