Music for 18 Musicians

I'm enamored by the way Steve Reich organizes this piece. The key of this piece is centered around f minor with slowly evolving chordal progressions. Music for 18 Musicians is a wonderful piece, people should take the time to enjoy the simple yet complex arrangements of rhythms and color of sound. I enjoy listening to the changes in rhythm and harmony.

Both my oldest daughter (18) and myself (56) love this work. I have two versions: the ones by the Steve Reich Ensemble and Grand Valley State. I do not perceive a significant difference between them, but I am not a serious student of music. However, I am Intrigued by how this uses rhythm and harmony without using percussion or melody in the normal sense. The work opens with a few instruments playing at a constant fast tempo with a clearly defined constant pitch and volume for extended periods. This serves as the heartbeat of the piece and continues without break throughout. They are soon joined by other instruments that play short sets of notes with durations that are simple multiples of this heartbeat. Each time a sequence is played it has a clearly defined and constant pitch and volume. The constant pitch gives me no sense of melody, but projects a strong perception of rhythm. Multiple overlapping sequences generate harmonic and rhythmic complexity. The sequences used change between sections, with the sections termed "Pulses" having the simplest sequences: all notes in a sequence having the same length and duration with no pauses, i.e. a brief pulse of notes. The overall effect I find emotionally relaxing and mentally stimulating. I think the relaxation comes from the constant pace set by the heartbeat and simple form of the patterns. The mental stimulation by large variety of ways these patterns can combine.

I purchased the '76 recording in a record store by mistake thinking it was something else in 1985. In 24 years and hearing it countless times, I still discover something new each time. Both the '76 and '99 versions are good in my opinion. I find it completely transporting and after hearing it all the way through uninterupted, it takes me a moment to get my bearings.

There is so much to be said about this work and I should know... I wrote a 15+ page term paper about it! At first it all sounded the same... It took me about the fifth time listening to the album before I actually started to like it. And then the whole thing opened up... Now, I own another recording of the same work, I want the the others by Garden State and Ensemble Modern, and I even own a copy of the score! Long story short, the piece is similar to the encyclopedic exposure of compositional techniques that Philip Glass accomplished in "Music in 12 Parts", but this time in a work of about an hour. The opening Pulses suggest a progression of 11 chords which are expanded into separate mini compositions, the Sections that follow. Each one makes use of a techique, usually addition or subtraction of notes/beats. For example, Section I adds parts by measures while Section II adds one note at a time. Many of the performance practices are up to the performer (such as the number of repetitions to perform). Holding it all together are the metallophone (the bell-like notes) and the bass clarinet, who give cues (since there is no conductor). These provide signposts that can track your progress through the piece... The maracas in Section VI mark an almost halfway point, for example. All these details cannot describe the lush Grammy Award winning sound (which was admittedly achieved through engineering). It is a beautiful landmark in American music.

The discovery of this piece was probably the greatest musical milestone I achieved in college. Reich received a passing mention in our 20th century theory class; we listened to a few minutes of "Drumming" which didn't particularly grab anybody. On a whim, I googled Reich late that evening and listened to the opening few minutes of the 1976 recording. The rapid blend of blipping marimba into soapy female vocals, the rise and fall of smokey bass clarinets -- it was a whole new musical door opening. It's not for everybody - minimalism is built on on the concept of repetition ad nauseum which just makes minor changes and shifts that much more dramatic. If you're a timbre junkie like me, you will find this piece fascinating. Bravo, Reich, and thanks.

NIU just performed this piece this past week, and even with regard to its lengthiness and minimalism, it was totally burning. It was like nothing any of us had ever seen, and everyone was totally blown away by it. I would recommend this album to anyone and everyone.

Reich is God!

My initial response to this new type of music was to wonder wether iTunes had frozen and was just repeating the same sound non stop. It's a very interesting kind of classical music for it has a strange effect on the mind, but I for one don't see it as a helpful effect. This kind of repeating rhythm puts you in a trance like state of almost a high-like euphoria. As a great listener of classical music, I discourage this album. Classical music is known to stimulate the mind and awaken dazed senses, but this...this does the opposite. I guess if you want to enter another realm, then this is great...but I like to stay with my toes on earth and my head firmly in reality.

quintessential Reich, and one of the greatest musical achievements of the last 50 years.

This album is made through an entirely different aesthetic approach to music, one that set the grounds for much of the electronic music made today. Rather than a song developing and ending with one clear viewpoint, Music for 18 Musicians is created to never really end, or begin. It is a giant, beautiful circle of sound that is to be approached from any angle, experienced, and then slowly pulled away from. The music in itself is a single entity- Slowly changing, like the oceans tides flowing from one part to the next. The album ends just like it began, restarting the neverending cycle