Conversations
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A surprising, enlightening series of conversations that shed new light on the music and career of “our greatest living composer” (New York Times)
Steve Reich is a living legend in the world of contemporary classical music. As a leader of the minimalist movement in the 1960s, his works have become central to the musical landscape worldwide, influencing generations of younger musicians, choreographers and visual artists. He has explored non-Western music and American vernacular music from jazz to rock, as well as groundbreaking music and video pieces. He toured the world with his own ensemble and his compositions are performed internationally by major orchestras and ensembles.
Now Reich speaks with collaborators, fellow composers and musicians as well as visual artists influenced by his work to reflect on his prolific career as a composer as well as the music that inspired him and that has been inspired by him, including:
David Lang
Brian Eno
Richard Serra
Michael Gordon
Michael Tilson Thomas
Russell Hartenberger
Robert Hurwitz
Stephen Sondheim
Jonny Greenwood
David Harrington
Elizabeth Lim-Dutton
David Robertson
Micaela Haslam
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker
Julia Wolfe
Nico Muhly
Beryl Korot
Colin Currie
Brad Lubman
Through this series of insightful, wide-ranging conversations starting from his student days to the present pandemic, we gain a compelling glimpse into the mind of “the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Avant-garde composer Reich (Writings on Music, 1965–2000) talks shop with friends and colleagues in these intimate discussions. In meandering conversations with 19 peers—among them rocker composers Brian Eno and Jonny Greenwood, Broadway tunesmith Stephen Sondheim, and choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker—he explores his musical innovations in such compositions as It's Gonna Rain, Drumming, and Music for 18 Musicians, all of which feature long, repetitive, rhythmic arrangements and deconstructions of spoken words and instrumental motifs, with tempos that go subtly off kilter. Topics touched on include the influence of Reich's teachers and collaborators; Manhattan's minimalist music scene in the 1960s and 1970s; the intricacy and difficulty of rehearsal sessions; and unpredictable public reactions (one Carnegie Hall audience for Four Organs became so "unruly" that the performers couldn't hear each other). Aimed at professional musicians, the book's talk of music theory and arcana can be heavy going ("The whole piece keeps moving in a cycle of four different key signatures, always moving up a minor third. Notice I don't say D to F to A-flat to B, because it may be major, or minor or modal or chromatically altered"). Still, the intriguing lore and insights are sure to quench the thirst of hardcore fans.
