steve reich phases · steve reich, marimba, piano thad wheeler, marimba, maracas nurit tilles,...
TRANSCRIPT
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STEVE REICH PHaSES
a N o N E S u C H R E T R o S P E C T I V E
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D I S C o N E
Music for 18 Musicians (1976) 67:42
1. Pulses 5:26
2. Section I 3:58
3. Section II 5:13
4. Section IIIA 3:55
5. Section IIIB 3:46
6. Section IV 6:37
7. Section V 6:49
8. Section VI 4:54
9. Section VII 4:19
10. Section VIII 3:35
11. Section IX 5:24
12. Section X 1:51
13. Section XI 5:44
14. Pulses 6:11
Steve Reich and Musicians
Rebecca Armstrong, Marion Beckenstein,
Cheryl Bensman Rowe, sopranos
Jay Clayton, alto, piano
Russell Hartenberger, Bob Becker, Tim Ferchen,
marimbas, xylophones
James Preiss, vibraphone, piano
Garry Kvistad, marimba, xylophone, piano
Steve Reich, marimba, piano
Thad Wheeler, marimba, maracas
Nurit Tilles, Edmund Niemann, pianos
Philip Bush, piano, maracas
Elizabeth Lim, violin
Jeanne LeBlanc, cello
Leslie Scott, Evan Ziporyn, clarinets, bass clarinets
D I S C T w o
Different trains (1988) 26:51
1. America—Before the war 8:59
2. Europe—During the war 7:31
3. After the war 10:21
Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Joan Jeanrenaud, cello
tehilliM (1981) 30:29
4. Part I: Fast 11:45
5. Part II: Fast 5:54
6. Part III: Slow 6:19
7. Part IV: Fast 6:24
Schönberg Ensemble with Percussion Group The Hague
Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor
Barbara Borden, Tannie Willemstijn, sopranos
Yvonne Benschop, Ananda Goud, mezzo-sopranos
8. eight lines (1979) 17:29
Bang on a Can
Bradley Lubman, conductor
Todd Reynolds, Gregor Kitzis, Jaqueline Carrasco,
Elizabeth Knowles, violins
Martha Mook, Ron Lawrence, violas
Mark Stewart, Greg Passelink, cellos
Patti Monson, David Fedele, flutes, piccolos
Michael Lowenstern, Evan Ziporyn, clarinets, bass clarinets
Edmund Niemann, Nurit Tilles, pianos
D I S C T H R E E
You are (Variations) (2004) 27:00
1. You are wherever your thoughts are 13:14
2. Shiviti Hashem L’negdi (I place the Eternal before me) 4:15
3. Explanations come to an end somewhere 5:24
4. Ehmor m’aht, v’ahsay harbay (Say little and do much) 4:04
Los Angeles Master Chorale
Grant Gershon, conductor
Phoebe Alexander, Tania Batson, Claire Fedoruk, Rachelle Fox,
Marie Hodgson, Emily Lin, sopranos
Sarona Farrell, Amy Fogerson, Alice Murray, Nancy Sulahian,
Kim Switzer, Tracy Van Fleet, altos
Pablo Corá, Shawn Kirchner, Joseph Golightly, Sean McDermott,
Fletcher Sheridan, Kevin St. Clair, tenors
Geri Ratella, Sara Weisz, flutes
Joan Elardo, Joel Timm, oboes
James Faschia, Helen Goode-Castro, Larry Hughes, clarinets
Gloria Cheng, Lisa Edwards, Brian Pezzone, Vicki Ray, pianos
Wade Culbreath, Mike Englander, John Magnussen,
Tom Raney, marimbas, vibes
Tamara Hatwan, Ralph Morrison, Susan Reddish, violin 1
Samuel Fischer, Julie Rogers, Steve Scharf, violin 2
Darren McCann, Victoria Miskolcsky, Catherine Reddish, violas
Delores Bing, Maurice Grants, Roger LeBow, cellos
Oscar Hidalgo, bass
new York counterpoint (1985) 11:19
5. Fast 5:03
6. Slow 2:44
7. Fast 3:32
Evan Ziporyn, clarinets
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8. cello counterpoint (2003) 11:36
Maya Beiser, cello
electric counterpoint (1987) 14:43
9. Fast 6:51
10. Slow 3:22
11. Fast 4:30
Pat Metheny, guitar
triple Quartet (1999) 14:43
12. First Movement 7:10
13. Second Movement 4:05
14. Third Movement 3:28
Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Jennifer Culp, cello
D I S C F o u R
1. coMe out (1966) 12:48
2. proVerb (1995) 14:04
Theatre of Voices
Andrea Fullington, Sonja Rasmussen, Allison Zelles, sopranos
Alan Bennett, Paul Elliott, tenors
with members of The Steve Reich Ensemble
Russell Hartenberger, Bob Becker, vibraphones
Nurit Tilles, Edmund Niemann, electric organs
Paul Hillier, conductor
the Desert Music (1984) 48:04
Text by William Carlos Williams
3. First Movement (Fast) 7:54
4. Second Movement (Moderate) 6:59
5. Third Movement, Part One (Slow) 7:00
6. Third Movement, Part Two (Moderate) 5:54
7. Third Movement, Part Three (Slow) 5:55
8. Fourth Movement (Moderate) 3:35
9. Fifth Movement (Fast) 10:48
Steve Reich and Musicians
with Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Chorus
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Principal Percussion:
Russell Hartenberger, Bob Becker, Glen Velez, Garry Kvistad
Principal Strings:
Julie Rosenfeld, concertmistress
Deborah Redding, second violin
Francesca Martin, viola
Sharon Prater, cello
Donald Palma, bass
Choral Contractor:
Cheryl Bensman, soprano
D I S C F I V E
1. Music for Mallet instruMents, Voices,
anD organ (1973) 16:50
Steve Reich and Musicians
Bob Becker, Tim Ferchen, Russell Hartenberger,
Steve Reich, marimbas
Garry Kvistad, Thad Wheeler, glockenspiels
James Preiss, vibraphone
Nurit Tilles, electric organ
Pamela Wood Ambush, Rebecca Armstrong, voices (long tones)
Jay Clayton, voice (melodic patterns)
DruMMing (1971) 56:43
2. Part I 17:30
3. Part II 18:11
4. Part III 11:13
5. Part IV 9:50
Steve Reich and Musicians
Bob Becker, Ben Harms, Russell Hartenberger, Garry Kvistad,
James Preiss, Steve Reich, Gary Schall, Glen Velez,
Thad Wheeler, tuned drums, marimbas, glockenspiels
Pamela Wood Ambush, Jay Clayton, voices
Steve Reich, whistling
Mort Silver, piccolo
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The greatness of Steve Reich is a given. His reputation as a prime
originator in contemporary music is more or less etched in stone.
In the 1960s and ’70s, he found a rigorous solution to a pressing
challenge: how to restore, after a long period of experimentation,
the primal pleasures of stable harmony and a steady pulse. Reich
did this in a way that was unblinkingly modern, not at all nostalgic
or neo-Romantic. Works such as Drumming, Music for 18 Musi-
cians, New York Counterpoint, and You Are (Variations) resonate cleanly
through the caverns of the mind, leaving the listener in a state of
wide-awake delight. Reich’s influence is vast, reaching far outside
classical composition to encompass jazz, rock, pop, electronic mu-
sic, and hip-hop. On some days, as familiar shimmering patterns
echo on the soundtracks of commercials and from the loudspeakers
of dance clubs, it seems as though we are living in a world scored
by Reich.
In light of the grandeur of his reputation, it is almost
disconcerting that the man himself is still so present, writing at full
force as he reaches the age of seventy. You can ride the subway
to the lower end of Manhattan, emerge onto a street within sight
of the Brooklyn Bridge, walk for a minute or two, press a buzzer
marked REICH, and, if you are fortunate, hear a crisp voice
say “Come on up.” He does not look the part of the musical
revolutionist, whatever that might be. With his black button-down
shirts and signature baseball cap, he fits the image of an inde-
pendent film director, a cultural-studies professor, or some other
out-in-the-world intellectual. Once he starts speaking, you feel the
peculiar velocity of his mind. He is, notably, as much a listener as
a talker, although he talks at blistering speed. He reacts swiftly to
slight sounds in his midst—the soft buzz of a cell phone, a siren on
the street outside, the whistle of a teakettle. Each sound has some
information to give him. The windows have thick double panes;
even for a listener as omnivorous as Reich, the city gives out too
much information.
Steve Reich was born in New York, on October 3, 1936. His
parents separated when he was still a baby, and he spent much of
his childhood riding trains back and forth to Los Angeles, where
his mother, a successful singer and lyricist, had moved. He later
said that the clickety-clack of wheels on tracks helped to shape his
rhythmic sense. Otherwise, he had a fairly ordinary middle-class
upbringing; he absorbed all the humming waves of information
that were being given out by America’s culture of postwar prosper-
ity. His formative musical experiences were with recordings, rather
than with live performances. In particular, he found himself listen-
ing nonstop to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, Stravinsky’s
Rite of Spring, and various bebop records featuring the likes of
Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Kenny Clarke.
Inclined at first toward philosophy, he studied the thought of
Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cornell. Then he went to Juilliard for
music. Seeking an escape from the East Coast establishment, he
moved to San Francisco and enrolled in the music school at Mills
College, where the Italian avant-gardist Luciano Berio was a
visiting professor in 1961 and 1962. Most of Reich’s early works
employed Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method, but there was
something grudging about his use of the then-canonical
compositional system. He began to hear alternatives in the modal
improvisations of John Coltrane, whom he went to hear some fifty
times, and also in archival recordings of polyrhythmic African
drumming. He also dabbled in San Francisco’s nascent psychedelic
culture; he collaborated with one of his fellow students, Phil Lesh,
later the bass player of The Grateful Dead, on far-out happenings
and prankster spectacles.
In the fall of 1964, Reich participated in the first performance
of Terry Riley’s In C, a hypnotic haze of multiple, looping patterns
derived from the C-major scale. Phenomena of repetition intrigued
him to no end. One day in January, 1965, he was fooling around
with tapes of a Pentecostal preacher shouting “It ain’t gonna rain!”
when he noticed an interesting effect. Two identical tapes of the
preacher’s voice were running in unison, but one machine was
playing slightly faster than the other, so that the tapes began to go
out of phase: “It’s-s gonna-a rain-n! It’s-‘s gonn-nna rai-in! It’s-t’s
gonna-onna rai-ain! It’s-it’s gonna-gonna rain-rain!” Listening on
stereo headphones, with one ear tuned to the left machine and the
other to the right, Reich had a physical reaction; the sound went
down one side of his body and up the other. He generated an
electronic composition from this happy accident, entitled It’s
Gonna Rain. He then made another, Come Out, based on the voice of
Daniel Hamm, one of six African-American boys who were beaten
up in a Harlem police precinct house in 1964.
Reich now had a stroke of genius: he translated the going-out-of-
phase effect into instrumental music. Piano Phase, for two pianos,
uses a repeating pattern made up of the first six notes of the major
scale. As the pianists move in and out of sync, a surprisingly
eventful and colorful narrative unfolds, replete with modulations,
transitions, and climaxes. In this and other pioneering process-
driven works, a distinctive personality emerges — lean in form,
detached in mood, logical in movement, yet marked by some
indefinable mixture of beauty and sadness. The music has a soul
of its own, which may fascinate and mystify the composer as much
as it does the rest of us.
What came to be called minimalism was unleashed full force
in Four Organs, first conceived in August 1969, the month of the
Manson murders and the killing of a spectator at a Rolling Stones
show in Altamont, California. Explosions of violence had been
filling the news: the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin
Luther King, Jr., the massacre at My Lai in Vietnam, riots on uni-
versity campuses and in inner cities. Four Organs is, in its own way,
an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world piece: heard at full volume, its
electric-organ sound becomes an all-out assault. The entire piece
is based on a six-note chord that consists of a D-major triad super-
imposed on top of an E-major one. As maracas provide a steady
pulse, the notes of the chord are prolonged by degrees,
so that the harmony rotates this way and that. After many
permutations, it finally resolves on a simple open fifth. In a dark
time, Reich was finding his way back to a solid center.
In the 1976 masterwork Music for 18 Musicians, pulsating rhythm
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is balanced by a comparably sophisticated drama of harmony.
The piece is almost symphonic in its narrative arc, proceeding
from light to dark and back to light again. It is built on a cycle of
eleven chords, each of which governs a section from two or seven
minutes in length. Early on, bass instruments emphasize a low D,
giving the feeling that this is the work’s tonal center and basement
level. But in Section V, bass clarinets and clarinets lower the floor
from D to C sharp — a crucial alteration in the physical space
of the music. The harmony plunges toward C-sharp minor, and
rugged six-note figures come burrowing in. A similar change in the
weather darkens Section IX, which is almost expressionistic in its
stabbing intensity. Only at the end do D- and A-major-ish chords
brighten the air.
Reich wrote several more examples of what might be called
“grand minimalism,” letting his discoveries resonate within a large
frame. In Drumming, he applied lessons that he had learned from
studying West African drumming at the University of Ghana. The
Desert Music and Tehillim are spacious, dramatic settings of William
Carlos Williams and the Hebrew Psalms, respectively. Then, a new
project seized Reich’s attention: he worked to erase the boundary
between speech and music, by teasing melodies out of the rise
and fall of recorded voices. In the 1990s, he produced a pair of
video operas with live accompaniment. First came The Cave, which
explored the history of the Cave at Hebron and the Biblical stories
related to it. Then came Three Tales, which tells three parables of
technology run amok: the crash of the German airship Hindenburg,
the testing of atomic bombs on Bikini Atoll, and, in a preview of a
catastrophe to come, the birth of artificial intelligence and cloning.
In recent years, Reich has once again emphasized instrumental
writing; in the Triple Quartet and You Are (Variations), classic minimal-
ism is enriched with new harmonic adventures and diversions.
Perhaps the most haunting Reich work to date is Different Trains,
which was given its premiere in 1988, by the Kronos Quartet. This
was the first piece in which the composer used recorded speech to
create melodic lines. It stemmed from the memory of those long
railroad journeys of childhood, and also from the adult reflection
that if Reich had been a child in Europe in the 1940s his fate might
have been different: “As a Jew, I would have had to ride on very
different trains.” The electronic component mingles voices of Afri-
can-American Pullman porters with those of Holocaust survivors
and the neutral noise of train whistles. As the string instruments
sing along to these memory-shrouded sounds, they don’t tell us
what to feel; they set forth a glistening grid, on which we can plot
our own emotions. The result is a music of precision and tears.
–Alex Ross, 2006
At the opening of any Steve Reich work, an idea sounds and
begins to resonate outward. The reflections created by this idea are
of such an exquisite nature that you feel the composer is dealing
with the purest form that music can have. In the same way that
physicists are searching for the meaning of the universe in the
smallest particles that make it up, Steve’s music deals with the most
profound secrets of how music comes into being. Steve not only
sees the world in a grain of sand, he sets it vibrating.
This purity of concept and approach makes Steve Reich’s out-
put a natural entry point for understanding how music comes into
being and how it works its magic on us. Beginning in the 1960s,
his early tape and phasing pieces cause us to explore our own
perceptions of speech and sound. With the rhythmic cannons of
the 1970s, he uses the elemental pulses of life to reveal an almost
sculptural quality in music, where a small change in our aural
viewpoint reveals an entirely new perspective. Independent
harmonic rhythm arrives as well in this decade, grounding his
large-scale structures while expanding the expressive horizon in all
directions. Within these larger harmonic forms Steve discovers a
melodic voice that is eloquently his own, adding an extra dimen-
sion to his unique musical language.
Because this musical trajectory parallels that of human mental
development, I have taken great joy in introducing children and
young people to his musical world. Steve’s works teach them
immediately in a singular way that music is a participatory event.
It doesn’t matter whether you are playing, singing, or listening;
you are part of the music.
If you are lucky enough to work with him as a performer, your
excitement will be doubled by realizing not only that he wants
you to perform a piece perfectly, but also that he loves it when
you perform it creatively. It is hard to describe the rush when he
approaches you after your group has just nailed some very virtuosic
passage and says, with that half smile of his, “Now that’s just what
the doctor ordered!”
Unlike any other music that I have come across, Steve Reich’s
creations make us actively aware of our own listening experience.
His is a musical mirror held up to remind us of what it means to be
alive and united by sound.
–David Robertson, 2006
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t e h i l l i M
part 1: fast / psalm 19:2–5
Ha-sha-mý-im meh-sa-peh-rím ka-vóhd Káil,
U-mah-ah-sáy ye díve mah-gíd ha-ra-ki-ah.
Yóm-le-yóm ya-bée-ah óh-mer,
Va-l-la Ie-li-la ya-chah-Ay dá-aht.
Ain-óh-mer va-áin deh-va-rim,
Beh-lí nish-máh ko-láhm.
Beh-kawl-ha-áh-retz ya-tzáh ka-váhm,
U-vik-tzáy tay-váil me-lay-hém.
part ii: fast / psalm 34:13–15
Mi-ha-ísh hey-chah-fáytz chah-yím,
Oh-háyv yah-mím li-róte tov?
Neh-tzór le-shon-cháh may-ráh,
Uus-fah-táy-chah mi-dah-báyr mir-máh.
Súr may-ráh va-ah-say-tóv,
Ba-káysh sha-lóm va-rad-fáy-hu.
part iii: slow / psalm 18:26–27
Im-chah-sid, tit-chah-sáhd,
lm-ga-vár ta-mím, ti-ta-máhm.
Im-na-vár, tit-bah-rár,
Va-im-ee-káysh, tit-pah-tál.
part iV: fast / psalm 150:4–6
Hal-le-1ú-hu ba-tóf u-ma-chól,
Hal-le-lú-hu ba-mi-ním va-u-gáv.
Hal-le-1ú-hu ba-tzil-tz-láy, sha-máh,
Hal-le-1ú-hu ba-tzil-tz-lay ta-ru-áh.
Kol han-sha-má ta-ha-láil Yah,
Hal-le-yu-yáh.
The heavens declare the glory of G-d,
the sky tells of His handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
night to night reveals knowledge.
Without speech and without words,
nevertheless their voice is heard.
Their sound goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.
Who is the man that desires life,
and loves days to see good?
Guard your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn from evil, and do good,
seek peace and pursue it.
With the merciful You are merciful,
with the upright You are upright.
With the pure You are pure,
and with the perverse You are subtle.
Praise Him with drum and dance,
praise Him with strings and winds.
Praise Him with sounding cymbals,
praise Him with clanging cymbals.
Let all that breathes praise the Eternal,
Hallelujah.
the Desert Music
Text by William Carlos Williams
first Movement (fast)
Begin, my friend
for you cannot,
you may be sure,
take your song,
which drives all things out of mind,
with you to the other world.
from “theocritus: idyll, a version from the greek”
second Movement (Moderate)
Well, shall we
think or listen? Is there a sound addressed
not wholly to the ear?
We half close
our eyes. We do not
hear it through our eyes.
It is not
a flute note either, it is the relation
of a flute note
to a drum. I am wide
awake. The mind
is listening.
from “the orchestra”
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third Movement, part one (slow)
Say to them:
“Man has survived hitherto because he
was too ignorant to know how to realize
his wishes. Now that he can realize them,
he must either change them or perish.”
from “the orchestra”
third Movement, part two (Moderate)
it is a principle of music
to repeat the theme. Repeat
and repeat again,
as the pace mounts. The
theme is difficult
but no more difficult
than the fact to be
resolved.
from “the orchestra”
third Movement, part three (slow)
Say to them:
“Man has survived hitherto because he
was too ignorant to know how to realize
his wishes. Now that he can realize them,
he must either change them or perish.”
from “the orchestra”
fourth Movement (Moderate)
Well, shall we
think or listen? Is there a sound addressed
not wholly to the ear?
We half close
our eyes. We do not
hear it through our eyes.
It is not
a flute note either, it is the relation
of a flute note
to a drum. I am wide
awake. The mind
is listening.
from “the orchestra”
fifth Movement (fast)
Inseparable from the fire
its light
takes precedence over it...
Who most shall advance the light -
call it what you may!
from “asphodel, that greeny flower”
Different trains
america - before the war
“from Chicago to New York” (Virginia)
“one of the fastest trains”
“the crack* train from New York” (Mr. Davis)
“from New York to Los Angeles”
“different trains every time” (Virginia)
“from Chicago to New York”
“in 1939”
“1939” (Mr. Davis)
“1940”
“1941”
“1941 I guess it must’ve been” (Virginia)
europe - During the war
“1940” (Rachella)
“on my birthday”
“The Germans walked in”
“walked into Holland”
“Germans invaded Hungary” (Paul)
“I was in second grade”
“I had a teacher”
“a very tall man, his hair was concretely plastered smooth”
“He said, ‘Black Crows invaded our country many years ago’”
“and he pointed right at me”
“No more school” (Rachel)
“You must go away”
“and she said ‘Quick, go!” (Rachella)
“and he said, ‘Don’t breathe!”’
“into those cattle wagons” (Rachella)
“for four days and four nights”
“and then we went through these strange-sounding names”
“Polish names”
“Lots of cattle wagons there”
“They were loaded with people”
“They shaved us”
“They tattooed a number on our arm”
“Flames going up to the sky—it was smoking”
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after the war
“and the war was over” (Paul)
“Are you sure?” (Rachella)
“The war is over”
“going to America”
“to Los Angeles”
“to New York”
“from New York to Los Angeles” (Mr. Davis)
“one of the fastest trains” (Virginia)
“but today, they’re all gone” (Mr. Davis)
“There was one girl, who had a beautiful voice” (Rachella)
“and they loved to listen to the singing, the Germans”
“and when she stopped singing they said,
‘More, more’ and they applauded”
* “crack” in the older sense of “best”
coMMissions
Different Trains was commissioned by Betty Freeman for the
Kronos Quartet.
Tehillim was co-commissioned by the West German Radio,
Cologne; South German Radio, Stuttgart; and the Rothko
Chapel, Houston.
Eight Lines was commissioned by the Hessischer Rundfunk
(Radio Frankfurt).
You Are (Variations) was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles
Master Chorale, Lincoln Center, and the Friends of the
Ensemble Modern.
New York Counterpoint was commissioned by the Fromm Music
Foundation for clarinetist
Richard Stoltzman.
Cello Counterpoint was co-commissioned by the Koussevitzky
Foundation in the Library of Congress, The Royal Conservatory
in The Hague, and Leiden University, for cellist
Maya Beiser.
Electric Counterpoint was commissioned by the Brooklyn
Academy of Music’s Next
Wave Festival for guitarist Pat Metheny.
Triple Quartet was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the
National Endowment for the Arts, David A. and Evelyne T.
Lennette, Tim Savinar and Patricia Unterman, and Meet the
Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/USA, with
support from the Helen F. Whitaker Fund. Additional support
was provided by the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation.
Proverb was co commissioned by the BBC Proms as part of its
100th anniversary season in 1995 and by the Early Music
Festival of Utrecht.
The Desert Music was co-commissioned by the West German
Radio, Cologne, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Generous support for this recording of The Desert Music is gratefully
acknowledged from:
The Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Centers
The Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation
Lila Acheson Wallace Fund
Mrs. Betty Freeman
National Endowment for the Arts
The Forbes Foundation
Mrs. F. Henry Berlin
New York State Council on the Arts
Paul Fromm
Ruth Cummings
The Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation
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creDits
D I S C o N E
Music for 18 Musicians
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded October 1996 at the Hit Factory, New York
Engineered by John Kilgore
Assistant engineers: Glen Marchese, Chris Hilt
Production assistants: Sidney Chen, Jeanne Velonis
Mixed November 1996 and January 1997 at the
Hit Factory, New York
Mix engineer: John Kilgore
Assistant mix engineers: Tony Black, Greg Thompson
Editing assistance: Jeanne Velonis
Originally released as Nonesuch 79948, Music for 18 Musicians
P 1994 Nonesuch Records
D I S C T w o
Different Trains
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded August September 1988 at Russian Hill Recording,
San Francisco, CA
Engineered by Las Brockman
Assistant engineer: Michael Ahearn
Mix engineer: Rob Eaton
Assistant mix engineer: Ban Fowler
Production coordinator: Jennifer Keats
Originally released on Nonesuch 79176,
Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
P 1989 Nonesuch Records
Tehillim
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded August 1993 at Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum,
the Netherlands
Engineered by Hans Bedecker
Assistant engineer for additional recording at The Hit Factory,
New York: Andy Grassi
Edited and mixed by Judith Sherman and Steve Reich
at SoundByte Productions, New York
Production coordinator: Karina Beznicki
Originally released on Nonesuch 79295,
Tehillim/Three Movements
P 1994 Nonesuch Records
Eight Lines
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded June 1996 at the Hit Factory, New York
Engineered by John Kilgore
Assistant engineers: Greg Thompson, Kevin Stone
Production assistant: Sidney Chen
Mixed October 1996 at the Hit Factory, New York
Assistant mix engineer: Tony Black
Editing assistance: Jeanne Velonis
Originally released on Nonesuch 79295,
New York Counterpoint/Eight Lines/Four Organs
P 1997 Nonesuch Records
D I S C T H R E E
You Are (Variations)
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded March 29 & 30, 2005, at Studio A, Capitol Studios,
Hollywood, CA
Engineered by John Kilgore
Mixed by John Kilgore, Judith Sherman, and Steve Reich
Pro Tools Engineer: Jimmy Hoyson
Second Engineer: Bruce Monical
Editing Assistance: Jeanne Velonis
Originally released on Nonesuch 79891, You Are (Variations)
P 2005 Nonesuch Records
New York Counterpoint
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded January 1996 at the Hit Factory, New York
Engineered by John Kilgore
Assistant engineer: Tony Black
Mixed October 1998 at the Hit Factory, New York
Assistant mix engineer: Tony Black
Editing assistance: Jeanne Velonis
Originally released on Nonesuch 79295,
New York Counterpoint/Eight Lines/Four Organs
P 1997 Nonesuch Records
Cello Counterpoint
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded Sept 29 & 30, 2003, at John Kilgore Sound
& Recording, New York, NY
Engineered by Jan Folkson
Mixed by John Kilgore
Editing Assistance: Jeanne Velonis
Originally released on Nonesuch 79891, You Are (Variations)
P 2005 Nonesuch Records
Electric Counterpoint
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded September October 1987 at Power Station, New York
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Engineered by: Rob Eaton
Assistant engineer: Gary Solomon
Production assistant: David Oakes
Production coordinator: Jennifer Keats
Originally released on Nonesuch 79176,
Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
P 1989 Nonesuch Records
Triple Quartet
Produced by Judy Sherman
Recorded March and April 1999 and August 2000
at Skywalker Sound
Engineered by John Kilgore
Assistant Engineers: Bob Levy and Dann Thompson
Mixed by Steve Reich, Judith Sherman, and John Kilgore
at Masque Sound.
Originally released on Nonesuch 79546, Triple Quartet
P 2001 Nonesuch Records
D I S C F o u R
Come Out
Produced by Judith Sherman and Steve Reich
Originally released on Nonesuch 79169, Early Works:
Come Out/Piano Phase/Clapping Music/It’s Gonna Rain
P 1987 Nonesuch Records
Proverb
Produced by Judith Sherman and Steve Reich
Recorded June 1998 at the Hit Factory, New York
Engineered by John Kilgore
Assistant engineer: Greg Thompson
Assistant mix engineer: Geraldo Lopez
Editing assistants: Jeanne Velonis, Karl Heriem
Production assistant: Sidney Chen
Originally released on Nonesuch 79430,
Proverb/Nagoya Marimbas/City Life
P 1996 Nonesuch Records
The Desert Music
Produced by Rudolph Werner and Steve Reich
Recorded October 1984 at RCA Studio A, New York
Engineered by Paul Goodman
Editing and mixing: Karl-August Naegler, Wolf-Dieter Karwatki,
Rudolph Werner, John Newton, Steve Reich
Originally released as Nonesuch 79101, The Desert Music
P 1985 Nonesuch Records
D I S C F I V E
Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ
Produced by Judith Sherman
Recorded November 1988 at CTS Studios, London
Engineered by Dick Lemzey
Edited and mixed by Judith Sherman and Steve Reich
at New York Digital Recording, Inc., New York
Originally released on Nonesuch 79220,
The Four Sections/Music for Mallet Instruments,
Voices, and Organ
P 1990 Nonesuch Records
Drumming
Produced by Judith Sherman and Steve Reich
Recorded May 1987 at RCA Studio A, New York
Engineered by Paul Goodman
Mixing and editing by Judith Sherman, Steve Reich, Paul Zinman
Originally released as Nonesuch 79170, Drumming
P 1987 Nonesuch Records
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: ROBERT HURWITZ
Design by John Gall
Photograph of Steve Reich by Jeffrey Herman
Booklet Photography: Page 17 © Erich Hartmann/Magnum
Photos; Page 18 © Inge
Morath/Magnum Photos; Page 29 © Raymond
Depardon/Magnum Photos; Page 30 ©
Werner Bischof/Magnum Photos; Page 40
© Micha Bar Am/Magnum Photos
For Nonesuch Records:
Production Coordinator: Eli Cane
Editorial Coordinator: Robert Edridge-Waks
Production Supervisor: Karina Beznicki
For Tehillim, English translations of Psalms from
Standard JPS, revised by Steve Reich.
For The Desert Music, excerpts from “Theocritus: Idyl I,”
“The Orchestra,” and “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”
from Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems by
William Carlos Williams
(© 1954, 1955, 1962 by William Carlos Williams);
used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
For The Desert Music, Michael Tilson Thomas appears
courtesy of CBS Masterworks.
For Different Trains, excerpts from testimonies of Holocaust
survivors used by permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive
for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library and the
Holocaust Collection of the American Jewish Committee’s
William E. Wiener Oral History Library. American train sounds
come from recordings produced and engineered by Brad S.
Miller with Colossus™, for Mobile Fidelity of Nevada, all rights
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reserved. European train sounds are taken from Sounds of the Steam
Age recordings, “Engines with Accents” ATE 7036 and “Steam
in All Directions” ATE 7012, by permission of ASV Transcord
Records. Siren and warning bell used by permission of Elektra
Records Sound Effects. Casio FZ-1 and FZ-10M digital samplers
used in composing and recording Different Trains courtesy of Jerry
Kovarski, Mike Taylor, and Ed Ahistrom, Casio Professional
Musical Products Division.
Music published by Hendon Music Inc./Boosey & Hawkes (BMI)
Special thanks, over the years, to: All the musicians I have worked
with, and most especially to the members of my own ensemble.
Then, of course, to Bob Hurwitz, Peter Clancy, David Bither,
Karina Beznicki, Melanie Zessos, Melissa Cusick, Sam Lambert,
Eli Cane, Josh Berman, Gina Suarez, Robert Edridge-Waks,
and Drew Thurlow at Nonesuch Records.
My producers, present and past: Judith Sherman, Dr. Rudolph
Werner, and David Behrman, and my engineer John Kilgore.
Jenny Bilfield, Janis Susskind, Tony Fell, David Drew, Holly
Mentzer, Marc Ostrow, Ken Krasner, Helane Anderson,
Steven Swartz, Linda Golding, David Allenby, David Huntley
(in memoriam), and many others at Boosey & Hawkes.
Andrew Rosner and Ralph Blackbourn at Allied Artists.
Elizabeth Sobol at IMG Artists and Howard Stokar at
Howard Stokar Management.
Conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, David Robertson,
Bradley Lubman, Stefan Asbury, Alan Pierson, Peter Eötvös,
George Manahan and Reinbert de Leeuw.
Photographer, patron, and friend Betty Freeman. Concert
presenters etc. Harvey Lichtenstein, Karen Hopkins, Joe Melillo,
Graham Sheffield, Robert van Leer, Angela Dixon, Ara
Guzelimian, Jane Moss, Laurent Bayle, Wolfgang Becker, Klaus
Peter Kehr, Andreas Mölich-Zebhauser, Monika Cordero, Cathy
Graham, Walter Bachauer (in memoriam), Hans Otte, Clytus
Gottwald, Ernst-Albrect Stiebler, Nicholas Snowman, Michael
Nyman, Daniel and Jacqueline Caux, Renzo Pognant, Enzo
Restagno, Shohachiro Haga, and Keizo Maeda.
My teachers: William Austin (in memoriam). Hall Overton
(in memoriam), Vincent Persichetti (in memoriam), and
Luciano Berio (in memoriam).
As well as: Bill Colleran, Annette Morreau, A.M. Jones
(in memoriam), Steven Ehrenberg, Ben Rubin. Renée Levine,
Sydney and Frances Lewis, Ruth Cummings Sorensen, Ellis
Friedman, James Kendrick, Ed Townsend, K. Robert Schwarz
(in memoriam) and Keith Potter.
Very special thanks to Virginia Mitchell (in memoriam), and
most especially to Beryl and Ezra. And to many others I know
I should have remembered.
w w w . N o N E S u C H . C o m 79962-2Nonesuch Records Inc., a Warner Music Group Company, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104.
This Compilation P & C 2006 Nonesuch Records Inc. for the United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States. Warning: Unauthorized reproduction of this recording is prohibited by Federal law and subject to criminal prosecution.