Page 322 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
P. 322
320
THE PROCESS OF
SUBSTITUTING BEATS
FOR RESTS
SIX PIANOS (1973), STEVE REICH
irst performed in New York Although his style was initially
IN CONTEXT in 1973, Reich’s Six Pianos controversial, by 1976 Reich’s Music
F employs the “phasing” for 18 Musicians was well received.
FOCUS technique the American composer In the 1980s, he moved away from
Late minimalism
had developed in the 1960s. The six strict minimalism, developing
BEFORE pianists play the same repeated richer harmonies and melodies.
1958 American composer eight-beat rhythmic pattern, but Notable later works by Reich,
La Monte Young completes each strikes different notes. The whose style has influenced both
his pioneering minimalist repeated pattern produces richly classical and popular music,
work, Trio for Strings. textured, shifting waves of sound include Different Trains (1988)
as the pianists move in and out of and The Cave (1993), a multimedia
1964 Terry Riley’s In C is an phase with each other. opera created with his wife, the
influential minimalist work; it video artist Beryl Korot. ■
uses simple musical fragments Rhythm and repetition
to create a wavelike sound. Reich was an early adherent of
the minimalist style that began to
AFTER emerge in the United States in the
1978 Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: late 1950s. Pioneered by La Monte
Music for Airports introduces Young and Terry Riley, soon joined
minimalism into popular by Philip Glass and Reich, it was a
music, helping to create the reaction against the serialism of
new genre of ambient music. European composers such as
Arnold Schoenberg and Pierre
1982 Minimalism and Boulez. In contrast to melodies and
medieval Gregorian chant harmonies based on the 12-tone
influence the Estonian Arvo chromatic scale, minimalism used
Pärt in works such as his repeated chords or sequences that Reel-to-reel tapes and other
St. John Passion. changed only by tiny increments recording equipment enabled Reich,
shown here in 1982, to perfect the
over the course of a piece. It was phasing techniques that he would
also marked by strong rhythms. then apply to live instruments.
See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Gruppen 306–307 ■ Threnody for the Victims
of Hiroshima 310–311 ■ In C 312–313 ■ Einstein on the Beach 321
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