Reich: New York Counterpoint

Steve Reich

2007: Polar Music Prize (with Sonny Rollings) 2009: Pulitzer Prize for Music (for Double Sextet) 2011: Honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory of Music

D.O.B: 3rd October 1936 (Age:76) Growing up his time was split between his mum in New York and his dad in California.

"our greatest living composer"

(The New York Times)
Pioneering composer of Minimal Music

His innovative styles included using tape loops and simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts

...the most original musical thinker of our time (The NewYorker)

Studies
Whilst Growing up Reich took Piano lessons and began to study music at the age of 14 In 1957 Reich graduated Cornell University with Honours in Philosophy In 1973 and 1974 he studied Gamelan Music at the American Society for Eastern Arts in Seattle Studied composition with Hall Overton for 2 years From 1958 to 1961 he studied at the Juilliard School of Music

1970: drumming at the Institute for African Studies at the University of Ghana in Accra.

Received Masters in Music from Mills College California in 1963

From 1976 to 1977 he studied the traditional forms of cantillation (chanting) of the Hebrew scriptures in New York and Jerusalem.

New York Counterpoint: 1985

Commissioned by The Fromm Music Foundation for clarinettist Richard Stolzman

Between 1965 and 2009 Reich composed over 40 works :

Film and programme music Continuation of the ideas Music for Orchestra found in Vermont Music for the Stage counterpoint (1982) Vocal works Works for percussion Works for solo instruments (With tape) New York Counterpoint is an example of minimalism in three movements: fast, slow, fast, played one after the other without pause.

New York refers to the hectic city life reflected in the movement and Counterpoint refers to the repetitive free canons formed by the staggered entries of the parts

Minimalism
Originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School.

Features:
Contrapuntal texture Non-functional, slow moving harmony Phasing Little variety of instrumentation Gradual changes in texture and dynamics Use of canonic imitation Diatonic harmony Use of ostinati Repetitions of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic patterns

Context
New York Counterpoint is an example of post modernist minimalism and is part of a series of three Counterpoint pieces: the first, titled Vermont Counterpoint (1982), was written for flute and tape, and the third, Electric Counterpoint (1988), was written for guitar and tape.

Purpose
Commissioned by The Fromm Music Foundation for clarinettist Richard Stolzman. Use of pre-recorded tape meant only one instrumentalist was needed The tape is typical of Reichs work

Instrumentation
New York Counterpoint was composed for a pre recorded tape of 10 clarinets and 1 live clarinet. Every note is written in the key of B major but heard as A major since the clarinets sound a tone lower than written.

Typical of Reichs work and of minimalism

Form and Structure

Reich structures his music through the careful control of texture: Could be considered ternary form with the B section defined by the presence of the pulsing 4-part chords

Doesn't fit any notions of form

Section A: bars 1-24 Section B: bars 25-66 Section A: bars 67-72

Typical of minimalism

Rhythm and Metre

The metre of the piece is which does not change in this movement.

Phasing & Canonic Imitation

Section B: pulsing semi quavers in the last 4 clarinets

Polyrhythmic

Syncopation

Harmony and Tonality

The movement is entirely diatonic however the lack of progression towards the tonic means that the harmony is non-functional.

The key signature of 5 sharps combined with a keynote of E puts this piece in the Lydian Mode, transposed down a semitone

Harmonic language is mainly triadic

The melodic ostinati are centred on alterations of chords IV and V, but their canonic entries cause the chords to overlap and change at different times in different parts: this can sometimes give a feel of dissonance.

Melody
Typical of minimalism

This is the Ostinato we hear in bars 1 and 2 played by clarinet 7: it is repeated and adapted throughout the piece

Canonic imitation and phasing. (Changes the sound but not the music)

Additive process of gradually completing the melody by replacing rest with notes

Subtractive process of replacing some notes of the melody with rests

The melodic material is triadic and based on the chords E and F# major. It is also limited to a range of one octave

Texture
Highly contrapuntal texture Parts constantly work in pairs: either playing the same or imitating each other

From bar 25 until its part ends in bar 66 the live clarinet plays a freer, more improvisatory part that does not form part of the scheme of paired imitation In bar 27 cls. 7 and 8 and the two bass clarinets (9 and 10) start a pulsing chord underneath the imitative texture. There are six examples of this in the piece

In bars 13-24 there is a 6-part texture, with 3 imitative pairs

Bars 27-32 C#11 (= C#, D#, B, F#)

Bars 33-8 E aug11 (= E, G#, D#, A#)

Bars 39-46 G#11 (= G#, A#, F#, C#)

Bars 47-52 C#11

Bars 53-58 E aug11

Bars 59-65 G#11