- Byname of:
- Stephen Michael Reich
- Born:
- October 3, 1936, New York, New York, U.S. (age 90)
- Awards And Honors:
- Pulitzer Prize
- Praemium Imperiale (2006)
- Grammy Award (1998)
- Grammy Award (1989)
- Movement / Style:
- Minimalism
Steve Reich
-
Who is Steve Reich?
Steve Reich (born in New York City, October 3, 1936) is a leading American composer and exponent of Minimalism, a style using repetitions and combinations of simple motifs and harmonies.
Reich's compositions rejected mid-20th-century classical complexity to create large-scale works from minimal materials, like a single chord or brief motif, repeated at length with small, slow variations. He drew inspiration from jazz and ethnic and ancient music, studying African drumming, Balinese gamelan music, and Middle Eastern chanting.
His notable works include Four Organs (1970), Drumming (1971), and Music for 18 Musicians (1976). Reich has also composed multimedia operas with his wife, Beryl Korot, such as The Cave (1993) and Three Tales (2002).
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What kind of music is Steve Reich known for?
Steve Reich is an American composer known as one of the leading exponents of Minimalism, a style based on repetitions and combinations of simple motifs and harmonies. His compositions rejected the characteristic complexity of mid-20th-century classical harmony and tonality in order to make large-scale works from minimal materials. Reich drew inspiration from jazz and ethnic and ancient musics; he studied African drumming, Balinese gamelan music, and Middle Eastern chanting.
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What is minimalism in music, and how does Steve Reich use it?
Minimalism in music is characterized by extreme simplicity and a literal, objective approach, reacting against the complex styles of modern music. It explores the essential elements of timbre and rhythm, often using simple harmonic and melodic patterns in highly repetitive structures.
Steve Reich is a leading exponent of minimalism, creating large-scale works from minimal materials like single chords or brief musical motifs. His compositions feature repetition with small, slow variations, influenced by jazz, American vernacular music, and ethnic music such as African drumming and Balinese gamelan.
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What are some famous works composed by Steve Reich?
Steve Reich is a leading American composer of Minimalism, a style using repetitions and combinations of simple motifs and harmonies.
Some of Reich's famous works include:
* Four Organs (1970), for four electric organs and maracas
* Drumming (1971), for small tuned drums, marimbas, glockenspiels, two voices, whistling, and piccolo
* Clapping Music (1972), for two pairs of clapping hands
* Music for 18 Musicians (1976), structured around a cycle of 11 vibrantly pulsing chords
* Tehillim (1981), setting the Psalms in Hebrew
* The Desert Music (1984), setting a William Carlos Williams poem scored for 106 musicians
* Different Trains (1988), integrating audio recordings with a string quartet
* The Cave (1993), a multimedia opera exploring the shared religious heritage of Jews and Muslims, created with video artist Beryl Korot
* Three Tales (2002), a multimedia opera reflecting on 20th-century technology, created with video artist Beryl Korot
* Double Sextet (2007), arranged for 12 musicians or for 6 playing against a recording of themselves
* WTC 9/11: For Three String Quartets and Pre-recorded Voices (2010), incorporating recordings from the September 11, 2001 attacks
* Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018), Reich’s first orchestral work in more than 30 years2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did Steve Reich use technology and unusual instruments in his music?
Steve Reich, a leading exponent of Minimalism, incorporated technology and unusual instruments in his compositions. He experimented with tape loops, as heard in It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966), which allowed him to observe interlocking rhythmic patterns that he would later reproduce compositionally. Some of his works combined live and taped performers. Reich's early works included Four Organs (1970), for four electric organs and maracas; Drumming (1971), for small tuned drums, marimbas, glockenspiels, two voices, whistling, and piccolo; and Clapping Music (1972), for two pairs of clapping hands. In Different Trains (1988), he integrated audio recordings with a string quartet.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How has Steve Reich influenced other musicians and modern music?
Steve Reich, a major figure in minimalism, has significantly impacted modern music through his innovative techniques using repetition and simple motifs. Reich's early experiments with tape loops and interlocking rhythmic patterns paved the way for compositions that combined live and taped performances. Drawing inspiration from jazz, African drumming, Balinese gamelan music, and Middle Eastern chanting, he integrated these diverse influences into his work. His use of larger ensembles and incorporation of texts, such as the Psalms in Tehillim, further expanded his musical palette. Reich's unique approach to integrating audio recordings, as demonstrated in Different Trains, has left a lasting mark, earning him a Grammy Award.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Steve Reich (born October 3, 1936, New York, New York, U.S.) is an American composer who was one of the leading exponents of Minimalism, a style based on repetitions and combinations of simple motifs and harmonies.
Reich was the son of an attorney and a singer-lyricist. He majored in philosophy at Cornell University (1953–57) and then studied composition at the Juilliard School (formerly the Juilliard School of Music) before receiving a master’s degree from Mills College (1963), where his teachers included composers Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio. Reich also played keyboard instruments and percussion. By 1966, when he formed his own ensemble, he was already creating Minimalist compositions.
Like the works of fellow Minimalist Philip Glass, Reich’s compositions rejected the characteristic complexity of mid-20th-century classical harmony and tonality in order to make large-scale works from minimal materials—a single chord, a brief musical motif, a spoken exclamation—which are repeated at length, with small variations introduced very slowly. Early experiments with tape loops, documented in It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966), allowed Reich to observe interlocking rhythmic patterns that he would later reproduce compositionally; some of his works even combined both live and taped performers. Reich drew additional inspiration from American vernacular music, especially jazz, as well as ethnic and ancient musics; he studied African drumming in Ghana (1970), Balinese gamelan music in Seattle and Berkeley, California (1973–74), and Middle Eastern chanting in New York City and Jerusalem (1976–77).
Reich’s early works included Four Organs (1970), for four electric organs and maracas; Drumming (1971), for small tuned drums, marimbas, glockenspiels, two voices, whistling, and piccolo; and Clapping Music (1972), for two pairs of clapping hands. Gradually he began to score for larger ensembles, and in 1976 he completed Music for 18 Musicians, a piece structured around a cycle of 11 vibrantly pulsing chords that is perhaps his best-known composition. Tehillim (1981) marked Reich’s first setting of a text—the Psalms, sung in Hebrew—and he followed it with The Desert Music (1984), a setting of a William Carlos Williams poem scored for 106 musicians.
For Different Trains (1988), Reich integrated fragments of audio recordings pertaining to rail travel, including the reminiscences of Holocaust survivors, with a string quartet that mimicked both the rhythm of a train and the natural musicality of the voices on tape. The piece, as performed by the Kronos Quartet, won a Grammy Award for best contemporary composition in 1989.
Reich collaborated with his wife, video artist Beryl Korot, on two multimedia operas: The Cave (1993), which explores the shared religious heritage of Jews and Muslims, and Three Tales (2002), a reflection on 20th-century technology. His composition Double Sextet (2007), arranged either for 12 musicians or for 6 playing against a recording of themselves, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music. In commemoration of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, Reich composed WTC 9/11: For Three String Quartets and Pre-recorded Voices (2010), incorporating recordings of emergency personnel and New York residents that had been made on the day of the tragedy.
In 2018 his Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, his first orchestral work in more than 30 years, was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He then collaborated with German painter Gerhard Richter on a multimedia presentation for The Shed, a cultural institution in New York City, and it appeared in 2019.
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For his contribution to the development of music as a whole, Reich received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize in 2006. He was also awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Music at the 2014 Venice Biennale.