Going Through A Phase

I first encountered Steve Reich last semester in Contemporary Music Class, but my interest wasn’t piqued until a student concert in December when I witnessed a live performance of "Clapping Music"


It was after that performance that I sought out a score of the music to learn its secrets. It’s so beautiful in its simplicity: a 12 eighth-note ostinato repeated 12 times and then shifted by one eighth-note every 12 repeats until 12 shifts have occurred and the original ostinato returns. It was a completely new form, not confined by the chorus / verse structure of pop music or even classical forms such as sonata or rondo. It opened my eyes to new possibilities as a composer.

"Clapping Music" (1972) was a direct extension of Reich’s earliest important work "Come Out" (1966) in that they both used the technique of phasing. However, where "Come Out" was produced in the studio with tape loops using linear phasing "Clapping Music" was able to achieve a phasing effect in live performance with stepwise motion.

I rediscovered works like "Different Trains" (1988) and "City Life" (1995) that utilized tape loops in conjunction with live instrumentation. These works were revolutionary as the melodic pitches and durations of the instruments were borrowed directly from the speech on the tapes.

I found works for guitar, including "Electric Guitar Phase" (2001) and "Nagoya Guitars" (1998)


I found "Piano Phase" (1967) a live linear phasing piece which predated the stepwise movement of later live pieces.


I found "The Cave" (1993) a multimedia "opera" that synthesizes all of Reich’s methods into one large-scale work.


As opposed to John Cage, who was interested in exploring the philosophical ramifications of music, Steve Reich focused on experimenting with new compositional techniques. He exploited the opportunities allowed by technology through incessant repetition and at same time pointed out the imperfections of machines through phasing. He returned to basic timbral elements such as the body and the voice and derived music from the natural cadences of speech. I know I have just scratched the surface of what Steve Reich has done and look forward to discovering more in the future.