Weekend of Chamber Music

3 months ago

Steve Reich’s entire oeuvre could be understood as comprised of sets of variations. The essential quality of constant, slow, perceptible change is what came to be called “minimalism.” Fascinated from very early on with musical processes, Reich, in collaboration with his ground-breaking ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians, began to develop ways of treating material in which the components slowly drifted apart and re-combined, forming canons and resultant melodic patterns. The basic idea always present in its original form, but surrounded by increasingly distant and rhythmically varied versions of itself. The process continues until a maximum density of counterpoint is reached, at which point it stops and the piece ends, just like that. The relationship Reich seeks with the listener is active, engaged, and exhilarated. Clapping Music makes this possible by the simplest of means: two performers clapping their hands, covering a huge amount of developmental ground over the course of a roughly 4-minute journey. ... See MoreSee Less