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Minimalism Area of Study 2: Steve Reich ‘Electric Counterpoint’

Minimalist music… Developed in the 1960s as a reaction against Serialism. BACK TO TONALITY! After Serialism, music went through several genres: aleatoric, electric and experimental. Minimalism wanted to send music in an opposite direction, back to simplicity. Key pioneers included: Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and La Monte Young. Glass called the serialist music scene; “A wasteland, dominated by these maniacs, these creeps who were trying to make everyone write this crazy, creepy music”.

La Monte Young – based his music on drones. Soundscapes. Terry Riley experimented with loops and sound recordings. His most famous work, In C (1965), brought minimalism into the musical mainstream. Philip Glass uses repetition, layering, octaves and lots of broken chords

What influenced minimalism? African music – rhythm more important than melody, polyrhythms, cross-rhythms. Gamelan music – layering, slow changing harmonies. Technology – e.g. recording and looping.

Key features: Drones – a continuous or repeated note. Ostinati/loop – repeated patterns (called cells). Phasing – 2 mostly identical parts which go out of sync with each other and gradually come back into sync again. Metamorphosis – gradually changing ideas (e.g. changing one note at a time). Layering – adding new musical parts – creating a complex texture. Note Addition – adding in new notes. Note Subtraction – taking away notes. Rhythmic displacement – playing a musical phrase so that the accents fall in different places to what would be expected. Augmentation – extending the duration of a rhythmic pattern. Diminution – halving the length of notes. (q q = iq )). Static harmony – chords changing very slowly, if at all. Polyrhythms and cross rhythms – lots of different rhythms on top of each other and rhythms that conflict heard together.

It’s Gonna Rain An example of how music technology has influenced minimalism: AX7xQEhttps:// AX7xQE The tapes that Reich used gradually went out of sync producing the effect known as phase shifting.

Clapping music - Reich: Written in 1972 for two performers. This is an example of PHASE SHIFTING which is when a pattern is shifted by one beat.

Steve Reich – New York Counterpoint How many key features can you hear?

Phasing Ostinati Layering Metamorphosis Static harmony Note addition

Different Trains – Steve Reich Different Trains is in three movements – America – Before the war Europe – During the War After the war It was composed for string quartet and tape

The concept for this piece comes from Steve Reich’s childhood. His parents separated when he was one year old. His mother moved to Los Angeles, his father stayed in New York. Steve Reich frequently travelled between the two cities with his governess between 1939 and At the time he found the trips exciting but in later life wondered how it would have been if he had been travelling by train in Europe at that time. As a Jew he would have had to travel in very different trains. This piece reflects on these issues.

Small speech samples were selected and notated as accurately as possible. The strings then imitated the speech melody and rhythm The voice and train samples recorded first to computer followed by the strings

HOMEWORK: Listen to Different Trains (movement 1, 2 or 3). 1.What minimalist techniques can you hear? 2. Discuss to what extent the music reflects the historical background of the piece. Do you think this piece is effective/emotive enough? Please justify your reasons.

TASK: Create two short musical ideas of no more than two bars long. Write your ideas down using the correct time and key signature. Label them 1 and 2. Try to make the rhythm interesting. These are your loops. Now, using Sibelius, try manipulating your loops by adding minimalist techniques such as: Phasing Note addition/subtraction Metamorphosis Rhythmic displacement Augmentation/diminution

CONTEXT

Steve Reich (1936-) Grew up in New York. Played in ensembles with Terry Riley. Influenced by Jazz and African drumming music. Started recording with tape loops. His music is rhythmically complex and uses repetition and layering. His music is very demanding on the performer due to rhythms, having to count and keeping to a strict pulse. Other works include Different Trains, Clapping Music, New York Counterpoint, Vermont Counterpoint.

Electric Counterpoint… Was written for famous jazz guitarist Pat Metheny in All parts are performed by ONE guitarist. It is made up of 3 movements – ‘fast’, ‘slow’ & ‘fast’ (3 rd movement is our set work) ‘Fast’ is written for 7 electric guitars, 2 bass guitars & a solo guitar part. All tracks were pre-recorded on a multi track recorder with the solo part played live.

Steve Reich was born in _________________ in _________________. Reich developed a style of music known as _______________. Other minimalist composers are __________________. In 1965, Reich composed _____________________. In this piece he used tape loops of speech. As tape recorders move at _________________ speeds, they moved gradually out of sync, creating a technique known as _____________________. Reich’s music uses complex ______________ and lots of ____________________. This meant that the performers had to count very carefully. Reich studied Balinese __________________ music, and was influenced by the use of mallet percussion. Three other pieces written by Reich are _________________________, ______________________ and _________________________.

Steve Reich was born in 1936 in New York. Reich developed a style of music known as minimalism. Other minimalist composers are Phillip Glass, Terry Riley and La Monte Young. In 1965, Reich composed It’s Gonna Rain. In this piece he used tape loops of speech. As tape recorders move at different speeds, they moved gradually out of sync, creating a technique known as phasing/phase shifting. Reich’s music uses complex rhythms and lots of repetition and layering. This meant that the performers had to count very carefully. Reich studied Balinese Gamelan music, and was influenced by the use of mallet percussion. Three other pieces written by Reich are New York Counterpoint, Music for 18 Musicians and Different Trains.

MUSICAL ANALYSIS

Structure What do you think the structure is?

This is one interpretation… Section A (1-74) Section B (74-113) Coda ( )

The set work has a time signature of 3/2 (three beats in a bar, each equal to a minim). A 3/2 bar has a total of 12 quavers. African rhythms are often organised into twelve-pulse units. The pattern will not just be divided into three lots of four, but will also be divided into other groups, such as four lots of three. Steve Reich uses this idea throughout the movement, moving the accents and sometimes changing the time signature from 3/2 to 12/8 (e.g. bar 82). METRE

In the first part of the piece we find these things: Guitar 1 is playing a repeated syncopated melody in a high register. The two guitars are joined by Guitars 2, 3 and 4 in turn. The guitars enter in canon. A canon is where a melody in one part is repeated note for note in another part as the melody of the first part continues to unfold. The entries start on different notes of the phrase so the accented notes fall in different places. This is known as rhythmic/metric displacement.

The entry of Guitar 3 in bar 10 is an example of note addition. When Guitar 3 first appears it only uses the last few notes of the phrase but the others are gradually added until it is playing the full melody.

The bass guitars enter at bar 24. They each have a one- bar quaver ostinato but with the accents falling on different beats of the bar. Again note addition is used to build up the full pattern.

KEYWORDS SYNCOPATION CANON RHYTHMIC DISPACEMENT OSTINATO/LOOP/CELL NOTE ADDITION E MINOR/Eb MAJOR 3/2 and 12/8 RESULTANT MELODY

FactOpinion

LESSON 2 – KEYWORDS REVISION SYNCOPATION CANON RHYTHMIC DISPACEMENT OSTINATO/LOOP/CELL NOTE ADDITION E MINOR/Eb MAJOR 3/2 and 12/8 RESULTANT MELODY

Tonality Tonally ambiguous at the start. Is it G major or E minor? Bar 33 – Key E minor becomes evident due to the tonic E in the bass (but it’s still missing the D# you expect from E minor which makes it more modal…) Modulates to Eb major at bar 74 Goes between these two keys until it ends on an E and B (E5 chord) which adds to the tonal ambiguity.

At bar 36 the solo guitar starts to play a three chord pattern: C, B minor and E minor. The rhythmic pattern cuts across both the guitar and bass guitar patterns creating a cross rhythm. A cross rhythm is the effect produced when two or more conflicting rhythms are heard together RHYTHM

It’s is made up of short ostinati, which build up in length by each layer adding on more notes. Resultant melody – new melody that emerges when two or more different melodies are playing at the same time (uses the same notes). The chords don’t change very often – ‘ static harmony ’. DIATONIC – notes used from within the key. MELODY AND HARMONY

KEYWORDS CROSS RHYTHM RESULTANT MELODY 3/2 and 12/8 DIATONIC STATIC HARMONY SYNCOPATION CANON RHYTHMIC DISPACEMENT OSTINATO/LOOP/CELL NOTE ADDITION E MINOR

The dynamics change in the solo (live) part, mainly fading in and out. Finishes ff (climax). DYNAMICS

Timbre (use of instruments) Stays the same throughout as the piece is meant to be repetitive.

Rhythmic displacement Multitracking Ostinato Note addition Diatonic Resultant melody monophonic Polyphonic Canon E minor syncopation Cross rhythms 3/2 12/8

Tempo, rhythm and Metre Tonality Texture Melody and Harmony Structure Music technology

Tempo, rhythm and Metre Tempo: crotchet = 192 (very fast) It is in 3/2 time ( 3 minim beats per bar) but some layers are in 12/8 (12 quavers per bar) at the same time. They fit as both time signatures can be divided by 12 quavers. Rhythmic displacement. Syncopation and cross rhythms. Tonality Tonally ambiguous at the start. Is it G major or E minor? Bar 33 – Key E minor becomes definite due to the tonic E in the bass (but it’s still missing the D# you expect from E minor) Modulates to Eb major at bar 74 Goes between these two keys until it ends on an E and B (E5 chord) which adds to the tonal ambiguity. Texture Builds up – starts monophonic. Layers build up to a four-part canon, decorated by the live guitar. Polyphonic (two or more independent parts being played at the same time) (counterpoint means when two or more melodic lines are combined) Melody and Harmony Melody = one bar osinato, loops. Harmony is static, even though the piece fluctuates between E minor and Eb major towards the end, because the chords do not change very often. Note addition. Resultant melody Diatonic. Structure Section A (1-74) Section B (74-113) Coda ( ) Music technology The pre-recorded loops are overdubbed (recorded on top of each other) using multitracking.

Minimalism quick test 1. How many live guitars play in the piece? 2. Why do you think the piece is called ‘Electric Counterpoint’? 3. When was the piece composed? 4. In the piece, instruments are added part by part. What term do we use to describe this? 5. What key does the piece modulate to for the 2 nd section? 6. The piece is made up from an ostinato. What does ostinato mean? 7. What is the time signature at the start of the piece? 8. Name one common feature of minimalism that is not found in this set work 9. What is the texture of this piece once all parts are playing? 10. What is it called when two or more parts are played simultaneously but slightly out of synch, gradually merging back into synch after many repetitions?

Minimalism quick test – answers 1. 1 live guitar part 2. Electric Counterpoint: electric guitars used/7 guitars+2 bass guitars pre-recorded electronically/texture is counterpoint as the different layers are linked in harmony. 3. Piece composed in Instruments are added part by part = layering. Play exactly the same thing = canon. 5. Piece modulates to Eb major for the 2 nd section 6. Ostinato = a short segment of music that is repeated many times in succession 7. Time signature at the start = 3/2 8. One common feature of minimalism that is not found in this set work: phasing/note subtraction/rhythmic augmentation/rhythmic diminution 9. Texture of this piece once all parts are playing: polyphonic 10. Two or more parts are played simultaneously but slightly out of synch, gradually merging back into synch after many repetitions = phasing. This is not in Electric counterpoint.