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Stephen Michael Reich | |
|---|---|
 Steve Reich at the Holland Festival, c. June 1976 | |
| Born | October 3, 1936 New York City |
| Era | Contemporary |
| Notable work | |
| Website | www.stevereich.com |
Stephen Michael Reich (/raɪʃ/ RYSHE;[1][2] better-known as Steve Reich, born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s.[3][4][5] Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay, "Music as a Gradual Process", by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow.[6]
His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns, as on the early compositions It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966), and the use of simple, audible processes, as on Pendulum Music (1968) and Four Organs (1970). Works like Drumming (1971) and Music for 18 Musicians (1976), both considered landmarks of minimalism and important influences on experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music, would help entrench minimalism as a movement.[7] Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably Different Trains (1988).
Reich's style of composition has influenced many contemporary composers and groups, especially in the United States. Writing in The Guardian, music critic Andrew Clements suggested that Reich is one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history".[8]
- ^ "Say How? A Pronunciation Guide to Names of Public Figures". National Library Service. May 2006. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
- ^ "Composer Steve Reich on turning 80, writing live music and finding faith". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
- ^ Mertens, W. (1983), American Minimal Music, Kahn & Averill, London, (p. 11).
- ^ Michael Nyman, writing in the preface of Mertens' book refers to the style as "so called minimal music"[vague] (Mertens p. 8).
- ^ "The term 'minimal music' is generally used to describe a style of music that developed in America in the late 1960s and 1970s; and that was initially connected with the composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass." Sitsky, L. (2002), Music of the Twentieth-century Avant-garde: A Biocritical Sourcebook,Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut. (p. 361)
- ^ Colannino, Justin; Gómez, Francisco; Toussaint, Godfried T. (2009). "Analysis of Emergent Beat-Class Sets in Steve Reich's 'Clapping Music' and the Yoruba Bell Timeline". Perspectives of New Music. 47 (1): 111–134. ISSN 0031-6016. JSTOR 25652402.
- ^ [Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (1978) at AllMusic
- ^ "Radio 3 Programmes – Composer of the Week, Steve Reich (b. 1936), Episode 1". BBC. October 25, 2010. Retrieved October 16, 2011.