Above, rehearsing “Music For 18 Musicians: Staged Variations” with Alarm Will Sound at the Park Avenue Armory. This massive production involves three ensembles (Steve Reich Ensemble and Tactus, in addition to AWS) each playing the piece with different staging and direction. In anticipation of opening night tomorrow, here is what I wrote about the piece in 2024:
The spiritual successor to Drumming was Music for 18 Musicians, a second grand statement for Reich’s own ensemble. The piece has become many people’s introduction to his music (myself among them) and commands something of a cult following. It’s immediately ingratiating, based on a lush sequence of harmonies that slowly pivot between sun and shade, like a landscape changing with the time of day. The characteristic melodic patterns are present in wonderfully catchy form, built up in an easygoing, almost improvisatory-feeling way, in place of the focused, didactic rigor of Drumming. Here, musical process becomes a means to an end, not the main event.
But because of its popularity, it’s easy to forget the qualities that set Music for 18 Musicians apart from the rest of his works. For the most part, these elements aren’t technical, but rather qualities of tone, mood and emotional expression. Primary among these is the character of its pulse. Though it continues uninterrupted through the whole hour of the piece, giving cohesion to the various sections, the pulse advances and recedes in prominence depending on what else is happening. It has a fractal quality of feeling slow and fast simultaneously. Listen closely and you hear each individual eighth note rushing by at the rate of 420 per minute; sit back and hear the details resolve into long phrases, the phrases into a superstructure. Musically, the pulse consists of two elements: a fast (and very difficult) “hocket” split between multiple pianos and mallet percussion, and crescendo-decrescendo “swells” in the strings, voices and clarinets. The length of the swell is determined by the breath capacity of each musician: one breath per swell, so each will be a slightly different length and shape. Heard in combination with the hocket, it’s a weird hybrid of human and machine, an energy source powered by lungs.
It’s worth pointing out that 18 is the minimum number of musicians required to play the piece, and necessitates pianists pinch-hitting on marimba, vibraphone, maracas and other unconventional multitasking. For this reason, it’s common to see the piece performed with as many as 22 players. Though it requires a certain logistical effort to perform because of the large number of instruments required, there’s a wonderfully non-hierarchical aspect to its performance: it’s one of the larger ensembles you’re likely to see play conductor-less. What you may notice, though, is players glancing over at each other over the course of the piece, waiting for audible and visible signals. The first clarinetist rises slightly from their chair and gives an emphatic nod; a series of chimes from the vibraphone triggers a chord change en masse. This dynamic is inseparable from the emotional impact of the piece. There’s a sense of camaraderie, of a group of musicians coming together for an hour to form a kind of collective consciousness, not following a single leader, but listening very carefully to one another and acting accordingly.
