IDM Mailing Archive

I forwarded the article from The Independent to a friend of mine (not a member of this list) who's a big Reich fan. He had some comments that I thought some people might find interesting. Remember I'm just the messenger... <<The idea that any sound could be used to make music was not new. Pierre Schaeffer did it in Paris in 1948 and called it "musique concrete".>> Edgar Varese did it with "Ionization," which used two sirens, some gongs and only two pitched instruments out of a dozen, in 1936. <<The "classical" composers are labelled by the pop world as academic, stuffy and pretentious>> That's a load of crap. Frank Zappa loved Varese; Brian Eno, David Bowie and Robert Fripp loved Reich and Philip Glass years ago. Eno credits Satie for inspiring ambient music. The Beatles surely listened to Bach and Mozart; their producer George Martin certainly did. Dave Edmunds had a hit with a version of Khatchaturian's "Sabre Dance." Jeff Beck had a song called "Beck's Bolero" in the Sixties. There have been many rock operas written -- surely their composers must have admired some classical music. The list goes on and on. We won't even get into Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (because we shouldn't). <<while the "pop" composers are taken seriously by media and cultural studies departments but not at all by the music departments.>> A broad generalization with no backup. "Not at all"? What, did this guy survey every music department in the world? <<Now, more than 30 years after "Revolution 9", there are indications that the two cultures might be negotiating a merger.>> This conveniently omits Frank Zappa's many neo-classical albums as well as side two of David Bowie's album _Low_, which was a direct homage to Reich and Glass. And see the above list of pop/classical crossovers. Also, one album does not constitute broad "indications" of a merger. <<Reich is definitely from the world of "classical" contemporary music; he was trained to write string quartets and symphonies>> No, not "definitely" -- he also received extensive training in Indian, African and Indonesian music which influenced his compositions profoundly. <<He was influenced by the pop music of his time - which for him was the jazz of John Coltrane>> John Coltrane did not make pop music. <<and now pop music is influenced by minimalism.>> "Now"? What about the Velvet Underground, Neu and the Modern Lovers, just to name a few? <<this particular merger of pop and classical seems uneasy; it's not really his music, it doesn't really sound like his, but his name appears on the album sleeve.>> This guy has clearly never heard a remix album before. <<Reich's early pieces sounded like nothing ever heard before: they were extreme, even dangerous>> Dangerous? Please. Nitroglycerin is dangerous. Escaped convicts are dangerous. Steve Reich's music would only be dangerous if it were drowning out a fire alarm. <<on the rare occasions that his music was played on the radio, the switchboards were jammed with complaints.>> The switchboards were actually jammed? _Every_ time it was played? When? Where? Typical Brit hyperbole with no regard for factuality. <<Reich's work doesn't need techno processing because his music has it already.>> I'm not sure what the author means by "techno processing," but whatever it is, Reich's music does not have it.

I forwarded the article from The Independent to a friend of mine (not a member of this list) who's a big Reich fan. He had some comments that I thought some people might find interesting. Remember I'm just the messenger... <<The idea that any sound could be used to make music was not new. Pierre Schaeffer did it in Paris in 1948 and called it "musique concrete".>> Edgar Varese did it with "Ionization," which used two sirens, some gongs and only two pitched instruments out of a dozen, in 1936. <<The "classical" composers are labelled by the pop world as academic, stuffy and pretentious>> That's a load of crap. Frank Zappa loved Varese; Brian Eno, David Bowie and Robert Fripp loved Reich and Philip Glass years ago. Eno credits Satie for inspiring ambient music. The Beatles surely listened to Bach and Mozart; their producer George Martin certainly did. Dave Edmunds had a hit with a version of Khatchaturian's "Sabre Dance." Jeff Beck had a song called "Beck's Bolero" in the Sixties. There have been many rock operas written -- surely their composers must have admired some classical music. The list goes on and on. We won't even get into Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (because we shouldn't). <<while the "pop" composers are taken seriously by media and cultural studies departments but not at all by the music departments.>> A broad generalization with no backup. "Not at all"? What, did this guy survey every music department in the world? <<Now, more than 30 years after "Revolution 9", there are indications that the two cultures might be negotiating a merger.>> This conveniently omits Frank Zappa's many neo-classical albums as well as side two of David Bowie's album _Low_, which was a direct homage to Reich and Glass. And see the above list of pop/classical crossovers. Also, one album does not constitute broad "indications" of a merger. <<Reich is definitely from the world of "classical" contemporary music; he was trained to write string quartets and symphonies>> No, not "definitely" -- he also received extensive training in Indian, African and Indonesian music which influenced his compositions profoundly. <<He was influenced by the pop music of his time - which for him was the jazz of John Coltrane>> John Coltrane did not make pop music. <<and now pop music is influenced by minimalism.>> "Now"? What about the Velvet Underground, Neu and the Modern Lovers, just to name a few? <<this particular merger of pop and classical seems uneasy; it's not really his music, it doesn't really sound like his, but his name appears on the album sleeve.>> This guy has clearly never heard a remix album before. <<Reich's early pieces sounded like nothing ever heard before: they were extreme, even dangerous>> Dangerous? Please. Nitroglycerin is dangerous. Escaped convicts are dangerous. Steve Reich's music would only be dangerous if it were drowning out a fire alarm. <<on the rare occasions that his music was played on the radio, the switchboards were jammed with complaints.>> The switchboards were actually jammed? _Every_ time it was played? When? Where? Typical Brit hyperbole with no regard for factuality. <<Reich's work doesn't need techno processing because his music has it already.>> I'm not sure what the author means by "techno processing," but whatever it is, Reich's music does not have it.