― $corpium ($corpium), Monday, 5 April 2004 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 5 April 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)
just those 3 thanks
― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 5 April 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)
― (Jon L), Monday, 5 April 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)
― noodle vague (noodle vague), Monday, 5 April 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 5 April 2004 22:51 (twenty-one years ago)
― (Jon L), Monday, 5 April 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)
forgot about octet!
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)
― sexyDancer, Monday, 5 April 2004 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)
Music for 18 MusiciansElectric CounterpointDifferent TrainsSix MarimbasNew York CounterpointMusic for Mallet Instruments, Voice, and Organ
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:14 (twenty-one years ago)
― jed_ (jed), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)
His pieces are so long, here's the first V that I can think of:
Four Organs DrummingIt's Gonna RainSix PianosDrumming
― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 5 April 2004 23:55 (twenty-one years ago)
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 00:01 (twenty-one years ago)
At one time I would have definitely said Tehillim but I really didn't like it the last time I listened.
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)
― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)
I was skeptical that the singing-along-with-the-resultant-patterns aspect would work well live; I always assumed it took a bit of studio trickery to make this blend in properly. But it worked like a charm.
Just a student group -- they must have rehearsed a LOT!
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 11 April 2004 05:09 (twenty-one years ago)
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 11 April 2004 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 11 April 2004 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 11 April 2004 05:36 (twenty-one years ago)
Since it's a benefit event, tix are $100-$200, so I don't feel quite so bad about not being in NYC for this. I would just be home cursing my poverty.
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 11 April 2004 05:44 (twenty-one years ago)
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 11 April 2004 06:07 (twenty-one years ago)
However, I still won't be in NYC :-(
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 11 April 2004 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)
It's exciting just to watch them perform it, I agree. I feared for the musicians' ability to play it without screwing up. When I heard it, there was something about the acoustics of the particular hall which was making some sort of added beat pattern or something. It was very effective, though probably unintentional.
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 11 April 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)
― (Jon L), Sunday, 11 April 2004 21:17 (twenty-one years ago)
After-party at the Dream House, yo!
― hstencil, Sunday, 11 April 2004 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)
― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 09:04 (twenty-one years ago)
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 15 October 2005 15:01 (nineteen years ago)
― R_S (RSLaRue), Friday, 6 October 2006 16:04 (eighteen years ago)
― LC (Damian), Friday, 6 October 2006 16:14 (eighteen years ago)
For decades this composer has been a quintessential voice of downtown New York. And to mark his 70th birthday, on Tuesday, the city’s leading cultural institutions are joining forces in an unprecedented celebratory collaboration, Steve Reich@70, offering a month (more or less) of his music at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center and elsewhere.
But Mr. Reich left Lower Manhattan for Westchester earlier this summer. And he is very, very happy about it.
“It’s really a pleasure,” he said by phone last week. “I used to be a composer, but now I’m into home improvement.”
“Sunny” is hardly an adjective most people would have applied to Mr. Reich for most of his life. Words like “intense,” “driven” and “caffeinated” came more readily to mind. But sunny, it seems, he has become, waxing lyrical about his new house (built by the Modernist architect William N. Breger) and as excited about the coming celebrations as, well, a boy waiting for his birthday.
And this new warmth may be reflected in his music.
Mr. Reich has always been a distinctive voice. His classification as a minimalist, grouped with Philip Glass, has come to seem, with the years, increasingly irrelevant. You could say that Mr. Reich stripped music down to its bare essentials in seminal works like “Clapping Music” (1972), written for two performers and their hands, or “Drumming” (1971), an hour-plus piece written entirely for percussion instruments. But even those pieces, spare in means, have their own eloquence.
Elements have steadily been added over the years: more instruments, human voices (with “Tehillim” in 1981), more visuals, more stories. The last have been a particular feature of Mr. Reich’s collaboration with his wife, the video artist Beryl Korot, which has produced ambitious music theater works like “The Cave” (1990-3), an exploration of Jewish and Muslim beliefs, or “Three Tales” (2002), which challenged a range of attitudes among scientists.
Meanwhile the music has gotten not only fuller, but freer.
“There’s a different generosity,” said Jennifer Bilfield, who was president of Mr. Reich’s publishers, Boosey & Hawkes, before moving in August to become artistic and executive director of Stanford Lively Arts in California. “His writing is more expansive. ‘Proverb’ ” — from 1995 — “is a piece that struck me as a very decisive shift. There’s a different intimacy, an inner quiet that’s very moving.”
It was Ms. Bilfield who had the idea of getting Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn Academy to collaborate on Mr. Reich’s birthday, an idea nobody else thought would work. The three presenters are, after all, competitors in an increasingly tough market. But Mr. Reich had close relationships with all of them, and Ms. Bilfield was already braced for one of them to call her and ask about doing a festival for his birthday, which would keep the other two out of the picture.
“It was really to pre-empt what would have been a more awkward discussion,” Ms. Bilfield said. “I basically picked up the phone and said, ‘Can you imagine what a great energy it would be, what a great example for the presenting world?’ And each institution had a different relationship with Steve. When the parties came to the table, there was no tug of war, not at all.”
The Brooklyn Academy will focus on dance, including the American premiere of “Variations for Vibes, Piano and Strings,” commissioned for the choreographer Akram Khan, which will open the festival on the actual birthday. Carnegie Hall will concentrate on instrumental music, including a training workshop and the American premiere of Mr. Reich’s latest work, “Daniel Variations,” written in memory of the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. And Lincoln Center presents vocal works, including three performances of “The Cave.”
“Daniel Variations,” co-commissioned by the Daniel Pearl Foundation, interweaves texts from the Old Testament Book of Daniel and Pearl’s own writings. The Book of Daniel, Mr. Reich pointed out, is set in Babylon — present-day Iraq. The piece blends in a string quartet, which at the words “My name is Daniel Pearl” takes off, Mr. Reich said, in a major key. (Mr. Pearl was a violinist.)
“It’s a very un-Steve Reich-like, expressive piece of music,” Mr. Reich said.
As if to warn his fans not to expect too much more of this baroque phase, he added: “The last few works have been very open, very expressive, very free, very different. Now I’ve kind of got a yen to go medieval.”
But his inner romantic may already have been outed.
For his 70th birthday Nonesuch has released a new box set, “Phases” (Nonesuch 79962-2), with a selection of Mr. Reich’s greatest hits, most of them in the recordings made with the ensemble he founded in 1966, Steve Reich and Musicians, which he refers to as “original instruments.” The performances are very fine. But it’s fascinating to listen to recordings made by another group a generation later.
Mr. Reich’s ensemble focuses on presenting the composition; the younger group, Alarm Will Sound, crack performers all, also focuses on interpreting it. On that band’s CD of “Tehillim” and “The Desert Music” (Cantaloupe Music CA21009), Mr. Reich’s music takes on a whole new dimension of ravishing beauty, beauty that was in there all along.
And Mr. Reich embraces the idea that other people are performing his works, and performing them so well.
“What impresses me,” he said, “is the ease that younger musicians have playing my music, not only right, but idiomatically.” On a recent trip to Latvia he heard a performance of “Music for 18 Musicians” (1974-76). “These people were burning,” he said. “I wasn’t sure where Latvia was, but they knew where I was.”
Sitting in Pound Ridge, still surrounded by packing boxes, in his striking new house (Mr. Breger was also the architect of the Civic Center Synagogue, where Mr. Reich and Ms. Korot were married), he sounded, well, downright expansive. And his goals, for once, seemed perfectly simple.
“What do I want?” he said. “I want people to love the music, not to feel, ‘What, him again?’ It seems that the music is holding up over time. That’s the most gratifying thing.”
I don't really get the idea that warmth or expressiveness is something new in his music. I always found the timbres of Tehillim, Drumming, and Music for 18 Musicians, in particular, to be pretty warm. In fact, that's one of the thing I think contribures to their strength.
Can't you be intense and sunny at the same time?
― R_S (RSLaRue), Friday, 6 October 2006 16:19 (eighteen years ago)
― zebedee (zebedee), Friday, 6 October 2006 16:50 (eighteen years ago)
― Sundar (sundar), Friday, 6 October 2006 17:20 (eighteen years ago)
― Sundar (sundar), Friday, 6 October 2006 17:28 (eighteen years ago)
Alas, I'm at the wrong end of the country.
― LC (Damian), Friday, 6 October 2006 20:52 (eighteen years ago)
― LC (Damian), Friday, 6 October 2006 21:53 (eighteen years ago)
Disc: 1 1. Music For 18 Musicians
Disc: 2 1. Different Trains 2. Tehillim 3. Eight Lines
Disc: 3 1. You Are 2. New York Counterpoint 3. Cello Counterpoint 4. Electric Counterpoint 5. Triple Quartet
Disc: 4 1. Come Out 2. Proverb 3. Desert Music
Disc: 5 1. Music For Mallet Instruments Voices And Organ 2. Drumming
― LC (Damian), Friday, 6 October 2006 21:58 (eighteen years ago)
this set is for us jews.
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 6 October 2006 23:10 (eighteen years ago)
Anyway, my POX:
1. Eight Lines (Octet)2. Four Organs (Bang on a Can) *3. Four Organs (Reich/Gibson/Murphy/Chambers/Glass)4. Music for 18 Musicians5. Music for a Large Ensemble (12 78)6. The Four Sections (Winds & Brass)7. Phase Patterns8. Piano Phase9. Six Marimbas10. Violin Phase (10 67)
(* Four Organs is my favorite Reich piece, but I haven't gotten around to collecting all the versions yet. Some purists seem to have a grudge against Bang on a Can's performance, so I'm assuming there are better versions that will take its place someday. In the meantime, though...)
― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Friday, 6 October 2006 23:29 (eighteen years ago)
― R_S (RSLaRue), Friday, 6 October 2006 23:32 (eighteen years ago)
― R_S (RSLaRue), Friday, 6 October 2006 23:34 (eighteen years ago)
― pdf (Phil Freeman), Saturday, 7 October 2006 12:14 (eighteen years ago)
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Saturday, 7 October 2006 14:11 (eighteen years ago)
― Jeff K (jeff k), Saturday, 7 October 2006 14:56 (eighteen years ago)
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 7 October 2006 15:14 (eighteen years ago)
― R_S (RSLaRue), Saturday, 7 October 2006 15:49 (eighteen years ago)
― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Sunday, 8 October 2006 04:59 (eighteen years ago)
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 8 October 2006 05:56 (eighteen years ago)
http://www.archive.org/details/ReichBerkeleyMuseum
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 8 October 2006 06:10 (eighteen years ago)
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 8 October 2006 09:52 (eighteen years ago)
FREE STEVE REICH RINGTONE!!Current mood: excitedCategory: Music
Hello all-
To celebrate Steve's 70th birthday, we are very happy to offer all Barbican subscribers, Reich festival ticket holders and you, Steve's loyal MySpace friends, an exclusive Steve Reich ringtone absolutely free!
You can choose from the following works:
Different Trains – After the WarDifferent Trains – Before the WarDuetElectric Counterpoint – Fast IElectric Counterpoint – Fast IIIElectric Counterpoint – IIIbNew York Counterpoint – INew York Counterpoint – IIITriple Quartet – 3rd Movement
To claim your free ringtone, simply visit www.booseytones.com and enter the following code: REICH 70.
Verizon users beware! Verizon does NOT allow any outside content on their phones. Please complain!
― chakra khan chakra khan (sanskrit), Sunday, 8 October 2006 22:56 (eighteen years ago)
― LC (Damian), Sunday, 8 October 2006 22:58 (eighteen years ago)
― toby (tsg20), Monday, 9 October 2006 07:57 (eighteen years ago)
1. Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards2. 'The Cave of Machpelah' from the Cave3. Different Trains4. Vermont Counterpoint5. Electric Counterpoint6. Music for 18 Musicians7. Duet for Two Violins and String Orchestra8. Six Marimbas9. 'Check it Out' (first movement of 'City Life')10. Eight Lines
Reich is someone who I always thought didn't really have that extensive a back catalogue, but POX made me realise how much I had to leave out. Honourable mention for 'Electric Guitar Phase' though which has the same kind of visceral thrill as Branca's 'Lesson for Electric Guitar no.1'
Massive reception for the performance of '18' at the Barbican last night BTW.
― avery keen-gardner (avery keen-gardner), Monday, 9 October 2006 08:18 (eighteen years ago)
Would you care to expand, toby? What's the set up, instrumentation etc? Does Reich try any new ideas out?
― Jeff W (zebedee), Monday, 9 October 2006 09:49 (eighteen years ago)
Actually, instead of trying to describe this from memory, maybe I should dig out the programme and post the notes from there.
― JimD (JimD), Monday, 9 October 2006 16:57 (eighteen years ago)
About Daniel Variations, the composer writes:
The piece is in four movements using texts from the Biblical book of Daniel for the first and third movements and from the words of Daniel Pearl, the American Jewish reporter, kidnapped and murdered by Islamist extremists in Pakistan in 2002, for the second and fourth movements.
The first text, from the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel, is spoken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (modern-day Iraq). He is asking Daniel to interpret his dream of terror Right now it is unfortunately possible to feel a chill of identification with these words.
The second text was spoken by Daniel Pearl while his captors videotaped him: 'My name is Daniel Pearl. I'm a Jewish American from Encino California.' I use only the first five words in the music itself since the statement is so emblematic of this remarkable person. In Jewish tradition, and in many others, names are indicative of character.
The third text is the Biblical Daniel's response to Nebuchadnezzar.
The last text is a bit of a surprise and s explained by a friend of Daniel Pearl as follows: 'Once during a two day bike trip up the Potomac River, his friend Tom Jennings asked about his belief in an afterlife. "I don't know" Danny replied. "I don't have answers, mainly just questions." Then he added. But I sure hope Gabriel likes my music." After Danny died Tom was going through his friend's vinyl collection (Dvorak, Liszt, Miles Davis, REM) and stumbled across this album: Stuff Smith and the Onyx Club Orchestra. "Danny loved Stuff Smith - a great jazz violinist" Tom says. "Here on side A, track 3, I found this: Stuff Smith playing I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music." '
I have not used any of the music or lyrics of the song and have even added to the title. I hope Danny would approve.
Musically, Daniel Variations has two related harmonic ground plans. One for the first and third movements uses four minor dominant chords a minor third apart, in E minor, G minor, B flat minor and C sharp minor. The other harmonic plan is for the second and fourth movements and uses four major dominant chords in the relative major dominant keys, G, B flat, D flat and E. This gives a darker chromatic harmony to the first and third movements and a more affirmative harmonic underpinning to the second and fourth. Since Daniel Pearl was not only reporter, but also played the fiddle - particularly jazz and blue grass - the strings take the lead melodically in the second and fourth movements, sometimes doubled by the two clarinets.
The piece is scored for two sopranos and two tenors with two B flat clarinets, four vibes, bass and kick drum, tam-tam, four pianos and string quartet. The London performance is dedicated to the 5th Daniel Pearl World Music Days, 6-15 October.
Text1. I saw a dream. Images upon my bed and visions in my head frightened me.2. My name is Daniel Pearl. I'm a Jewish American from Encino, California.3. Let the dream fall back on the dreaded4. I sure hope Gabriel likes my music, when the day is done.
― JimD (JimD), Monday, 9 October 2006 17:25 (eighteen years ago)
― Jeff W (zebedee), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 09:50 (eighteen years ago)
that said, i've had the "my name is daniel pearl" part stuck in my head ever since.
― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago)
― roc u like a § (ex machina), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 21:40 (eighteen years ago)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/freakzone/tracklisting_20061022.shtml
TWO HOUR STEVE REICH SPECIALSteve Reich - It's Gonna RainJunior Walker & The All Stars - ShotgunJohn Coltrane - AfricaJohn Coltrane - BrassSteve Reich - Four OrgansSteve Reich - Drumming (parts 4 and 5)Steve Reich - Music For 18 MusiciansSteve Reich - TehillimSteve Reich - Different TrainsSteve Reich - You Are Wherever Your Thoughts Are
― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:07 (eighteen years ago)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 25 October 2006 07:27 (eighteen years ago)
http://whitney.org/www/exhibition/stevereich.jsp
Some annoying commentary between tracks, but great performances. All recorded from the recent 70th birthday Reich-athon at the Whitney.
― Tim Rutherford-Johnson (Rambler), Thursday, 26 October 2006 10:49 (eighteen years ago)
This really deserves to be seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wkVXxRf8Pw
Piano Phase pt. 1 with choreography. I'm sure it's not everyone's thing, but watching 7:50-8:15 (that smile!) after all that came before it is really moving.
― Z S, Saturday, 26 January 2008 16:01 (seventeen years ago)
There is a pt. 2 as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpURYG2F2ug
I would love a DVD of this.
― Z S, Saturday, 26 January 2008 16:15 (seventeen years ago)
still stuck in there! i think about this piece several times most weeks, it just randomly comes to me. really wish there was a recording so i could hear it a second time.
― toby, Saturday, 26 January 2008 16:39 (seventeen years ago)
Starting to think Four Organs is my favourite. I know what Toby means, I had the "From Chicago" bit of Different trains in my head for months
― I know, right?, Saturday, 12 July 2008 23:05 (seventeen years ago)
so, i entered a steve reich remix context, and NOW the voting starts:
http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions/show/32325
please check it out, and if you like, vote for mine!!
― Dominique, Wednesday, 10 November 2010 14:58 (fourteen years ago)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w50ULeH-wS0/SRCTaIqljdI/AAAAAAAAAbY/LiNXrfVzJQ0/s400/vote.jpg
― bows don't kill people, arrows do (Jordan), Wednesday, 10 November 2010 15:23 (fourteen years ago)
thanks!!!
― Dominique, Wednesday, 10 November 2010 15:34 (fourteen years ago)
us too
http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions/show/33104
― the barenaked ladies are the roaring night (electricsound), Wednesday, 10 November 2010 21:53 (fourteen years ago)
congrats dominique
― midiverb II program 49 (electricsound), Tuesday, 7 December 2010 22:38 (fourteen years ago)
awesome
― hubertus bigend (m coleman), Tuesday, 7 December 2010 22:42 (fourteen years ago)
how'd that BBC interview go
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 7 December 2010 22:52 (fourteen years ago)
hey thanks!
milton, got andrea w to help
― Dominique, Tuesday, 7 December 2010 23:11 (fourteen years ago)
whoa fuckin a dude congrats!
― 69, Tuesday, 7 December 2010 23:15 (fourteen years ago)
we came 34th haha
― midiverb II program 49 (electricsound), Tuesday, 7 December 2010 23:23 (fourteen years ago)
the 75th birthday concert at carnegie hall was short but sweet. so percussion did "mallets," kronos quartet did "wtc 9/11," bang on a can did an awesome "2 X 5," and eighth blackbird closed out with a not so bad "double sextet." the only thing that put me to sleep was "wtc 9/11," which is a shame since it was a premiere. oh well. sometimes i couldn't help wondering either why every piece has to have a slow middle movement, and what mike oldfield makes of reich. anyways it felt good to applaud the old fella applauding us back at the end of the show
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 1 May 2011 13:50 (fourteen years ago)
>what mike oldfield makes of reich
1978's 'Incantations' was pretty much an answer record to Oldfield discovering Reich. And then the next record had that disco cover of Glass' 'North Star'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyjPL_o0fjc
― Milton Parker, Sunday, 1 May 2011 18:34 (fourteen years ago)
I heard an interview with Reich this week and he said the premier of WTC 9/11 was in North Carolina but this was to be the first performance in NYC.
― brotherlovesdub, Sunday, 1 May 2011 20:20 (fourteen years ago)
milton that song is bizarre! thanks for posting it. i wonder where "2 X 5" premiered. this videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fapq0H--lMEkinda gives an idea of how frippy a guitar symphony can be. nothing like seeing it live though. all sorts of crusty oldsters were rocking out. can't believe the guy's in his 70s and making music that sounds a little like battles
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 2 May 2011 13:58 (fourteen years ago)
Not going to Sonar this year, but man, this sucks: Steve Reich just pulled out of the festival due to health problems.
"Steve Reich will be unable to travel to Barcelona for his performance at Sonar festival this year due to health issues. Sonar says that 74 year old Reich is "obliged to remain at home under medical orders".
http://thewire.co.uk/articles/6768/
― geeta, Friday, 3 June 2011 15:30 (fourteen years ago)
Knew he shouldn't have been hugging all those strangers at his birthday party. Hugging randoms, sure way to pick up nasty germs.
(Kidding. Get well Steve Reich!)
― Karen D. Tregaskin, Friday, 3 June 2011 15:37 (fourteen years ago)
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lptkt40Rxc1qap6kyo1_500.jpghmm, this cover has apparently been pulled by nonesuch because people were offended. i'm not offended, it's just kind of cruddy. Minimalist composer Steve Reich made waves a few weeks ago when his record label, Nonesuch, unveiled the cover art for his new album, WTC 9/11: a darkened, dirtied version of a photograph taken on the tragic day, featuring the second hijacked plane just moments before it hit the second tower.Reaction was swift and fierce, as Seth Colter Walls detailed in a piece for Slate. Critics said that the commercial repurposing of such an image was insensitive and inappropriate; a fellow composer called it “the first truly despicable classical album cover that I have ever seen.” …
Now, the mini-tragedy has been avoided: Nonesuch just announced that it will replace the cover art for the album’s Sept. 20 release.
― tylerw, Friday, 12 August 2011 16:44 (fourteen years ago)
It's strange that he couldn't come up with a more artistic or abstract representation of 9/11 and instead chose the most iconic image.
― kkvgz, Friday, 12 August 2011 16:59 (fourteen years ago)
yeah. here's reich's statementAs a composer I want people to listen to my music without something distracting them. The present cover of WTC 9/11 will, for many, act as a distraction from listening and so, with the gracious agreement of Nonesuch, the cover is being changed.
When the cover was being designed, I believed, as did all the staff at Nonesuch and the art director, that a piece of music with documentary material from an event would best be matched with a documentary photograph of that event. I felt that the photo suggested by our art director was very powerful, and Nonesuch backed me up. All of us felt that anyone seeing the cover would feel the same way.
When the cover was released on the Nonesuch site and elsewhere, there was, instead, an outpouring of controversy mostly by people who had never heard the music.
When WTC 9/11 was performed by the Kronos Quartet, first in Durham, North Carolina, at Duke University and then shortly afterwards outside of Los Angeles and then at Carnegie Hall and again at the Barbican Centre in London, the reaction of the public and press was extremely thoughtful and moving. To have this reaction to the music usurped by the album cover seemed completely wrong. Accordingly, the cover is being changed.
I want to thank Nonesuch for backing up my original decision about the cover and for backing up my decision now to change it so we can put the focus back where it belongs, on the music.
― tylerw, Friday, 12 August 2011 17:01 (fourteen years ago)
I mean, there's is so much potential for artistic interpretation around this enormous earth-shattering event and so many powerful existing images.
― kkvgz, Friday, 12 August 2011 17:03 (fourteen years ago)
a fellow composer called it “the first truly despicable classical album cover that I have ever seen.” …
truly despicable classical album covers i have known
― bruce actual springsteen (schlump), Friday, 12 August 2011 17:07 (fourteen years ago)
I am going to fathom a guess that the fellow composer was not Karlheinz Stockhausen...
― it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Friday, 12 August 2011 17:08 (fourteen years ago)
has he seen this one? http://forums.kickassclassical.com/download/file.php?id=57&sid=1230858b777c644635f6a417935a3bec
― tylerw, Friday, 12 August 2011 17:11 (fourteen years ago)
i don't find it offensive but it does seem like its being turned into album cover art twisted something about the way the image would be seen that would be unacceptable to people who are probably within their rights.
i'm not even sure it could be pulled off without lettering, but lettering automatically makes an image read, somehow, as if someone is saying 'awesome' about it, or as if the name above it is proud of it.
― j., Friday, 12 August 2011 18:45 (fourteen years ago)
Or like, in terms of a musician, "I am this - it represents me."
― kkvgz, Friday, 12 August 2011 18:49 (fourteen years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg4-AtqhKh8
― WilliamC, Thursday, 27 June 2013 20:54 (twelve years ago)
hey i like the johnny greenwood electric counterpoint
― schlump, Saturday, 4 October 2014 03:51 (ten years ago)
http://clappingmusicapp.com/
― Immediate Follower (NA), Thursday, 9 July 2015 17:54 (ten years ago)
came up on my Facebook today but only for iphone, screw you Reich
― This is for my new ringpiece, so please only serious answers (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 9 July 2015 17:57 (ten years ago)
NYC Aug 5
http://www.lcoutofdoors.org/events/full-band-electric-counterpoint-dither-and-friends-featuring-lee-ranaldo-yo-la-tengo-and-mark-stewart-matmos
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 29 July 2015 17:32 (ten years ago)
Am I a rhythmical klutz or is the clapping music app hard mode really fucking hard?
― ledge, Wednesday, 29 July 2015 18:02 (ten years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhMiuzyU1ag
― aaaaablnnn (abanana), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 15:52 (nine years ago)
Braggin'
http://i66.tinypic.com/28aurle.jpg
― mitch bagnet (MaresNest), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 17:18 (nine years ago)
Tonight at 7:30 (UK time) The Royal College of Music are livestreaming a concert of and Reich will be there too.
The program is Clapping Music, Double Sextet, Three Movements and Quartet.
http://www.rcm.ac.uk/live/
― MaresNest, Thursday, 10 March 2016 10:20 (nine years ago)
https://twitter.com/MrJamesMay/status/708045234668773376
― Brakhage, Thursday, 10 March 2016 21:51 (nine years ago)
Yeah, I saw him at the interval, he was up in the balcony/area with the hob nobs, like the big berry faced wanker he is.
― MaresNest, Friday, 11 March 2016 12:29 (nine years ago)
What was the girl miming with sound effects all about? Is there a compulsory bit where someone must abase themselves for the amusement of royalty, lest the high minded art lend the occasion too much dignity.
― Noel Emits, Friday, 11 March 2016 13:11 (nine years ago)
Yeah, no idea what that was all about, it was earlier in the day I guess.
― MaresNest, Friday, 11 March 2016 13:47 (nine years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ib8Fdmp1hE
― removed from the rain drops and drop tops of experience (ulysses), Wednesday, 8 March 2017 15:01 (eight years ago)
i know this is insane but now i can't help but hear one of the street recording snippets in the first movement of "different trains' "trump's the problem. from new york. trump's the problem. from new york" instead of "from chicago. to new york." trump has infiltrated and ruined every part of me
― Karl Malone, Monday, 24 July 2017 06:29 (eight years ago)
see also: nellie the elephant
― The XX pants (ledge), Monday, 24 July 2017 08:52 (eight years ago)
Live in a couple of hours: clapping music, quartet, drumming.
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/079679-001-A/weekend-steve-reich-a-la-fondation-louis-vuitton-concert-1/
― StanM, Saturday, 2 December 2017 13:51 (seven years ago)
Thank you!
― MaresNest, Saturday, 2 December 2017 14:49 (seven years ago)
^^^ OTM
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 2 December 2017 14:53 (seven years ago)
even better: it's three concerts in a row - tomorrow as well
http://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/expositions/exposition-moma0/weekend-special-steve-reich.html
― StanM, Saturday, 2 December 2017 15:13 (seven years ago)
http://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/expositions/exposition-moma0/weekend-special-steve-reich.html <- in English
― StanM, Saturday, 2 December 2017 15:14 (seven years ago)
Reich always gets namechecked in pieces about artists I really like (Tangerine Dream, Tortoise, Nik Bartsch) but I guess I've only heard the "wrong" stuff because I don't especially like anything I've heard. Clapping and Four Organs grate on me; I have a soft spot for It's Gonna Rain but a little of that phasing fuckery goes a long way. Guessing I need to hear Drumming or MF18M to get the polyrhythmic zen funk marimba jams? What else?
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:03 (six years ago)
Music For A Large Ensemble. Go!
― Armand Frippanino (Noel Emits), Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:12 (six years ago)
Although I wouldn't call it Zen funk, it's more lush than that suggests, I believe that is the marimba hit you seek / require.
― Armand Frippanino (Noel Emits), Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:16 (six years ago)
clapping and four organs are definitely not going to hit your emotional core as well as some of his other pieces. likewise drumming as a whole (honestly, part iv is the best once all the instruments come together).
for stuff to feel deep-ass feelings to:music for 18 musicianstehillim (and in this vein, genesis xxi from the cave)octet/music for a large ensemblesix pianoselectric counterpoint
― be the 2 chainz you want 2 see in the world (m bison), Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:18 (six years ago)
Excellent. Thanks, all. Lots to check out here.
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:30 (six years ago)
Different Trains
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:34 (six years ago)
Drumming is fkn awesome.
― Freddie Starr (Hitler in shorts) (Tom D.), Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:41 (six years ago)
There are multiple versions of Music for 18 Musicians; a lot of people prefer the ECM version, but I like the Nonesuch version better because that's the one I heard first.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:45 (six years ago)
they both slap afaic
― be the 2 chainz you want 2 see in the world (m bison), Saturday, 27 April 2019 21:46 (six years ago)
yep
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Saturday, 27 April 2019 22:15 (six years ago)
the fast section of Electric Counterpoint is a surprisingly effective DJ drop in the right circumstances.
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Saturday, 27 April 2019 22:24 (six years ago)
I would chip in The Four Sections, def cosign Music For A Large Ensemble, Sextet and Double Sextet, the big event chord at the start of the 2nd movement of Double Sextet is my favourite moment of his, it's gorgeous.
― MaresNest, Sunday, 28 April 2019 12:05 (six years ago)
ooooh yeah re: four sections
― be the 2 chainz you want 2 see in the world (m bison), Sunday, 28 April 2019 14:21 (six years ago)
― Armand Frippanino (Noel Emits), Saturday, April 27, 2019 5:12 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Armand Frippanino (Noel Emits), Saturday, April 27, 2019 5:16 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is exactly what I was hoping for. thank you!
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 29 April 2019 12:23 (six years ago)
POX: Steve Reich POX: Steve Reich POX: Steve Reich POX: Steve Reich
POX: Steve Reich POXS: teveReich POX: Steve Reich POX: Steve Reich
POX: Steve Reich POXS: teveReich POXSt: eveReich POX: Steve Reich
POX: Steve Reich POXS: teveReich POXSt: eveReich POXSte: ve Reich
POX: Steve Reich POXS: teveReich POXSt: eveReich POXSte: veReich
POX: Steve Reich POXStev: eReich POXSt: eveReich POXSte: veReich
POX: Steve Reich POXStev: eReich POXSteve: Reich POXSte: veReich
POX: Steve Reich POXStev: eReich POXSteve: Reich POXSteveR: eich
POX: Steve Reich POXSteveRe: ich POXSteve: Reich POXSteveR: eich
POX: Steve Reich POXSteveRe: ich POXSteveRei: ch POXSteveR: eich
POX: Steve Reich POXSteveRe: ich POXSteveRei: ch POXSteveReic: h
POX: Steve Reich POX: Steve Reich POX: Steve Reich POXSteveReic: h
― Elitist cheese photos (aldo), Wednesday, 1 May 2019 10:46 (six years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSNV9EGB3s
After composing a series of ground-breaking pieces in 1967 that employed phasing, Steve Reich decided that he wanted to explore phasing past the realms of tape and live performance by experimenting with electronic instrumentation. To that end, with the help of friends at Bell Laboratories, Reich created the Phase Shifting Pulse Gate, a kind of manually-operated sequencer specifically designed to facilitate the phasing technique. Despite having spent a year and a half on the development of the Pulse Gate, Reich quickly grew dissatisfied with its lifeless, mechanical nature and resolved to return to using more performer-dependent instrumentation. This piece, along with its companion 'Four Log Drums', have since been discarded by Reich.
This recording of Pulse Music (excerpted here in a French radio broadcast) was made at the work's second performance on May 27th 1969 at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City.
― MaresNest, Sunday, 16 June 2019 14:55 (six years ago)
I went to the recent Reich Richter Pärt show in NYC (new music by Reich, new art by Richter, some slightly older Pärt works) and wrote about it.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Sunday, 16 June 2019 15:10 (six years ago)
your conclusion is one i've heard from everyone who went, though sometimes in much harsher terms
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, 16 June 2019 20:05 (six years ago)
Steve Reich basically all I have listened to for several days now
― Οὖτις, Friday, 23 August 2019 17:14 (six years ago)
Just wait until you hear a second composition.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 August 2019 18:37 (six years ago)
? not sure if that's a joke or not
― Οὖτις, Friday, 23 August 2019 18:39 (six years ago)
i listened to 18 musicians continuously for a few days in a row once
― j., Friday, 23 August 2019 19:03 (six years ago)
That was a total joke. I love Steve Reich.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 August 2019 19:04 (six years ago)
I don't like all of his stuff - or rather, there's some of it I don't feel like listening to more than once, and then there's some stuff that seems like it should just go on forever (Music for 18 Musicians, Phase Patterns etc.)
― Οὖτις, Friday, 23 August 2019 19:09 (six years ago)
Yea I feel the same
― marcos, Friday, 23 August 2019 21:28 (six years ago)
Kinda want to do a poll of all his second (slow) movements
― MaresNest, Friday, 23 August 2019 22:53 (six years ago)
Just wait until you hear a second composition.That was a total joke. I love Steve Reich.
the title of Philip Glass's "Music With Changing Parts" always cracks me up along these lines
(lovingly - but not as much as I <3 Reich, though, xp, same here in that not all of it grabs me; that said, the first few times I put on the Early Works disc I didn't get it at all and then many years later I happened to put on It's Gonna Rain on headphones late at night and was entranced, so maybe the ones I don't care for are just waiting for their moments)
(apologies for mentioning SR's former furniture moving partner here, I gather neither of them would appreciate the crossreference)
― a passing spacecadet, Friday, 23 August 2019 23:10 (six years ago)
I like his percussion/phase music best, not as keen as the pseudo-narrative works he did later on.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 August 2019 23:19 (six years ago)
i've listened to various other pieces of his music and it's not that i don't find them worthwhile, it's just that i could just as well hear '18' over and over until i die, and can hardly imagine needing to hear anything else in between. which is pretty weird. generally i very much think hearing other work by an artist would be illuminating, more of a good thing, etc., but at best i just suppose that maybe in 30 or 40 years i'll get around to the rest of reich.
― j., Friday, 23 August 2019 23:37 (six years ago)
Kinda want to do a poll of all his second (slow) movements― MaresNest, Friday, August 23, 2019 11:53 PM (yesterday)
― MaresNest, Friday, August 23, 2019 11:53 PM (yesterday)
Electric Counterpoint would get my vote, TBH, I think the slow movements are often the least successful/interesting parts of Reich's pieces, especially the later ones.
― Bloody Snail, Saturday, 24 August 2019 01:03 (six years ago)
I think the key with getting into steve reich’s other pieces is the time it takes to get through them. He’s got lots of great works that take like 15-20 minutes to play (octet, music for a large ensemble, tehellim, electric counterpoint, six pianos). he has a few pieces like one of the genesis tracks on the cave that blow me away in like 3 minutes.
― Carisis LaVerted (m bison), Saturday, 24 August 2019 01:52 (six years ago)
XP - Oh I love most of them, especially those that that start with a big 'event' chord like Double Sextet, the slower and more delicate ones.
― MaresNest, Saturday, 24 August 2019 11:19 (six years ago)
There’s something about simplicity of vision that makes it easily mocked, when it’s often a virtue.
― Bidh boladh a' mhairbh de 'n láimh fhalaimh (dowd), Saturday, 24 August 2019 12:11 (six years ago)
otm the man has style
― Carisis LaVerted (m bison), Saturday, 24 August 2019 13:18 (six years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEgrN1QTAqE
― Maresn3st, Tuesday, 24 December 2019 00:46 (five years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqQVSohnLdA
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 21:47 (five years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShgWc2OlQdc
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 19:31 (four years ago)
Really thought that was going to be a parody using an Eminem acapella
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 19:33 (four years ago)
Nice idea, I made one - https://soundcloud.com/nowherians/reich-eminem_1
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 20:28 (four years ago)
Very cool.
― Bidh boladh a' mhairbh de 'n láimh fhalaimh (dowd), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 20:36 (four years ago)
Haha omg, yes
Please post this on youtube with a serious title.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 20:40 (four years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b78wdMc3m7U
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 16 October 2021 14:57 (three years ago)
i love this
― class project pat (m bison), Saturday, 16 October 2021 16:19 (three years ago)
gets to the emotional core that the slow sections of tehillim do so well
― class project pat (m bison), Saturday, 16 October 2021 16:20 (three years ago)
also i was playing this and my son goes "this sounds like steve reich" so thats cool
Your son OTM
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 16 October 2021 16:57 (three years ago)
It's like an extrapolated version of that beautiful second movement of WTC 9-11
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 16 October 2021 17:22 (three years ago)
By which I mean third movement, duh
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 16 October 2021 17:26 (three years ago)
Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous
― J. Sam, Saturday, 16 October 2021 18:19 (three years ago)
Huh, had no idea this was in the works:
https://www.nonesuch.com/journal/steve-reich-release-conversations-book-harpercollins-hanover-square-press-march-8-2022-2021-10-01
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 16 January 2022 01:10 (three years ago)
it's 'music for 18 musicians' season tbh
― ꙮ (map), Thursday, 14 September 2023 22:17 (one year ago)
always in season imo
― oatly carmichael (m bison), Thursday, 14 September 2023 22:41 (one year ago)
yay
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Thursday, 14 September 2023 22:42 (one year ago)
I actually played Double Sextet/2×5 on my way to work this morning bc I have a seasonal association with that album.
― jaymc, Friday, 15 September 2023 00:16 (one year ago)
https://x.com/jmcunning/status/775692655795634176?s=20
― jaymc, Friday, 15 September 2023 00:17 (one year ago)
i've been listening to music for 18 musicians for years (the grand valley state university new music ensemble recording), and i have NOT checked out any other steve reich pieces. in mf18m, i love the soft and human quality of the propulsion, the surreal quality of hearing what a computer could play very 'well' instead being played by 'imperfect' but beautifully alive human touch, the slow rise and fall and drift of the motifs, which are gorgeous, and just the very time-stopping, mood-capturing magnetism of the whole thing. what steve reich recordings should i look for next?
― ꙮ (map), Thursday, 25 January 2024 21:04 (one year ago)
Hmm. There's a lot of good phase work he did (Drumming, Clapping, Four Organs, Phase Patterns, etc.) that are similar or related, though not always as transformative/transportative. I know it's not what you asked for, but if you haven't heard it maybe give Philip Glass's "Music With Changing Parts" a shot, it's pretty similar.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 January 2024 21:16 (one year ago)
There's a lot of good phase work he did (Drumming, Clapping, Four Organs, Phase Patterns, etc.) that are similar or related, though not always as transformative/transportative.
yeah, those pieces are more lulling or even nullifying, but i actually like that more a lot of the time
― Deflatormouse, Thursday, 25 January 2024 21:22 (one year ago)
It's nearly all worth your time imho, but I'm especially fond of - Double Sextet, Three Movements, Music For A Large Ensemble, and Drumming.
Taking Josh's lead, give Glass' Music in Twelve Parts a try too.
― MaresNest, Thursday, 25 January 2024 21:25 (one year ago)
i'll give these a try. i was just thinking 'maybe i should check out philip glass' so that's perfect. thanks all.
― ꙮ (map), Thursday, 25 January 2024 21:30 (one year ago)
Other recordings of the same piece can be illuminating too. The ECM version of mf18m (feels like a reddit thread) is generally considered definitive (the Nonesuch remake not so good). The Colin Currie Ensemble and Ensemble Signal, younger groups mentored by Reich, have done this and the CCE have also done Drumming, another trance like one. I would try mybe the original Deutsche Grammophone Drumming for a similar thing to what you get from m418m.
― B. Amato (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 25 January 2024 21:38 (one year ago)
Phase Patterns is the one that was a couple rungs below damn near life changing for me, I like almost everything I’ve heard by him but it all ends up paling in comparison just because that was such a mind shattering event hearing it for the first time. If you’ve heard anything else by him it probably wouldn’t have the same impact though.
― Slim is an Alien, Thursday, 25 January 2024 22:24 (one year ago)
Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ & Music for a Large Ensemble were written around the same time and share a lot of the same vibe as Music for 18 musicians
― bbq, Friday, 26 January 2024 06:32 (one year ago)
"Octet / Music For A Large Ensemble / Violin Phase" on ECM is up there with M418M for me.
― Against The 80s, Friday, 26 January 2024 08:24 (one year ago)
another vote for Drumming
― budo jeru, Friday, 26 January 2024 16:07 (one year ago)
yeah Drumming is 'the one' for me also
― Deflatormouse, Friday, 26 January 2024 18:59 (one year ago)
Besides MF18M, the albums I return to are Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint (the latter is the one that the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" samples) and Double Sextet/2x5.
― jaymc, Saturday, 27 January 2024 05:35 (one year ago)
‘eight lines’ is gorgeous
― donna rouge, Saturday, 27 January 2024 06:01 (one year ago)
Some of his pieces have a musical documentary feel about them, most of these feature a clever device in which he transcribes short clips of speech into notes to be tracked alongside with an instrument, cello, or violin usually.
You realise how much music is embedded in our everyday speech patterns, Different Trains and the startling WTC 9/11 are great examples of that method.
― MaresNest, Saturday, 27 January 2024 11:46 (one year ago)
I would like to recommend Tehillim, I feel it's where you can hear his 'human' touch the most; it's also available as the full ECM Recordings boxset with Mf18M, Octet, Violin Phase & MfLE.
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Saturday, 27 January 2024 18:48 (one year ago)
Oh Tehillim is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, it can drive me to tears. But I think Map was looking for the more long-form trancelike world of Reich. Anyhoo, Steve Reich is the guest of honor at this year’s Long Play Festival in Brooklyn, put on by the Bang on a Can organization. Among other works, including M418M, the Mivos Quartet will do his complete works for string quartet, including Different Trains.
― B. Amato (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 27 January 2024 20:03 (one year ago)
Oh and Drumming will be performs too. I’ve never seen that one performed live. (I saw a local new music group in DC perform M418M several years ago).
― B. Amato (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 27 January 2024 20:05 (one year ago)
A great in-depth interview with @SteveReich in @FT @FinancialTimes today, in which the composer talks about his early life, obsession with Stravinsky, and recent inspirations. Read here: https://t.co/GX2l9XcYTO pic.twitter.com/4zD8Gjc1qg— Steve Reich (@SteveReich) February 2, 2024
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Sunday, 4 February 2024 05:03 (one year ago)
"There is brunch-friendly soft rock music being piped in, and on the previous evening the mall hosted a live performance by an Eagles cover band. But Reich, dressed in dark tones and wearing his signature dark baseball cap, has come for the waffles, not the music."
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Sunday, 4 February 2024 05:14 (one year ago)
It would be funny if he refused to talk about anything but waffles
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 4 February 2024 18:27 (one year ago)
Glad the article clarified that point, would have definitely expected him to be the type of guy who goes out to breakfast for the soft rock soundtrack and the lore of yesterday’s Eagles cover band
― Slim is an Alien, Sunday, 4 February 2024 18:39 (one year ago)
“What do I want? I want life, I want the music to be played, I want the music to be listened to. I want to know people have felt things,” he says. “I’m very grateful that my music has been listened to and appreciated. It’s a great source of happiness.”
Damn I guess success does bring happiness, get stuffed 'making art should be its own reward' people.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Sunday, 4 February 2024 21:53 (one year ago)
Ah. There's a 27 CD box set coming out soon.
― djh, Wednesday, 5 March 2025 19:19 (six months ago)
I found a nice copy of The Desert Music on vinyl last month and it sounds amazing.
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 5 March 2025 19:23 (six months ago)
The box purports to be a Collected Works but it's actually his collected works for Nonesuch (admittedly the vast bulk of his output), plus a few pieces licensed from other labels. These do not include the stuff he recorded for ECM including the original 1976 version of Music For 18 Musicians. I can't comment on which version is better but someone upthread called the ECM version definitive.
― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Thursday, 6 March 2025 10:15 (six months ago)
I was hoping everyone would say "Buy it, DJH. Buy it!" I'm a bit feeble like that.
― djh, Thursday, 6 March 2025 10:53 (six months ago)
Unlike Glass, I don't know if I've never heard a purchasable recorded version of his work that didn't cut it.
Some of the modern recordings, like Eighth Blackbird's version of Double Sextet and 2x5 are amazing, pretty sure that's a Nonsuch release.
I have the 10cd Nonsuch 'Works' box set from the 90s and the revised recording of MF18M from then is great too.
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 6 March 2025 11:43 (six months ago)
*ever heard
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 6 March 2025 11:44 (six months ago)
― djh, Thursday, March 6, 2025 4:53 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
haha as an owner of the 10-cd works box set and a couple other reich albums, i saw 27 and instantly noped out of there
― kendrick lamaze "to push a baby out" (m bison), Thursday, 6 March 2025 12:48 (six months ago)