Steve Reich Research Paper

In 1936, one of the founding fathers in minimalism, Steve Reich, was born. He began studying music at a young age and played the piano. By the age of 14, he begin exploring the musical works of Bach and Stravinsky while discovering behop, learning how to play the drums, and playing jazz. After graduating high school, Reich decided to attend Cornell University to study philosophy while taking a few composition courses. After graduating, he decided to pursue composition and took courses at the Julliard School of Music and Mills College. While taking a course with Professor Luciano Berio, Reich decided he was disappointed by pieces composed by European Composers such as Stockhausen and he decided he would set out to prove that tonality is the

Minimalism can be defined as, “A style of music that uses a very small amount of material, repeats it and gradually repeats it.” (Reich, 1974) Phasing can be best described as the, “the gradual change of pulse of one repeated motif against another.” (Reich, 1974) Reich believed phasing was very much like the infinite canon or round in medieval music. In the infinite canon or round, melodies were played with one starting after the other, and the melodic phrases’ featured repeating patterns that were fixed and identical. Meanwhile, the phasing technique caused the repeating patterns of melodic phrases’ to vary in tempo. His first experimentation with these techniques can be observed in his pieces, “It’s Gonna Rain” and “Come

While in Ghana, Reich did research with the master drummer of the Ewe Tribe and immediately fell in love with the rhythmic structure of African music. He decided it was absolutely imperative these rhythms be incorporated into Western music. The influence of African music would lead to his music incorporating a faster harmonic rate of change and diversity in his harmonies. As a result, he composed “Drumming”, a 90 minute long piece featuring percussion, female vocals, and a piccolo. “Drumming” consists of the elaboration of a single rhythmic cell that is developed and re-orchestrated throughout four sections. These phasing techniques coupled up with “build-up and reduction” would lead to the creation of new melodic and harmonic patterns. The piece incorporates imitation, timbre alteration, juxtaposition, and