The Music of Steve Reich

The Music of Steve Reich Wednesday 8 October 2014, 7.30pm | Britten Theatre

The Music of Steve Reich Wednesday 8 October 2014, 7.30pm | Britten Theatre

Clapping Music (6’) David Hockings & Louise Goodwin

Double Sextet (22’) New Perspectives

Interval Different Trains (27’) Ruisi Quartet

In the interests of safety, sitting or standing on the steps, gangways or floors in any part of the auditorium is strictly prohibited Please turn off your mobile phone to avoid any disturbance to the performance All private sound and video recordings are prohibited Photography before and during performances is not permitted. You may take photographs only during applause Latecomers will not be allowed into the auditorium until there is a suitable break in the performance Smoking is not permitted in any part of the building. Your co-operation is appreciated

Clapping Music (1972) Late in 1971 I composed Clapping Music out of a desire to create a piece of music that would need no instruments at all beyond the human body. At first I thought it would be a phase piece, but this turned out to be rather inappropriate since it introduces a difficulty in musical process (phasing) that is out of place with such a simple way of producing sound. The solution was to have one performer remain fixed, repeating the same basic pattern throughout, while the second moves abruptly, after a number of repeats, from unison to one beat ahead, and so on, until he is back in unison with the first performer. The basic difference between these sudden changes and the gradual changes of phase in other pieces is that when phasing one can hear the same pattern moving away from itself with the downbeats of both parts separating further and further apart while the sudden changes here create the sensation of a series of variations of two different patterns with their downbeats coinciding. In Clapping Music it can be difficult to hear that the second performer is in fact always playing the same original pattern as the first performer, though starting in different places.

Clapping Music marks the end of my use of the gradual phase shifting process.

Double Sextet (2007) There are two identical sextets in Double Sextet. Each one is comprised of flute, clarinet, vibraphone, piano, violin and cello. Doubling the instrumentation was done so that, as in so many of my earlier works, two identical instruments could interlock to produce one overall pattern. For example, in this piece you will hear the pianos and vibes interlocking in a highly rhythmic way to drive the rest of the ensemble.

The piece can be played in two ways; either with 12 musicians, or with six playing against a recording of themselves.

The idea of a single player playing against a recording of themselves goes all the way back to Violin Phase of 1967 and extends though Vermont

Counterpoint (1982), New York Counterpoint (1985), Electric Counterpoint (1987) and Cello Counterpoint (2003). The expansion of this idea to an entire chamber ensemble playing against pre-recordings of themselves begins with Different Trains (1988) and continues with Triple Quartet (1999) and now to Double Sextet. By doubling an entire chamber ensemble one creates the possibility for multiple simultaneous contrapuntal webs of identical instruments. In Different Trains and Triple Quartet all instruments are strings to produce one large string fabric. In Double Sextet there is more timbral variety through the interlocking of six different pairs of percussion, string and wind instruments.

The piece is in three movements fast, slow, fast and within each movement there are four harmonic sections built around the keys of D, F, A flat and B or their relative minor keys B, D, F and G sharp. As in almost all my music, modulations from one key to the next are sudden, clearly setting off each new section.

Double Sextet was completed in October 2007. It was commissioned by eighth blackbird and received its world premiere by that group at the University of Richmond in Virginia on March 26, 2008.

Different Trains (1988) Different Trains, for String Quartet and pre-recorded performance tape, begins a new way of composing that has its roots in my early tape pieces It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966). The basic idea is that carefully chosen speech recordings generate the musical materials for musical instruments.

The idea for the piece is from my childhood. When I was one my parents separated. My mother moved to Los Angeles and my father stayed in New York. Since they arranged divided custody, I travelled back and forth by train frequently between New York and Los Angeles from 1939 to 1942 accompanied by my governess. While the trips were exciting and romantic at the time I now look back and think that, if I had been in Europe during this period, as a Jew I would have had to ride very different trains. With this in mind I wanted to make a piece that would accurately

reflect the whole situation. In order to prepare the tape I did the following: 1 2 3 4

Record my governess Virginia, then in her seventies, reminiscing about our train trips together.

Record a retired Pullman porter, Lawrence Davis, then in his eighties, who used to ride lines between New York and Los Angeles, reminiscing about his life.

Collect recordings of Holocaust survivors Rachella, Paul and Rachel, all about my age and then living in America – speaking of their experiences.

Collect recorded American and European train sounds of the 1930s and 1940s.

In order to combine the taped speech with the string instruments I selected small speech samples that are more or less clearly pitched and then notated them as accurately as possible in musical notation.

The strings then literally imitate that speech melody. The speech samples as well as the train sounds were transferred to tape with the use of sampling keyboards and a computer. Three separate string quartets are also added to the pre-recorded tape and the final live quartet part is added in performance.

Different Trains is in three movements (played without pause), although that term is stretched here since tempos change frequently in each movement. They are: America – Before the war Europe – During the war After the war The piece thus presents both a documentary and a musical reality and begins a new musical direction. It is a direction that I expect will lead to a new kind of documentary music video theatre in the not too distant future. © Steve Reich

Steve Reich With a career that straddles two centuries and an enduring impact on both his contemporaries and later generations of musicians, Steve Reich is recognised worldwide as one of the greatest living composers. One of the founding fathers of Minimalism, Reich’s pioneering approach to composition is one that has incontrovertibly changed the direction of musical history. At once experimental and accessible, his innovative treatment of rhythm, repetition and tonal colour has influenced countless composers and genres, and it is difficult to imagine what today’s musical landscape would look like without his radical contribution to the Western canon.

Reich graduated in Philosophy from Cornell University in 1957. He then went on to study composition at the Juilliard School and with Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio at Mills College in California. He returned to New York in 1967, where he has lived ever since. Reich’s extensive oeuvre includes the landmark works Drumming, Different Trains and Clapping Music. Reich’s complex handling of timbre in his Double Sextet was recognised with a Pulizter Prize in 2009, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994 and made Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1999.

Reich’s music has been interpreted by major orchestras and ensembles all over the world: the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain, to name but a few. Likewise, his extensive use of non-Western harmonies and rhythms - such as African drumming patterns - has inspired a number of eminent choreographers to create dances to his music. As the music critic Andrew Clements once put it in an article for The Guardian, ‘There’s just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history, and Steve Reich is one of them.’

David Hockings FRCM David Hockings studied at the Royal College of Music with Janos Keszei and Michael Skinner. On leaving College, he spent time performing with the London Sinfonietta, and eventually became its Principal Percussionist in 1995, surely one of the most demanding positions for a percussionist anywhere in the world. Having also worked regularly for more than ten years with all of the major London orchestras, he joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1991, becoming its Principal Percussionist in 1994.

Among his most recent appearances was a televised performance of Bartok's Sonata for two Pianos and Percussion in its orchestral version. As well as his orchestral, chamber and recording work, David has also been involved extensively with education work, which has taken him to many communities, including prisons, and schools for the severely disabled, at home and as far afield as Japan, South America and the United States. In January 2008 David was appointed Head of Percussion at the Royal College of Music and was awarded the FRCM in 2013.

Louise Goodwin Louise is in her fourth undergraduate year at the Royal College of Music, studying with David Hockings, Matt Perry and Adrian Bending. She has a keen interest in orchestral music, and has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra, Hallé Youth Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the RCM Symphony Orchestra. Louise is fortunate to have been conducted by Vasily Petrenko, Kristjan Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski and Paul Daniel, and has performed in concert venues including the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Symphony Hall, Bridgewater Hall, the Barbican and The Sage, Gateshead.

Since beginning her studies at the RCM in September 2011, Louise has enjoyed attending a of variety masterclasses, and concerts given by Nebojsa Zivkovic, Randy Max and Tom Greenleaves. In 2013 she took part in the London Symphony Orchestra’s percussion academy, where she received tutoring from Neil Percy, Nigel Thomas and Antoine Bedewi. She was selected to be a member of the RCM’s flagship percussion quartet, PERC’M, who have recently toured with marimbist Jasmin Kolberg.

New Perspectives The RCM’s New Perspectives ensemble was formed to specialise in the performance of contemporary music. The group play a diverse range of repertoire each term. Recent performances include Gaudibert’s Gong (UK premiere, Summer 2014) and Henze’s Voices (Autumn 2013). RCM student composers also regularly showcase their works with the ensemble. New Perspectives has been directed by a number of established musicians both from the College and outside, including Diego Masson, Timothy Lines and Nicholas Collon. The group is becoming established outside College and recent engagements include performances at the Southbank Centre for their festival The Rest is Noise.

Founded in 1882, the RCM moved to its present site on Prince Consort Road in 1894. Illustrious alumni include Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Dame Joan Sutherland, Sir Thomas Allen, Sir Colin Davis, John Wilson, Alina Ibragimova and Alfie Boe. In addition to its 750 full time students, the College engages dynamically with a wider and more diverse community of children and adults through a dedicated range of creative activities delivered by RCM Sparks’ education and participation projects, RCM Junior Department programme and the Woodhouse Professional Development Centre. A further development is the growing schedule of live-streamed concerts and masterclasses which can be viewed on www.rcm.ac.uk.

Violin Molly Cockburn* Johannes Marmen*

Clarinet James Noble* Lowri Davies

Cello Juliette Giovacchini George Cooke

Vibraphone Alun McNeil-Watson* Richard Cartlidge*

Flute Ruth Knight Cathy Hare

Piano Claire Harris* Juan Barahona-Yepez*

* Scholars/Award Holders generously supported by RCM donors

Ruisi Quartet The Ruisi Quartet is supported by a legacy from the late Albert and Eugenie Frost Alessandro Ruisi violin Guy Button violin Asher Zaccardelli viola Max Ruisi cello Formed in London in 2012, the Ruisi Quartet has quickly established a reputation as an exciting, expressive ensemble, delivering performances that are “strikingly immediate, committed and direct” (Chichester Observer, 2014). The quartet have already performed at a number of leading UK venues, including the Wigmore Hall and Brighton Dome, and look forward to a number of international engagements in 2014. They are studying towards the Artist Diploma in Chamber Music at the RCM. For the 2013/14 season the group have been selected for the prestigious ChamberStudio Mentorship programme at King’s Place, London. This elite scheme allows the quartet to work closely with mentor Simon Rowland-Jones, whilst also receiving masterclasses from some of the world’s most eminent chamber musicians. Most recently, the group have been lucky enough to work with James Boyd (London Haydn Quartet), Peter Cropper (Lindsay Quartet), Christoph Richter and Richard Ireland.

For the last two successive years the group has also won scholarships from the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Foundation to study on week-long intensive courses with the Maggini Quartet.

This coming season sees the quartet perform various concerts in London (King’s Place), Norfolk and Sussex, including a performance of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro with the 12 ensemble, London’s un-conducted string orchestra.

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Other generous donors Georg and Emily von Opel Foundation+ Mr Paul Brewer Bouygues UK Bob and Sarah Wigley The Henry Wood Trust The Robert Fleming Hannay Memorial Charity The Amaryllis Fleming Foundation Karen Cook The Hon Richard Lyttelton The Seary Charitable Trust St Marylebone Educational Foundation John Hosier Music Trust Roland Rudd RLM Finsbury The Sharp Foundation Centrica plc The Rothermere Foundation Geoffrey Richards HonRCM Dasha Shenkman HonRCM The Leche Trust Ann Driver Trust Fidelio Trust David Cooksey Florian Leonhard Paul Baker Jonathan Davie Richard Everard Mr Douglas Flint Serena Fenwick Christopher Saul Jonathon Silver Anonymous Dr Franz Humer Mark Wood Webster and Davidson Mortification for the Blind Sir David Cooksey The Derek Hill Foundation Professor Colin Lawson FRCM Janis Susskind HonRCM Blair Wilson Award Moira D Witty David D Sieff Edward Mandel/Jacques Samuel Pianos Bursary Michael Steen OBE HonRCM The Nicholas Branston Foundation Mrs Terry Collins-Tveter Helena Morrissey Nicola Jones Richard Davey Friends of the National Libraries Brian and Hana Smouha * also support a named award + also support RCM Sparks For more information about supporting the RCM, visit www.rcm.ac.uk/supportus Alternatively, contact Joanne Hodson on 020 7591 4861 or joanne.hodson@rcm.ac.uk

Variable Geometry: Music, Sound and Silence Wednesday 12 November 2014, 6.00pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Tim Lines director Russolo Awakening of a City Varèse Octandre Ferrari Et tournent les sons dans la garrigue Alvin Lucier I am sitting in a room Arvo Pärt Fratres for recorder trio, percussion and cello Russolo Awakening of a City This concert takes audiences on an entertaining and fantastical whirlwind tour through the 20th century and sheds light on some radically different approaches to music, noise and silence: from Luigi Russolo’s thrilling noise generators to the mesmerising stillness of Arvo Pärt, via Varèse’s radical exploration of timbre and Ferrari’s iconic electroacoustic soundscape.

Tickets: £5 RCM Box Office Tel: 020 7591 4314 www.rcm.ac.uk/boxoffice