Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Birth : 1936-10-03, New York City, New York, USA

History

Steve Reich was born on October 3, 1936 in New York City, New York, USA as Stephen Michael Reich. Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer who, along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, pioneered minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's style of composition influenced many composers and groups. His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (for example, his early compositions It's Gonna Rain and Come Out), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, Pendulum Music and Four Organs). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably Different Trains. Writing in The Guardian, music critic Andrew Clements suggested that Reich is one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history".[6] The American composer and critic Kyle Gann has said that Reich "may ... be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer". From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Profile

Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Steve Reich

Movies

Puparia
Music
Something is about to change drastically, and the only thing to do is to witness it.
Riding Light
Music
In our terrestrial view of things, the speed of light seems incredibly fast. But as soon as you view it against the vast distances of the universe, it's unfortunately very slow. This animation illustrates, in realtime, the journey of a photon of light emitted from the surface of the sun and traveling across a portion of the solar system, from a human perspective. Liberties were taken with certain things like the alignment of planets and asteroids, as well as ignoring the laws of relativity concerning what a photon actually "sees" or how time is experienced at the speed of light, but overall the size and distances of all the objects were kept as accurate as possible. It was also decided to end the animation just past Jupiter to keep the running length below an hour.
Steve Reich in Concert - Salle Pleyel 2014
Music
The American composer Steve Reich joins for this concert the Estonian-American director Kristjan Järvi and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir to interpret some of his most famous compositions at the Salle Pleyel.
Light Motif
Music
Light Motif is an experimental computer graphics short film. Light Motif explores the possibilities of synergy between image and music in the cinematic tradition of Oskar Fischinger and visual music animation. The film is based on Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, Section II. Procedural generation techniques are used to transpose the motifs and compositional processes into a semi-abstract visual form made of colored lights and geometric shapes.
Rain
Music
Recording of a performance by Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris of the ballet on Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich, choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.
C.O.G.
Music
A gay cocky young man travels to Oregon to work on an apple farm. Out of his element, he finds his lifestyle and notions being picked apart by everyone who crosses his path.
BAM150
Self
A captivating history of the nation's oldest performing arts center - which largely mirrors the evolution of experimental and progressive performing arts in 20th century America - BAM150 chronicles the vibrant past, present and future of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Through footage of recent performances, intimate interviews, and an astonishing treasure trove of 150 years' worth of archival materials, BAM150 is a testament to the power and stamina of the institution that established Brooklyn as a cultural mecca-serving as a home to such greats as Enrico Caruso, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, Merce Cunningham, Robert Wilson, Mark Morris, Laurie Anderson, and Pina Bausch.
Drums
Music
Present in nearly all cultures and used for many purposes, drums have unique shapes, sounds, names and accents in each region of the world. Behind this vast legacy are individuals who play them and are touched by these ancestral instruments. From the rare budimas used by Tonga people in Zambia to the large drums of the Chinese temples, from the religious festivals of Brazil to the rhythmic richness of the Arab World, these men and women keep this tradition alive.
Steve Reich: Phase to Face
Self
A student of Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio, musician Steve Reich (born in 1936) quickly developed a style of his own, inspired by Baroque music, Bartók, Webern and Stravinsky, as well as jazz, traditional music (especially African), and Hebrew cantillation. As a trailblazing exponent of minimalist music, Reich rejected the characteristic complexity of mid-20th-century classical harmony and tonality in order to make large-scale works from minimal materials a single chord, a brief musical motif, a spoken exclamation – thereby reconciling sacred and popular music. In this profile he looks back on the key stages of his 40-years lasting career, from the formation of his own group, Steve Reich and Musicians, to the American avant-garde he helped to create, from new video performances to his quasi-religious music. Despite his success and wide recognition Steve Reich has never renounced his independent spirit.
Space Tourists
Music
In his most recent work, Christian Frei turns to an age-old dream of man: to leave our planet as a «normal person» and travel into outer space. For 20 million dollars, the American Anousheh Ansari was able to fulfil this childhood dream. This documentary follows her journey into space and shows everyday life as it is on the International Space Station.
In The Ocean – A Film About the Classical Avant Garde
A brief overview and focus on composers Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, John Cage, Steve Reich, Elliott Carter and their contemporaries.
Reich at the Roxy
Himself
Concert video of music by Steve Reich played by Alarm will Sound.
The Dying Gaul
Music
A grief-stricken screenwriter unknowingly enters a three-way relationship with a woman and her film executive husband - to chilling results.
Reich: Three Tales
Musician
Reich: Three Tales
Original Music Composer
Fase
Music
"Fase" consists of three duets and one solo dance, choreographed to four repetitive compositions by the American minimalist musician, Steve Reich: Piano Phase, Come Out, Violin Phase and Clapping Music. Reich allows his tones to gradually shift in rhythm and melody and between the instruments. The choreography applies the same phase-shifting principle. The purely abstract movements are executed so perfectly that they seem almost mechanical and yet affect us in a strange way.
John Adams: A Portrait and A Concert of Modern American Music
Original Music Composer
Peer into the world of contemporary composer John Adams with this documentary that blends performance footage with insightful interviews and commentary from his collaborators and the master himself. Highlights include performances of Adams's Grammy Award-winning operas “Nixon in China” and “El Niño” and excerpts from Penny Woolcock’s film adaptation of “The Death of Klinghoffer”. Works by Steve Reich and Conlon Nancarrow are also performed by the Ensemble InterContemporain at the Théâtre Musical de Paris-Châtelet.
Steve Reich - City Life
Delve into the life story and professional career of musical genius Steve Reich, considered one of the greatest American composers of the 20th century. Manfred Waffender's documentary reveals how Reich's minimalist style and phrasing innovations have altered the direction of musical history. Special attention is paid to "City Life," a collection of everyday streets sounds brought together to create an aural representation of the urban landscape.
Shadow on the Snow
Original Music Composer
A man who leads a lonely existence with his young daughter accidentally gets involved with a robbery before a manhunt ensues.
Papers
Music
Abstract animation by Satoh Yoshinao
Steve Reich: A New Musical Language
A profile of composer Steve Reich, a leading creator of stripped-down, "minimal" music. The program explores how Reich's music eventually became accessible to the musical audience at large. Included are interviews with the composer himself, and contemporaries, and also performances of some of his works.
Regard de ma fenêtre
Music
A mind-blowing film which borders on the structural but which manages to avoid being so. A study of colour, stasis, and different modes of multiple-exposure. The film slides from a doctored reality towards fantasy. A large part of the film takes place in one single image that continually changes aspect: the buildings on the square, Place d'Italie, seen from my window from when I used to live in that district in Paris on the eighth floor of a kind of council housing block.
Portraits
Music
Faces pass by in - initially-quickly edited, split-screen recordings. A 'Structuralist' inspired film in which the film material itself plays an important role. Grain, scratches and flickering give the film texture. The music is by Steve Reich.
Oh Dem Watermelons
Music
Commissioned by the San Francisco Mime Troupe as a short to be screened during intermission for its rather infamous 1965 Minstrel Show (Civil Rights from the Cracker Barrel), which assaulted racial stereotypes by wildly exaggerating them. Scored by Steve Reich.
Plastic Haircut
Music
"Dada-inspired performance in which absurd actions take place in an environment of strange symbols and graphic forms." -Mark Webber. Design by William T. Wiley and Robert Hudson. Sound collage by Steve Reich.
Plastic Haircut
"Dada-inspired performance in which absurd actions take place in an environment of strange symbols and graphic forms." -Mark Webber. Design by William T. Wiley and Robert Hudson. Sound collage by Steve Reich.
Thirty Second Spots: TV Commercials for Artists (1982-83)
Steve Reich
Inverting the form, style and time frame of commercial television advertising, Logue has produced a unique series of dynamic video portraits of avant-garde artists, writers, musicians and performers. In 30 Second Spots: New York, which Logue terms "commercials for artists," each of the succinct vignettes conveys the artistic essence of her subject with clarity, wit, and an elegant economy of means. John Cage, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Spalding Gray and Steve Reich are among the artists who are captured here with concise drama. Each subject performs in close-up before a stationary camera.