# Steve Reich now a Doctor



## Guest (Mar 11, 2016)

Stevie gets his (honorary) Doctorate at the Royal College of Music (London).
Read about it here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...f-music-honours-reich-norrington-and-jurowski


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Like many composers, Mr. Reich has been ameliorating people's ills for a long time.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

That's good to see. Throughout history, recognized composers have often been awarded honorary degrees while they are/were alive, such as Handel and Haydn.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Reich is not my taste, but this is good to see.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Good to know that the Royal College of Music is against thematic development in music.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Morimur said:


> Good to know that the Royal College of Music is against thematic development in music.


Awww, it's like it's 1949 and Adorno is bitching about Stravinsky. I think I'll put on a fedora and mix a martini.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Just looking at the thread title, I thought this was about Reich becoming a medical doctor; that would have been most impressive.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Bulldog said:


> Just looking at the thread title, I thought this was about Reich becoming a medical doctor; that would have been most impressive.


I suspect this would mean that he was only able to perform one surgery, and that his movements would always be the same repetitions.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

The title of this thread is really... disarming.

I'm pursuing a phd in physics, and I most definitely do not consider the professors, staff scientists, or postdoctoral scholars to be "doctors". I certainly am not training to be a doctor.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Bulldog said:


> Just looking at the thread title, I thought this was about Reich becoming a medical doctor; that would have been most impressive.


"Steve, you've already had that appendix out 14 times. Can we just wash up and go home?"


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

SeptimalTritone said:


> The title of this thread is really... disarming.
> 
> I'm pursuing a phd in physics, and I most definitely do not consider the professors, staff scientists, or postdoctoral scholars to be "doctors". I certainly am not training to be a doctor.


That may well be because the English language doesn't have a title for a person who has completed and defended a dissertation (or equivalent as is alluded to in an honorary doctorate) other than "doctor."

DMA's (Doctorate of Musical Arts) are sometimes considered the most tenuous of doctor titles and even most people I know with DMAs hate being called a doctor unless they're in a college teaching somewhere. Doctor is proper to call an ensemble director however if they have a DMA, as was done at my school. I always addressed my flute professor as "Doctor" when I spoke to him.

Composers get honorary DMAs, so that's what Reich probably got. I read his criticism of the lack of state funding of the arts in the US, which I think is a justified criticism because it is true, but I also don't believe in making people pay for my welfare when they honestly don't like classical music. We will prevail through with little or much means.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> Just looking at the thread title, I thought this was about Reich becoming a medical doctor; that would have been most impressive.


Not all doctors are medical doctors and not all medicalists or what it is called are doctors.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I love that he kept his cap on.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Nereffid said:


> I love that he kept his cap on.


I was expecting something like this from you :lol:


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Nereffid said:


> I love that he kept his cap on.


That is what he wears as a kippah (he is an observant Jew).


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Sloe said:


> Not all doctors are medical doctors and not all medicalists or what it is called are doctors.


To most people, when someone says 'He became a doctor', it's assumed they mean medical doctor. If it's a PhD, then people tend to say, 'He got his/her doctorate or PhD.' What the person calls themselves may or may not be 'doctor.'


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

DaveM said:


> To most people, when someone says 'He became a doctor', it's assumed they mean medical doctor. If it's a PhD, then people tend to say, 'He got his/her doctorate or PhD.' What the person calls themselves may or may not be 'doctor.'


Just because physicians are called doctors in daily speech it does not mean it is correct since a physician not necessarily have a doctors degree.
For Steve Reich I think it is correct to say he is an honorary doctor since he have not made a disputation.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Brahms: "Im Haus von Herrn Doktor Fellinger bei Herrn Doktor Brahms."


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Sloe said:


> Just because physicians are called doctors in daily speech it does not mean it is correct since a physician not necessarily have a doctors degree.


Look up the definition.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> Just looking at the thread title, I thought this was about Reich becoming a medical doctor; that would have been most impressive.





Klassic said:


> I suspect this would mean that he was only able to perform one surgery, and that his movements would always be the same repetitions.


"Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two ... aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two ... aspirins and call me in the morning. Take ... two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning morning morning ...."

Ok, Doc. I got it!

(By the way, I first encountered the Steve Reich and his Ensemble in concert in Philadelphia in the fall of 1975 where I first heard the fascinating "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ", a piece I have long cherished, though I remain rather antithetical about "minimalist" music. I did purchase the _Drumming/Music for Mallet Instruments.../Six Pianos_ DGG LP box set soon after and it has played regularly on my turntable over the years -- though only the "Music for Mallet Instruments". I still have trouble getting into "Drumming" (which I have listened to fully at least once) or, especially, "Six Pianos" (which I may never have completed a full hearing of).)


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> (By the way, I first encountered the Steve Reich and his Ensemble in concert in Philadelphia in the fall of 1975 where I first heard the fascinating "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ", a piece I have long cherished, though I remain rather antithetical about "minimalist" music. I did purchase the _Drumming/Music for Mallet Instruments.../Six Pianos_ DGG LP box set soon after and it has played regularly on my turntable over the years -- though only the "Music for Mallet Instruments". I still have trouble getting into "Drumming" (which I have listened to fully at least once) or, especially, "Six Pianos" (which I may never have completed a full hearing of).)


What's your relationship to _Music for 18 Musicians_ and/or "Music for a Large Ensemble"?


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

SONNET CLV said:


> "Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two ... aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two ... aspirins and call me in the morning. Take ... two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning morning morning ...."


Finally someone translates Reich's music into English.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> "Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two ... aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two ... aspirins and call me in the morning. Take ... two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... and call me in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning. Two aspirins ... in the morning morning morning ...." [...]


But those aspirins are only for relieving pain when squeezing out the bruise blood!


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

SONNET CLV said:


> "Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. Take two ... aspirins and call me in the morning


Some weeks later:

Doctor: "Did it work?"

Patient: "I ain't got no pain fo' forty days an' forty nights... ain't gonno pain... ain't gonno pain... ain't gonno pain..."


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I don't want to be too critical of Reich here... let me be the first to admit that maybe I'm honestly missing out on something, but I just can't get into his repetitive, trance like style. It seems to me that Boulez would be far more worthy of study, but what the hell do I know, everything depends on a person's taste.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

I would say they're both worthy of study.

Reich is hard to get a hold of, because, on the one hand, as much as Verdi, he's a composer whose greatness lies in aspects that music theory doesn't really know how to talk about, but on the other, unlike Verdi (or his big brother Terry Riley), he sounds kind of egghead-y, so it _seems_ like conventional analytic methods should be useful.


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