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Reich - Music for 18 Musicians | Harmonia Mundi HMU907608

Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

Label: Harmonia Mundi

Cat No: HMU907608

Barcode: 0093046760823

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 5th May 2015

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

Ensemble Signal

Conductor

Brad Lubman

Works

Reich, Steve

Music for 18 Musicians

Artists

Ensemble Signal

Conductor

Brad Lubman

About

Making its harmonia mundi début, New York-based Ensemble Signal performs Steve Reich’s 'Music for 18 Musicians', a seminal masterpiece and the breakthrough composition of a pioneering composer who changed the course of 20th-century music.

'Music for 18 Musicians' is approximately 55 minutes long. The first sketches were made for it in May 1974 and it was completed in March 1976. Although its steady pulse and rhythmic energy relate to many of Reich's earlier works, its instrumentation, structure and harmony are new. In his introduction to the score, Reich mentions that although the piece is named 'Music for 18 Musicians', it is not necessarily advisable to perform the piece with such few players, due to the extensive doubling it requires.

The structure of 'Music for 18 Musicians' is based on a cycle of eleven chords played at the very beginning of the piece and repeated at the end. All the instruments and voices play or sing the pulsating notes with each chord. Instruments like the strings which do not have to breathe nevertheless follow the rise and fall of the breath by following the breathing patterns of the bass clarinet. Each chord is held for the duration of two breaths, and the next chord is gradually introduced, and so on, until all eleven are played and the ensemble returns to the first chord.

Ensemble Signal, described by the New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind”, is a NY-based ensemble founded in 2008, dedicated to offering the broadest possible audience access to a diverse range of contemporary works through performance, commissioning, recording and education.

Signal has made an extraordinary recording of Music for 18 Musicians. Fast moving, spot on and emotionally charged. Take a listen.” - Steve Reich

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