Work of the Month #3: Steve Reich - "Music for 18 Musicians"

cornbb · 16-02-2008 12:31PM #1

From the All Music Guide:

If Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians is simply described in terms of its materials and organization -- 11 chords followed by 11 pieces built on those chords -- then it might seem utterly dry and monotonous. The actual music, though, is far from lackluster. When this recording was released in 1978, the impact on the new music scene was immediate and overwhelming. Anyone who saw potential in minimalism and had hoped for a major breakthrough piece found it here. The beauty of its pulsing added-note harmonies and the sustained power and precision of the performance were the music's salient features; and instead of the sterile, electronic sound usually associated with minimalism, the music's warm resonance was a welcome change. Yet repeated listening brought out a subtle and important shift in Reich's conception: the patterns were no longer static repetitions moving in and out of phase with each other, but were now flexible units that grew organically and changed incrementally over the course of the work. This discovery indicated a promising new direction for Reich, one that put him ahead of his peers by giving his music greater interest and adaptability and led to the more elaborate works of the next two decades.

This piece weighs in at about 55-70 minutes for the single movement, depending on the performance. It is considered a seminal work of Minimalism, has been sampled by Susumu Yokota (they guy we're talking about in another thread) and has been said to inspire the likes of Philip Glass, and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. I for one find it very enjoyable to listen to and it is very accessible compared to a lot of 20th century avant-garde music of similar stature.

Here is a montage clip featuring part of the performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVMVDhC-UA

And here is an MP3 of the opening of the piece from Reich's website. (Warning: crappy bitrate)

Anyone new to Minimalism may find this article interesting.

Happy listening!

Anima · 27-02-2008 05:02PM

Definitely my favourite from Reich. Along side "Music for a large ensemble", which is a similar style. Its just perfect, I can't say anything bad about it. I have all the versions and each has its own qualities that make them worth listening to. Some things are more apparent and some are pushed to the back which makes each version the same but different which I really like.

Genius stuff really, I don't think I could get tired of listening to it!

Scubadevils · 28-02-2008 11:57PM

Plan to get this at the weekend - I believe there is a Steve Reich box-set which includes this in Tower for €30, five albums in total - looking forward to that

Setun · 29-02-2008 11:15AM

Is that Phases? A friend of mine purchased it in tower for I think 15 euros at some point last year. No idea why it was so cheap, and no idea why I didn't grab it before him.

Scubadevils · 29-02-2008 01:16PM

Yeah that's it -

http://www.discogs.com/release/812927

15? That was cheap alright! 30 now still fine though! -

http://www.towerrecords.ie/viewdetails.asp?hfldUnitID=234073

- just noticed the 5th disc titled 'Drumming'; anyone heard this? Interesting.

cornbb · 29-02-2008 02:10PM

Drumming is a fantastic piece and another textbook example of Reich's style of minimalism. The recording i have (from Steve Reich Works 1965-95) is around an hour long in 4 continuous movements. Part 1 consists of hand drums, Part 2 marimbas, Part 3 glockenspiel and Part 4 brings them all together, ending in a frenzied climax. There are some voices in there too. Very powerful, hypnotic and mesmerising stuff, along the same lines as Music for 18 Musicians but perhaps a bit more organic.

Scubadevils · 29-02-2008 02:49PM

Excellent, look forward now to picking this up. Been on my list for a while now but didn't get round to it.

jtsuited · 01-03-2008 05:28AM

had the pleasure of helping with a recording of this two years ago. One of the most important pieces of music of the past 100 years.

That sounds a little bit pretentious but you get my drift.
if you haven't got this already, hurry up and get it!

Scubadevils · 01-03-2008 06:20PM

Picked up Phases today and plan a listen later tonight. Have heard bits before but can't wait to get stuck into these CD's with some serious attention. I love box-sets

Scubadevils · 02-03-2008 09:12AM

Listened to this last night and loved every minute of it. Easy to hear where so many artists have taken influence from this excellent music.

As different elements were introduced, I had a sense that I wasn't going to like the change but very quickly it dragged me in! Would remind me of some first listens to the likes of Biosphere or Susumu Yokota.

I look forward to more from this set later today.

John · 02-03-2008 02:02PM

I have to say, I've never been a big fan of Reich. For me, he suffers from that curse of the avant garde of sounding great on paper but uninteresting in execution. I'm not saying he's crap, he just does nothing for me. I understand what he's trying to achieve with his music but it leaves me cold. Although I must confess that I love his piece "Pendulum Music", much more satisfying than a lot of his music.

Setun · 03-03-2008 02:20PM

Pendulum is fascinating. There's a vid of it on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6r3HDn6wFU

But anyway, back on topic. Music for 18 musicians, for me, is incredibly hypnotic and captivating. It's repetitive, but like Vexations, I don't mind because I just enjoy the sounds for what they are - not necessarily for the direction they're developing in.

By the way, there's an album called Reich Remixed which is quite enjoyable. Coldcut does a remix of 18 musicians on it.

cavedave · 12-03-2008 01:45PM

But anyway, back on topic. Music for 18 musicians, for me, is incredibly hypnotic and captivating. It's repetitive, but like Vexations, I don't mind because I just enjoy the sounds for what they are - not necessarily for the direction they're developing in

Tim Page describes similar feelings about the piece here. He uses his diagnosis of Aspergers syndrome to explain why he is drawn to this piece. I do think it is interesting that (from my experience) particular types of people like this piece.

Brian Eno talks here and here about what generative music means.

Maximilian · 14-04-2008 03:38PM

18 Musicians is my favorite Reich work after Electric Counterpoint

Work of the Month #3: Steve Reich - "Music for 18 Musicians"

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