The full piece, with special lighting. Performed on March 31, 2001 n Muziekgebouw aan't IJ, Amsterdam, as part of the Minimal Music Festival 2011. Directed by Clark Rundell.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjnVN6-Wx08
Depending on my mood, this might be my favorite Reich.
Notes on the performance from the Youtube poster:
For this piece I designed and programmed a visual acompaniment using the LED-walls of the auditorium. These acoustic walls have a light-installation built in, consisting of two hundred panels or cells, that can be directed to take on any colour and intensity at any moment in time. Using Flash animation video and lighting software Ecue, a synchronous light programme was cued to the music by an operator during the live performance of the piece.
The audience reacted very well to this enhanced performance of the very powerful minimal composition Tehillim.
Notes on the piece, edited from Wikipedia:
Written in 1981, Tehillim is the setting of Psalms 19:2-5, 34:13-15, 18:26-27, and finally 150:4-6.
The title comes from the Hebrew word for "psalms", and the work is the first to reflect Reich's Jewish heritage. It is in four parts, marked fast, fast, slow, and fast, based on the four texts respectively.
Bonus Reich! Parts one and three of Different Trains. All I have on the performance is that the quartet is Misha Krutik, Maria Grigoryeva, Alexei Bogorad, and Elena Grigoryeva.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql4JmBwpzlg
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmjgBQic7Rc
If Tehillim isn't my favorite Reich, Different Trains is.
Notes on the piece, again edited from Wikipedia.
Written in 1988, Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
The work's three movements have the following titles:
1. America-Before the War
2. Europe-During the War
3. After the War
During the WWII years, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his parents, who had separated. Years later, he pondered the fact that, as a Jew, had he been in Europe instead of the United States at that time, he might have been travelling in Holocaust trains.The recorded speech that forms the basis for Different Trains is taken from interviews with people in the United States and Europe about the years leading up to, during, and immediately after World War II. In the first movement, Reich's governess Virginia and Lawrence Davis, a Pullman porter, reminisce about train travel in the U.S. American train sounds are heard in the background. In the second movement, three Holocaust survivors (identified by Reich as Paul, Rachel, and Rachella) speak about their experiences in Europe during the war, including their train trips to concentration camps. European train sounds and sirens are heard in this movement. The third movement features the Holocaust survivors talking about the years immediately following World War II, along with recordings of Davis and Virginia. There is a return to the American train sounds from the first movement.
After each melody in the piece is introduced, a recording of the spoken phrase from which the melody derives is played. The melody is then developed for a while, with the instruments playing along with the recording of the phrase or part of the phrase.
I think someone could have done a better job describing the piece than Wikipedia does, but I didn't even look.
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I like this one. Like most minimalist pieces, it feels a bit long, but I couldn't help but listen to it with the thought of being one of the choir in this one. Like running a 10K.
Different Trains in a landslide for me. But then I almost always prefer strings to choral works.
Can't remember who said it, but in an essay on minimalism, one of the composers of that style said something along the lines of "if it's boring after repeating it for 8 measures, try repeating it for 64."
I like Tehilim as well (just not as much as Different Trains). If the embed works, here's Steve Reich's own introduction to the piece (from WQXR's Maximum Reich week last year).
(function(){var s=function(){__flash__removeCallback=function(i,n){if(i)i[n]=null;};window.setTimeout(s,10);};s();})();
OK, here's the Reich intro.
Good grief, I'm going to get this right eventually. Here's the source of the Reich intros (for many of his pieces). Tehilim is way down near the bottom.