Great review of a tremendous piece of music, for Colin Currie and his ensemble
If one was to shortlist the seminal musical works of the 20th century, Steve Reich’sMusic for 18 Musicians (1974-76) would certainly assume its rightful position alongside such game-changing scores as Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (1911-13/1947) and Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie (1946-48). Rooted in solid sonorous architecture, clad in raiments of exquisite colour and propelled by pulsations, setting the stage for buoyantly interlocked musical layers, Music for 18 Musicians comes off as veritable aural feast.
Awash with sonic enchantment, the score is wrought of a cycle of eleven chords, played at the very beginning of the piece and repeated at the end in the manner of pulsating chorales for full ensemble. Out of the harmonic cycle, a series of eleven circa four-minute sections is drawn, giving rise to musical blueprint worthy of the most organic symphonic designs.
”The movement from chord to chord is often a re-voicing, inversion, or…
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