Steve Reich
City Life, Proverb, Nagoya Marimbas
Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch - #79430
reviewed by Christopher Coleman for amazon.com
I have great respect for Steve Reich and although I haven't liked everything he has done, he has composed pieces such as Come Out, Different Trains, and Tehillim which are, I believe, among the finest works of the century. He has continued to evolve stylistically while maintaining certain traits--his music is always rhythmically and sonorously interesting. I was stunned by Different Trains --it is a masterful, truly groundbreaking work in the way that it blends speech and music, and emotionally it is very effective. Come Out is similarly innovative and emotionally successful. Obviously not every piece by a single composer can be thus, but I have to disagree with the other critics here about the overall quality of the works on this CD. None of them break new ground--true, Reich uses live samplers on City Life, but that's been done for ages in popular music. And frankly, although they were all interesting for the moment, none of the pieces really engaged me the way other works of his have. I found my attention wandering, and one of the movements of City Life was downright annoying, influenced as it seems to be by rap. Old hat by now...There are three pieces on this disc. The first, Proverb, is reminiscent of Tehillim, although on a smaller scale. At something over 14 mnutes, it seemed too long for the musical material; but parts of it, particularly the beginning, are quite lovely. However, there is very little contrast in the piece--dynamics play almost no part whatsoever, tempo is consistent although there is some slight change in levels of rhythmic activity. Reich mentions the inspiration of Perotin, although he does not elaborate further; clearly this piece is free of Romantic gesture. Interestingly, this is the most dissonant of the three works--although it is tonal, Reich prolongs dissonances such as the minor second in a way which almost makes up for the lack of dynamic contrast. The performance is absolutely superb.
The second piece, Nagoya Marimbas, is really here just for filler. Pleasant enough, it is short enough for the listener's mind not to wander, but again, not terribly engaging. Reich describes this as being virtuostic--well, yes in the sense that the players have to play lots of notes exactly in rhythm with almost no rests; but not in the sense that technique is shown off in displays of speed or range or musicality or dynamics or any of a host of means. Is a typist typing as fast as she can consistently virtuostic? Hmmm...
City Life, a five movement piece, is the big work for the biggest, most complex ensemble here. The five movements do contain contrasts of timbre, of tempo and activity, and of dynamics, making the piece more engaging than the others to most listeners. Reich uses samples of city sounds:conversation, sirens, boat horns, and the like, and assembles them with conventional musical material that bears timbral, contour, registral, rhythmic and/or pitch similarities. This is much like his earlier Different Trains, and still works very well. Each individual movement is fairly short, and the five movements are assembled to create a successful whole, and a very nice and truly contemporary sonic picture of City Life. But as clever and as well done as this is, I just can't think of it as a truly important piece--it's more of An American in Paris than a Rhapsody in Blue. Still, all the performances are excellent, and this disc is worth a listen. Reich fans specifically and minimalist fans in general will definitely want a copy and will probably disagree with me on the ultimate quality of the works. But if you just say everything is the best, you don't really mean "the best". Even Beethoven had his Wellington's Victory.
Return to Music Criticism and Commentary