Steve Reich – Minimal music

 

Steve Reich´s music can be best described as minimal music. This type of music has not a lot of variations but rather repetitive patterns. Moreover, also important to mention is that minimal music is influenced by Asian and African music. I could hear Asian influences in Reich´s piece “Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ” (1973). The example of the pendulum really helped to illustrate what repetitive music is. In this example, four speakers and four microphones were set up outside at equal distances from each other. After that, the four microphones were all released at the same time and passed through the section between the speaker and the next microphone. Initially, the noises of all four microphones sounded identical, but over time the speed of the microphones changed due to the wind and weather in general. At the very end, the microphones did not move at all and I could only hear unpleasant white noise. In “It´s Gonna Rain” (1965) the repetitions are even more obvious. This song is around 18 minutes long and sounds more like an aggressive sermon about the end of the world. In this song, the term “rain” is repeated many times and at a fast pace until the word is no longer understandable. To be more precise, this “facing in” and “facing out” was not pleasant to hear. To be more precise, after a while, my head started to feel more like jelly. I did not like “It´s Gonna Rain” but I liked the next song.

The live performance “Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ” (1973) was also a longer piece. The beginning of this song was rather hopeful and sounded mystical. The repetitive patterns of the mallet percussion and the humming of the singers also contributed to this atmosphere. After a while, the voices stretched out more, but this way it also sounded more even. At first, I was not quite sure that women were humming in the background. The humming sounded more like something non-human to me. In the middle part of the song, the voices got higher but were still repetitive. Compared to the slow beginning, the tones and humming became much faster towards the end. Compared to “It´s Gonna Rain”, “Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ” is not obtrusive music and is therefore pleasant to listen to.  I was particularly amazed at how the singers were able to remember the sounds/tones/hums (lyrics) since many of them sounded very similar.

I found Steve Reich´s “Different Trains” (1988) also interesting to listen to. This song is made of two movements one is “America before the war” and the other is “Europe during the war”. Thus, the sounds in the first movement were more peaceful. Moreover, the sounds were reminiscent of a train, as sounds of trains, such as a train horn, were used. What was also used was digital tones, such as the voice of a train driver who praised the train with the phrase “One of the fastest trains”. Additionally, the violin was continually used and thus created the effect of a moving train. The sounds of the second movement were more negative. I could hear the sounds of sirens and the repetition of the phrase “the year 1940”. Moreover, the violins in the background sounded more troubled and depressed, and the voices retold rather negative phrases. I enjoyed listening to “Different Trains” since I have never heard of such a concept before and I really liked the differences between the first movement and the second.