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REICH: Clapping Music; Music for Pieces of Wood; Sextet – London Sym. Orch. Percussion Ens. – LSO Live

REICH: Clapping Music; Music for Pieces of Wood; Sextet – London Sym. Orch. Percussion Ens. – LSO Live

by | Aug 20, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Minimalism grows from a new technique to a sophisticated musical style. REICH: Clapping Music; Music for Pieces of Wood; Sextet – London Sym. Orch. Percussion Ens. – LSO Live – multichannel SACD, LSO 5073, 43:06 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: The rise of minimalism in the mid-20th century was a result of a revolt against the complexity of serialism (Schoenberg, Webern and Babbitt) and the indeterminacy of John Cage. Inspired by jazz, rock-and-roll, non-Western music (Indian raga, West African drumming and Balinese gamelan), the American minimalist Fab Four (La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Steve Reich) composed music that emphasized tonality and pulse over harmony and the drama of tension and release. Reich (b. 1936), probably the most sophisticated example, demanded that the listener be able to clearly understand the process of the evolution of his music. He emphasized movement within repetition by shifting rhythmic patterns of one or more instruments at different times. He uses phase shifting (analogous to canon) where two identical patterns played together gradually shift out of unison creating intricate and complex counterpoint. When the listener has the patience to concentrate on this process, the music can become a “slowly unfolding, ecstatic ritual that can […]

REICH: Double Sextet; Radio Rewrite – Ensemble Signal/Brad Lubman – Harmonia mundi

REICH: Double Sextet; Radio Rewrite – Ensemble Signal/Brad Lubman – Harmonia mundi

by | Aug 2, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

STEVE REICH: Double Sextet; Radio Rewrite – Ensemble Signal/Brad Lubman – Harmonia mundi HMU907671, 39:45, (7/8/16) ***1/2: Outstanding performances of these recent Reich works in the familiar style. B01FLNZNPM  Steve Reich has been, for several decades now, one of those composers who found his niche and maintains a great success within it. He was one of the pioneers of the “minimalism” movement (a term that most consider no longer wholly descriptive.) Reich’s music continues to be comprised of overlapping bits of melody and rhythm and structured phase shifting and the like and it gives his music a signature sound; propulsive, light-textured and buoyant. The two works here are two fairly recent examples of Steve’s work which has, in its own realm, developed quite a bit over the years. The Double Sextet, from 2007, is interesting in that he wrote it to be played in its present iteration – with twelve live instrumentalists – or with six playing against a pre-recorded track of the other six parts. Certainly, the Double Sextet played with all live players is more intriguing to watch or to play in, I should imagine, than the version of six playing against a recording. Another interesting facet of […]