Music refers to an art and cultural event whose medium is silence and sound. It is performed by a wide range of instruments, and several vocal techniques ranging from singing to clapping. Music is composed and performed for various purposes ranging from religious or ceremonial purposes to aesthetic pleasure as well as an entertainment product for the individuals. It expresses emotions and ideas through the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm and dynamics (Potter, 2012).
Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich changed the way we hear our world. It is a great piece for finding different nuances and hearing several cross rhythms among the instruments. The piece is composed on a cycle of eleven chords; a small piece is based on each chord, and the piece returns to the initial cycle at the end. The sections are named as pulses, and it includes Section I-XI. A prominent factor in the music is an augmentation of the melodies and harmonies and the way they develop this piece. It is approximately 55 minutes long, and its steady pulse and rhythmic energy, instrumentation, structure, harmony and voice are new (Schwarz, 2013).
The structure of the music is based on a combination of eleven chords that are played at the start of the piece and repeated towards the end. Completely all the voices and instruments sing or play the pulsating notes with each other. Instruments like strings do follow fall and rise of the breath through following the bass clarinet’s breathing patterns. The opening eleven chords cycle of the music is a kind of pulsing Cantus for the entire piece. This implies that the each chord that might have lasted around fifteen or twenty seconds is stretched out and becomes the basic five-minute piece (Potter, 2012).
Instrumentation for music for 18 minutes is new in the distribution and number: cello, violin, 2 clarinets doubling bass clarinet, 4 pianos, 4 women voices, 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones, 2 xylophones, and metallophone. All the instruments are acoustical, and the use of electronics is limited to microphones for voices and some of the instruments (Schwarz, 2013).
Rhythmically, there are two different types of time occurring simultaneously in the music for 18 minutes. The first is a regular rhythm pulse in the on the pianos and the mallet instruments that proceed throughout the piece. The second include the rhythm of the human breathe in the wind instruments and voices. The combination of one breathes after another provides measure the duration of the pulsing (Potter, 2012).
There is a lot of harmonic movement in the initial 5minutes of the music. The movement from chord to chord is often an inversion, re-voicing or relative minor major of a previous chord. The limits harmonic movement plays an important role in the pieces produced by Steve Reich. The sections or pieces are basically in either form of ABCDCBA or in the form of musical processes. Elements in a single section be seen in another section by different instrumentation and harmony. The different sections are understood regarding resemblances between members of a family (Schwarz, 2013).
Changes from a single section to another, and as within each individual section, are indicated by vibraphones. Their patterns are played only a single time calling for the movement to the subsequent bar. This is different from the visual nods applied earlier in calling for changes in the sections. Audible cures make up part of the music and ensure that the musicians are allowed to keep listening. Steve Reich’s music is primarily based on the developments made in the process of improving the music and its genres. It is among the best music composed as it touches on the feelings of the all the audiences (Schwarz, 2013).
References
Potter, K. (2012). Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass (Vol. 11). Cambridge University Press.
Schwarz, K. R. (2013). Steve Reich: Music as a Gradual Process Part II. Perspectives of New Music, 225-286.
