# Reich: Music for 18 Musicians



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Steve Reich's _Music for 18 Musicians_ is currently on the 37th tier of the Talk Classical community's favorite and most highly recommended works.

Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it, especially with regard to its reception and impact on music. I guess we all probably know this is one of the most influential and famous minimalist works to have been composed or recorded, and that the ECM recording is the standard.

How do you feel about this work?

Do you have any favorite recordings besides the ECM classic, or do you prefer that one?


----------



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Despise it, but I despise the American minimalists in general.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I like it, but I more often listen to Reich's _Desert Music_. I'm not that knowledgeable on _Music for 18 Musicians_ or recordings of that work.

I generally enjoy the music of the American minimalists.


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Love it, and that first version by far. It's the only minimalist work I really listen to.


----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I like a lot of minimalist works, and I liked many of Reich's works before I ever listened to Music for 18 Musicians. I was slightly daunted by the length of the piece and wondered if I could listen to all of it. I listened to the live version by eighth blackbird on youtube. I assumed I would listen to some of it and basically sample the work. I started listening and was so enthralled that I heard the whole piece. The work seemed to last considerably less than the actual hour. It is certainly one of my favorite minimalist works, and I have it on my list of works to purchase but have not yet bought it.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

science said:


> Steve Reich's _Music for 18 Musicians_ is currently on the 37th tier of the Talk Classical community's favorite and most highly recommended works.
> 
> Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it, especially with regard to its reception and impact on music. I guess we all probably know this is one of the most influential and famous minimalist works to have been composed or recorded, and that the ECM recording is the standard.
> 
> ...


The only one I really have enjoyed is the one by Amadinda on Hungaroton. There are many other pieces by Reich which I think are more interesting than this, both harmonically and structurally: WTC 9/11 for example, and The Daniel Variations and The Cave and the Quartet and City Life. 18 Musicians seems to me to be too predictable to be interesting. WTC 9/11 especially seems a major masterpiece of 20th century music to me.


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Mandryka said:


> WTC 9/11 especially seems a major masterpiece of 20th century music to me.


21st century of course but I agree. It's the only work about 9/11 that really works for me.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Yes, by reflex I think of Reich’s music as from the last century. WTC 9/11 is a summit of 20th century music written in the 21st century.


----------



## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

For me it is one of the pinnacles of minimalism, which i believe will be judged more kindly in the future than today. Movements are reactions to previous movements and each has its qualities and its downsides. The piece is exhilarating and ideal to put me in a good mood.Besides the original authentic version on ECM, I tremendously enjoy the Ensemble Modern version which is musically superior in my opinion. The Signal Ensemble's take is also worth a listen.


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

I like Reich's music very much - have done so for many years.

I think he's one of the best living composers.

The Desert Music is a favourite. I have the MTT release


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

I only have one recording of the excellent 'Music For 18 Musicians' - ECM


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

For a long time I rejected the Minimalists. After my first exposure to Philip Glass and Steve Reich I chose to ignore their work for several decades. John Adams fared a bit better although I found his opera _The Death of Klinghofer_ to be both trite and obnoxious, and he joined the group of composers I chose to not listen to.

This only changed recently.

It started when I watched a production at The Met of Adams' opera _Doctor Atomic_, and then I listened to several recent works by Glass. Today is Reich's day, and I am actually finding _Music for 18 Musicians_ enjoyable - although it is way too long, IMO.

I probably won't listen to _WTC 9/11_ since I do not think that event should be used as the impetus for a musical composition. Only the William Basinski work _Disintegration Loops_ has seemed okay in that regard, and it is only associated with 9/11 after the fact, a coincidence of its creation.

For some reason Terry Riley never was a composer I intentionally ignored (I probably heard _In C_ around the same time and didn't like it) but never really listened to him, either. However, after listening to some of his music today I find him the most interesting of the lot.

I think the music from their later period is more interesting than their first works.


----------



## cybernaut (Feb 6, 2021)

Love it. But then, there's not much Reich I don't love.

Currently listening to Erik Hall's solo version on Spotify.








Erik Hall Is One Musician Taking on Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 Musicians’, PopMatters


Composed between 1974 and 1976 and premiering at the Town Hall in New York City in April 1976, Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians was a milestone in...




www.popmatters.com


----------



## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Neo Romanza said:


> Despise it, but I despise the American minimalists in general.


I am in agreement with Neo Romanza. I will just add that I despise all minimalism, American or otherwise.

Worthless music.


----------



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Haydn70 said:


> I am in agreement with Neo Romanza. I will just add that I despise all minimalism, American or otherwise.
> 
> Worthless music.


To be fair, I like both John Adams and John Luther Adams, but I wouldn't call them Minimalists.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I first encountered Steve Reich in Philadelphia in 1975. I was engaged in graduate studies, Reich and his ensemble were touring. Reich's music was new stuff for me at the time. The piece that captured my attention was _Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ. _Following the concert experience I purchased the 3 record box set from Deutsche Grammophon (2740 106) _Drumming / Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ / Six Pianos,








_

a box set I still have in my collection. (I added the CD version some years later.) It remains the _Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ _that I've continued to listen to over the ensuing decades, having found little of interest in _Six Pianos_ or _Drumming. _ Or in much else categorized as minimalism. 

I've added a few Reich recordings to my collection over the years, and my Discogs database gives me an even dozen "hits" when I plug in the name "Steve Reich". They include the Kronos Quartet performance of _WTC 9/11_, _Pendulum Music _(performed by the rock band Sonic Youth!), and recordings of _Six Marimbas_,_ Mallet Quartet_, _Tehillim,_ _Eight Lines_, and _Music For 18 Musicians_. Not a lot of Reich music, to be sure. 

I tend to ignore most everything by Reich except for _Music for Mallet Instruments..._, but, hey!, I don't regularly listen to _anything_ by Philip Glass. So, that says something. I don't know. But, maybe _Music for Mallet Instruments... _awakens in me something of the spirit of my younger days (when I was a graduate student in the City of Brotherly Love), and maybe that's why I like it. But I do like it. And it shall remain on my "to listen to" list. Too bad I can't enjoy much else that is termed minimalism. But then, there's an awful lot of _other_ music out there, stuff I really enjoy, enough to last my ears the remainder of my years. Still, I'm certainly glad to have made the acquaintance of Steve Reich and his music. _Music for Mallet Instruments... _will continue to please.


----------



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

SONNET CLV said:


> I first encountered Steve Reich in Philadelphia in 1975. I was engaged in graduate studies, Reich and his ensemble were touring. Reich's music was new stuff for me at the time. The piece that captured my attention was _Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ. _Following the concert experience I purchased the 3 record box set from Deutsche Grammophon (2740 106) _Drumming / Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ / Six Pianos,
> 
> View attachment 181191
> _
> ...


I'd rather listen to a whoopee cushion then listen to Philip Glass (or Reich for that matter). For me, these two composers are the boon of modern American classical music. They're not fit to carry Elliott Carter's lunchbox.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Neo Romanza said:


> I'd rather listen to a whoopee cushion then listen to Philip Glass (or Reich for that matter). For me, these two composers are the boon of modern American classical music. They're not fit to carry Elliott Carter's lunchbox.


Before dismissing Glass, listen (if you haven’t already done so) to his first string quartet.


----------



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> Before dismissing Glass, listen (if you haven’t already done so) to his first string quartet.


I've heard it and it's not for me.


----------

