Preview

Steve Reich's Serialist Movement

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
947 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Steve Reich's Serialist Movement
Steve Reich lost interest in serialism early. A student of Luciano Berio at Mills College, Reich quickly realized the melodic limitations of twelve-tone composition. Serialist rhythm was a different story. Reich was enamored with the processes and repetition inherent to serial rhythm and it helped to form what is, without a doubt, the prevailing link between Reich's work over the past forty years; his complex, innovative use of rhythm. It's absolutely the case with Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, a well-regarded piece nevertheless overshadowed by what is widely considered one of Reich's seminal compositions, Music for 18 Musicians. Premiered in 1973, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ deals in large part with Reich's …show more content…

Moving through four somewhat distinct sections, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, while relying heavily of the repetition that is so characteristic of Reich, has far more melodic movement than much of his work from the time period. The phrases come at rapid fire, polyrhythmic melodies beginning on one metallophone, expanding onto another and then being answered contrapuntally by a third or fourth. There are no soloists and the dynamic shifts remain quite subtle and reserved throughout. Reich's Ensemble Modern, established In 1966 with three other performers had, by 1971's Drumming ballooned to well over twelve regular players. The use of a consistent ensemble allows Reich to surround himself with like-minded players whose chief concerns are not improvisation or self-expression but rather an ego-robbing adherence to the necessity of collectivism. Reich has said, "The pleasure I get from playing is not the pleasure of expressing myself but of subjugating myself to the music and experiencing the ecstasy that comes from being a part of it." Though Reich, a huge (pre-free) jazz fan, has no problem with improvisation, within his own work he it seems almost like anathema. …show more content…

Smaller in size and scope than Drumming, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ shares a number of characteristics with its predecessor. Heavily influenced rhythmically and sonically by Reich's trip to Ghana, both are large ensemble works featuring overlapping rhythmic figures and both are two of his earliest attempts to move away from phasing towards more involved, elaborate instrumental interweaving. Both works are also some of Reich's first attempts to use the human voice as a means to simulate and support the sounds of the live instruments (very similar to the second part of Drumming). Moreover, his technique of shifting timbres instrument by instrument on the same melodic line, begun in Drumming, really begins to be refined on Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ.
In addition to his rhythmic techniques, Reich's work has almost always relied, at least in some part, on technology and electronics. Moving from early forays with tape loops (It's Gonna Rain, Come Out, etc), feedback (Pendulum Music) and mergers of live instruments with tape (his Counterpoint series) to his most recent pieces (You Are ((Variations)), Cello Counterpoint), amplification and electricity have been key elements of his work. Though the addition of visuals to his work is a relatively new development, beginning with Different Trains (1988), it fits perfectly with Reich's body of work.


You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    A lot of them called for instrumental music and the composer were able to express themselves better with that.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Serial music is 20th century music that uses notes in a definite order as a confined basis for pieces.…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Tom Gersic. (/). Early Electronic Music. Available: http://www.gersic.com/writing.php?id=3. Last accessed 1st Nov 2012. Tim Whitelaw. (2003). Karlheinz Stockhausen Electronic music pioneer. Available: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar08/articles/stockhausen.htm. Last accessed 4th Dec 2012. Wikipedia. (5th Dec 2012). Moog synthesizer. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_synthesizer. Last accessed 6th Dec 2012. Wikipedia. (12th Dec 2012). Pop music. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music. Last accessed 5th Nov 2012.…

    • 2634 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Week 13 discuss

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Page

    With the introduction of the new age of music of his time came the “emancipation” of tonality and dissonance. Schoenberg developed the “twelve-tone” system to bring order to what was leading to be chaos. For Schoenberg, realized by most of the world later, the unity provided by serialism was the purpose and meaning of what romantics had so eagerly sought after.…

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Run Lola Run Essay

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Composers use distinctively visual techniques to convey distinctive experiences within our lives, such as the race against time, duties imposed by relationships and making choices. This is exemplified through the film ‘Run Lola Run! ‘ and the poem ‘The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock´ (hereafter ‘Prufrock´).…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Assignment Tma04

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages

    • Generally the third movement of a string quartet is either a scherzo or a minuet and trio.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Problems between composers and the general public have been mounting for over one hundred years. As advanced music rapidly changes, the public seemingly fails to posses the musical knowledge necessary to appreciate modern works of contemporary music. In 1958, Milton Babbitt examined this relationship in a piece entitled “Who Cares if You Listen?” In the article, Babbitt asses the public’s feelings on “advanced” music and concludes that it should not concern composers if their work doesn’t get an audience beyond a few colleagues. Musical masterpieces including Babbitt’s Semi Simple Variations and Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge exemplify why this is the case. Despite efforts to reach out to the public by composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, the divide that separates these entities is even greater today.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bach Keyboard History

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 1946-48, John Cage composed “Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata V” for the piano, and placed foreign materials between the strings of the keys in order to produce the unique sound. “He discovered that he could create percussion-like sounds on the piano by inserting small objects between the strings,” (Burkholder, V.3, 542). He was inspired by Henry Cowell, who explored similar methods of experimentation, for example in “The Banshee,” he performed inside the piano directly on the strings. Again, because the piano is ever so diverse in structure, composers can continuously create new sounds and…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This piece was first played in 1987, at a time when minimalism was becoming popular. This resulted in many composers wanting to find new ways of making and playing an electronic sound. Reich incorporates this electronic sound into ‘Electric Counterpoint’ by using 7 electric guitars and 2 bass guitars.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The history of Puerto Rican music in general is incomplete and inaccurate. There is little documentation available from the 16th through the 18th-century, due to the lack of attention that the Spanish authorities paid towards Puerto Rico. During this gestation time, educated people considered it not interesting to write about culture and music –especially jíbaro music– in Puerto Rico during the first centuries of the colonization time; it was more interesting to be a philosopher, for example.…

    • 5489 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I attended The Wind Ensemble on March 9, 2016 that took place in San Jose State University Concert Hall. The program was part of San Jose State University School of Music and Dances performances Spring ’16. There were two conductors for this performance, Dr. Edward Harris was the director as well as the main conductor of this performance, and the graduate conducting associate Paul Herrea. In this ensemble, there were two percussion soloists by Professor Galen Lemmon and Anne Hsu, an alumni from SJSU. All the pieces in this performance classified as program music, and most of them were relative new, contemporary music base the day they were composed. There were four selections in this program, and it was conducted by two conductors. Every players were dressing up formal for this performance. There One thing stand out from the band was the fact that there was one string player among all wood wind and percussion instruments players, and he was playing the bass violin.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steve Reich was a composer of the minimalist style of music. He used many types of media to create his music. The class textbook describes Reich as the acknowledged old master of the minimalist style and having little experience with this type of music I cannot agree or disagree with this statement- however, I can offer my opinion. I read through the text and Steve Reich website, listened to the “Music for 18 Musicians” and found that I disliked the sounds that I heard. So I watched all of the videos and listened to the required MP3 four more times. While I…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tonight my friends and I had the pleasure of listening to a guest recital of one of Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s compositions. The lecture recital was titled “Spirit Chief Names the Animal People” and it was truly a sight to see. Before last night I had never really been exposed to any music quite like this but it was very interesting and exciting. The stories were all funny and reminded me very much of some of the readings in our text book. The show featured a style that I had never experienced before, as the words were portrayed in a storytelling fashion while also having all of the elements of an orchestra.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the time of Schumann’s ‘Chamber Music year’, chamber music was making the change in its stage from the private venues to bigger concert performances. Schumann and other famous composer of those times such as Mendelssohn and Brahms started experimenting with more complex and larger ensembles to meet the expectations of a larger and more demanding concert environments. They combined the strings with the newly developed and much more capable and virtuosic piano.…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dizzy Gillespie mixed Latin music into his by collaborating his jazz with Chano Pozo’s drumming.…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays