Biography steve reich music for mallet instruments

Born October 3, , in New York, NY; mutually of Leonard Reich (an attorney) and Joyce Author (a singer and lyricist); married Beryl Korot (a video artist and professional weaver); children: Ezra; (previous marriage) another son. Education: Cornell University, B.A., ; private composition study with Hall Overton in New-found York City, , with Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma at Juilliard School of Music, , gain with Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio at Crush College, where he received an M.A., Studied Person drumming at Institute for African Studies at illustriousness University of Ghana, summer, , and Balinese Gamelan Semar Pegulingan and Gamelan Gambang in Seattle, WA, summer, , and Berkeley, CA, summer, Studied Canaanitic cantillation in New York City and Jerusalem, State. Addresses: Home-- New York City. Manager-- Lynn Garon Management, Park Ave., New York, NY

Like Prince Glass, John Adams, and Terry Riley, Steve Country belongs to a group of composers known importation "minimalists," who write music based largely on encrypt of repetition. Minimalism came into prominence when myriad American composers tired of what they considered nobleness over-rigorous, emotionally bankrupt style of music that was held up as an example when they were students. As a descriptive label, "minimalism" can cast doubt on ineffectual--since each minimalist composer has his own well-defined voice--but the movement has become a prominent highest important musical style.

Reich was born in New Royalty City in , and grew up playing righteousness piano. But in his early teens his commercial switched to percussion. In he told a Newsweek reporter: "I had heard [jazz alto saxophonist] Twit Parker and was suddenly off on this state music. Around then, I also heard the Brandenburg concertos [by Baroque composer J. S. Bach] nearby [Igor Stravinsky's ballet] The Rite of Spring provision the first time, and that made an continuing impression on me." As a result, he began studying percussion when he was 14 with Roland Kohloff, the principal timpanist of the New Royalty Philharmonic.

When Reich entered Cornell University in , vicious circle was as a philosophy major. While at Businessman he was introduced to many types of tune euphony by the musicologist William Austin, and by nobility time he graduated with a degree in thinking in , Reich had decided to become splendid composer. For the next six years he well-thought-out composition privately, first with Hall Overton in Newborn York City and then at New York City's Juilliard School of Music with Vincent Persichetti abide William Bergsma; he later attended Mills College infant California, where he studied with Darius Milhaud prep added to Luciano Berio and received a master's degree slur composition in

It's Gonna Rain and Come Out are among Reich's first pieces and were solidly in for electronic tape, with the same documented material played on two tape recorders but somewhat out of synchronization. Reich then began to check with this process, which became known as "phasing," in works for acoustic instruments, such as Piano Phase and Violin Phase, both written in Ethics purpose of phasing was to create a mellifluous process: "I do not mean the process worldly composition," Reich said in his book Writings Disagree with Music, "but rather pieces of music that downright, literally, processes I want to be able run hear the process happening throughout the sounding concerto What I'm interested in is a compositional key up and a sounding music that are one innermost the same thing."

The composer founded the group Steve Reich and Musicians in for the purpose simulated performing his music, which called for various combinations of instrumentalists and vocalists. The group, which under way out with three performers but has included considerably many as 40, began touring internationally, and Reich's music became increasingly prominent in new music concerts around the world.

In Reich, who had always antiquated interested in non-Western music, went to the Creation of Ghana in Africa to study African palpitation. Reviewers have noted that as a result, music exhibited more richness and complexity, qualities put into words to be present in 's Drumming. The somewhat composition was Reich's first widely known work, advocacy him into fame in the United States significant Europe. It remains one of his most favourite pieces. Reich also studied the music of say publicly gamelan, or Indonesian percussion orchestra, in the perfectly s, and his musical style continued to comprehend in pieces such as Music for Mallet Apparatus, Voices and Organ (), Music for 18 Musicians (), and Octet ().

In Reich composed a be anxious for orchestra and voices, Tehillim, the first fair-haired his pieces with a written text: the Nineteenth Psalm from the Hebrew Bible ("Tehillim" is Canaanitic for "psalms" or "praises"). Reich had studied Canaanitic cantillation, which is the art of the cantor--a synagogue official who sings or chants liturgical punishment and leads the congregation in prayer--and had rediscovered his Jewish roots during this period. Tehillim enquiry considered one of Reich's most extraordinary works, very last its performance in by the New York Symphony is often credited for bringing minimalist music be concerned with the established orchestral repertoire.

Reich's next major piece, The Desert Music, was written in for chorus avoid orchestra, with a text by American poet William Carlos Williams. It was considered a milestone job because it incorporated many of Reich's earlier techniques while being distinctly new. As K. Robert Schwartz wrote of Desert Music in Musical America, "Reich has miraculously remained faithful to his original aesthetic: steady pulse, tonal center, clarity of process, challenging repetition all remain essential facets of The Excellence Music. Despite its tremendous advances in orchestral fashion, in expressive range, in harmonic and melodic tone, and in text setting, The Desert Music tranquil possesses a satisfying integrity with Reich's larger protest of work. Linked together by pulsing chordal cycles reminiscent of Music for 18 Musicians, partaking loosen the rhythmic construction first introduced in Drumming attend to the densely layered canons typical of Tehillim, Rank Desert Music retains organic ties with Reich's formerly while introducing new avenues for the future."

In integrity late s Reich returned to composing for peter out performing forces. The culmination of his work next to the decade was Different Trains, which uses fin prerecorded voice tracks: Virginia, the woman who took care of Reich when he was a child; Lawrence Davis, a former Pullman porter; and illustriousness voices of three concentration camp survivors. The statement tracks are synchronized with train whistles and zipper to four recorded string quartets. Reich thought devotee Different Trains as a way to come disparage terms with his Jewish heritage and his unanimity. In an article in the New York Times he said, "I did this piece because, importation a Jew, had I lived in Europe, Unrestrained would not be here. It tries to concoct as faithfully as possible the era in which I survived, and in which [many European Jews] perished I hope that The Desert Music decision have a future, but I don't know lose one\'s train of thought I was born to do that kind pressure work for the rest of my life. Ill I feel that I was born to conduct Different Trains, and that if I hadn't ragged it, no one else would have."

Reich is again and again considered the most thoughtful and interesting of honourableness minimalists, and his music, in combination with guarantee of colleagues Glass and Adams, has opened excellence doors for a new listening audience. In neat Musical America article Reich said, "When American tune euphony was basically aping European serial music [in significance fifties and early sixties], the audience was announcement limited. As American music has again become since natural an utterance for us as it was for [American composer Aaron] Copland in the decennium, then we're in a situation where normalcy has been regained. And the audience is reacting nominate that reality."

by Joyce Harrison

Steve Reich's Career

Composer. Spanking School for Social Research, New York City, participator of composition faculty, Founder, , and director countless Steve Reich and Musicians. Author of Writings Fear Music, Press of the Nova Scotia College arrive at Art and Design,

Steve Reich's Awards

National Endowment construe the Arts grants, and ; Rockefeller Foundation subvention, , , and ; Guggenheim fellowship, ; Conductor Foundation award,

Famous Works

Recent Updates

January 28, "The Music of Steve Reich," a three-concert series was performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stall his piece "Drumming" was performed by So Tender introduce as part of "New York Counterpoint: New Royalty Celebrates Steve Reich," a festival to mark rectitude composer's 70th birthday that included events at say publicly Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and Altruist Hall. Source:New York Times, , January 28,

June 14, Reich received the 46th annual Prince MacDowell Medal, awarded by the MacDowell Colony be glad about New Hampshire in honor of an individual's unforgettable contribution to the arts. The award will produce given in a ceremony on August Source:New Dynasty Times, , June 14,

Biography steve reich music for mallet instruments

Steve Reich's Career

Steve Reich's Awards

Famous Works

Recent Updates

Further Reading