Steve Reich

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 process of “augmentation”, first realized in his work Four Organs. Augmentation is, according to Reich, “the lengthening of duration of notes previously played in shorter note values creating the sense of slowing down the musical motion.” His initial intention, very early in his career, was to gradually slow a tape loop over a long period of time while having it maintain the same pitch. The initial idea was scribbled down as a fragment in his notebook, simply stating, “Short chord gets long.” The project never came to fruition, as it was technologically impossible in the 1960’s. Instead, he recreated the sound with live instruments in Four Organs (1970), repeating one dense dominant chord over increasing periods of time over a constant maraca backbeat. The intention is really to create a sense in the listener of time slowing. Reich presents the visual of a “film loop gradually presented in slower and slower motion.” The sustained harmonies and chords underneath the music and the overlapping, slowly shifting melodic lines are both trademark Reich devices.

In interviews Reich (along with other early minimalists like Terry Riley and Philip Glass) has cited Coltrane’s Africa/Brass as a huge influence, describing his work as “playing a lot of notes to very few harmonies” which is a perfect way to sum up Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ. 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. Since his music is based in large part on processes, Reich has said that the concepts of improvisation and process music are “mutually exclusive.” Nevertheless, Reich’s pieces (particularly in this relatively early stage in his career) were often only lightly or completely