How To Disappear Completely

Music for Clapping

Today I saw Steve Reich. He did not do much. Students from the University of Toronto and local high schools performed his music, and he came up on stage afterwards and bowed to much applause. Tomorrow he will perform his music, at the Canadian premiere of his newest work You Are (Variations). I should return....but, the price is a bit stiff for me. So instead of watching one of the most influential 20th century composers play his own compositions, including one only a handful have heard till now, I went to the free concert of his classic repertoire and merely saw him bow to the audience. But it was enough for me.

I got to hear the following:
1) "Clapping Music" Extremely intricate clapping patterns performed by students of a local high school. Their rhythmically ordered clapping was met with an enthusiastic and chaotic response.
2) "Music for Blocks of Wood" Something like Stomp in the technique of layered rhythmic patterns that interact with each other to create macrolevel patterns.
(3) "Guitar Counterpoint" Imagine bass electric guitar patterns treated with minimalist repetition and gradual change.
(4) "Piano Phase" Two pianos start with sequential motives that form a single phrase (ie, first Piano One plays A, then Piano Two plays B, to create A-B). As one piano speeds up, the motives gradually become simultaneous (A and B played together), and then gradually return to sequential order.
(5) "Nagoya Marimbas" Marimba players are fun to watch, especially when they have extended scale passages and must hop around on stage, from the lower range of their instrument to the higher range.
(6) "New York Counterpoint" An ensemble of clarinets. The bass clarinet used to provide an ethereal rumbling foundation to the sporadic melodic fragments in the upper voices.

I am writing an analysis paper on "Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards," so a chance to hear some of Reich's other works and to catch a glimpse of him was a special treat.