Steve Reich Part II
Daniel Variations was also performed in the Barbicon Centre in London; I found a review in the Gaurdian from Oct 10, he gives it a good review. He says in the review that the piece is seen as somewhat of a departure from his earlier works, but from what little I've heard of it (snippets on radio reports), it sounds like a continuation of his more recent works (Three Tales, etc). I also enjoyed what I heard of it, I was not too impressed with his Cello Counterpoint and the Triple Quartet. Is there a longer fragment around to listen to?
posted by Tim Risher at 7:59 AM
3 Comments:
Interesting blog Tim. If you don't mind I am going to blogroll it and come back because I'm a big fan of new (postclassical) music, and curious to find out about the work of new composers.
I am keen to hear more of Daniel Variations. Not a big fan of Cello Counterpoint either, mostly because I don't like how the cellos were played/recorded, but I actually really like Triple Quartet.
Cool, thanks. I will have to listen to the Triple Quartet again, I just felt that it had no direction. "Different Trains" (which also is for quartet with tape) has direction - the voice pushes the movement of the changes and the lines to the next part. In the "Triple Quartet" though, the lines change from chord to chord, but there seems to be no particular push for the changes.
I hear what you're saying, and it addresses perhaps a couple of things about Reich's recent style outside of the speech melody pieces -- the compression of form, and the modular aspect that is more pronounced than in more gradual early works -- some things that stick out awkwardly when there's no vocal line.
In a piece like Eight Lines, the sections kind of crossfade into one another and the whole design flows. Even in a miniature like Nagoya Marimbas the harmonies/patterns evolve gradually.
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