Program Notes
STEVE REICH (1936- )
MUSIC FOR PIECES OF WOOD
Duration: ca. 15 minutes
Ask 10 different people to describe minimalism in
music and you get 10 different answers. What is it,
when did it begin, and where is it going today?
Minimalism grew out of reaction to the academic,
detached, cerebral music of the 1950s, much of
which rubbed people the wrong way and gave
orchestras and audiences little to chew. A “new
Romanticism’’ followed, but so did something else:
sounds propelled by simple, tonal ideas, hypnotic
rhythms, and a pulse. It was music stripped naked,
baring tendon and bone.
“Minimalism is the story not so much of a single
sound as of a chain of connections,’’ writes Alex Ross
in his book The Rest is Noise. The ambient innovator
Brian Eno described it as “a drift away from narrative
and towards landscape, from performed event to
sonic space.’’ Steve Reich, one of the movement’s
founders along with Terry Riley, La Monte Young
and Philip Glass, likens it to “placing your feet in the
sand by the ocean’s edge and watching, feeling, and
listening to the waves gradually bury them.’’
Although Riley’s 1964 composition In C launched
minimalism into the public sphere, early nuggets
can be heard as far back as the 1700s in the
largo movement of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Four
Harpsichords, or in Erik Satie’s Vexations from 1894,
where the performer repeats a 32-bar section 840
times (or until everyone goes home).
Reich remains the most popular of the original
group, in part because of an inquisitive approach
to music making and a desire to constantly reinvent
himself. Although Juilliard-trained, he found his
voice at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, and
in the Ghanaian drumming of Africa. He raised
eyebrows in his first large performance in 1971,
Drumming, and established himself four years
later with what may be his masterpiece, Music
for 18 Musicians, built on a cycle of 11 chords. His
Different Trains of 1988 conveys the tragedies of the
Holocaust with harrowing impact.
This weekend, members of TFO’s percussion section
THE FLORIDA OR 60 CHESTRA | 2018-2019
and guest artist Colin Currie take center stage with
Music for Pieces of Wood. Written in 1973, the music
involves five players who strike hardwood claves of
different pitches. The music becomes more dense
over its three sections, which are linked by a quarter
note laid down by the first player, who serves as a
human metronome. Reich offers directions in the
score but encourages players to improvise and
have fun so that no two performances are alike.
The brittle density of the music can seem jarring
after nearly 15 minutes, when everything stops and
silence sinks in.
On his website, Reich writes that Music for Pieces of
Wood grows out of a “desire to make music with the
simplest possible instruments. … To understand
the piece, imagine listening to a kaleidoscope. A
pattern is established, then it shifts as with the
click of the kaleidoscope. … This piece is one of
the loudest I have ever composed, but uses no
amplification whatsoever.’’
ANDREW NORMAN (1979- )
SWITCH
Duration: ca. 30 minutes
What does an orchestra have in common with a
video game? Just listen to the music of Andrew
Norman, a Los Angeles-based composer who
blends classical tradition with the avant-garde and
modern technology. His works have been praised
for their daring juxtapositions, dazzling colors and
“staggering imagination,’’ all in a style that engages
listeners of all ages.
Raised in California, Norman grew up loving the
movies, and as a child was mesmerized by the John
Williams soundtrack for Star Wars. He watched the
film repeatedly and set his sights on becoming a
composer. Educated at the University of Southern
California and the Yale School of Music, he embraced
the tenants of Romanticism but soon discovered
the possibilities of digital technology, including
video games and YouTube playbacks. This resulted
in a series of concise, razor-sharp works with such
names as Split, Suspend, Play, Apart, Hopscotch,
and Unstuck. His body of work won him the honor
of Musical America’s 2017 Composer of the Year.
Commissioned by the Utah Symphony, Switch is a