I've had some success this year listening to new (i.e, new to me) piano concertos -- and by "success" I mean I discovered concertos which I rated yellow or even green on my scale of light sabers. Plus, along the way through the years on this site, I've listened to piano concertos with two, three and even four pianos. Just last week I listened to and rated J. S. Bach's Concerto for Four Pianos (HERE). That made me wonder if any concerto had ever been written for five pianos. I ran a Google search, but I did not find such a work. So what'd I do? I ran a search for a piano concerto with six pianos -- and lo and behold, I found a work by Steve Reich (though not a concerto) called "Six Pianos." That was going to be my featured piece for this week; however, when I began to listen to the piece I thought it sounded very familiar. Turns out that "Six Pianos" is Reich's work "Six Marimbas" transcribed for pianos. Well, let me correct that. "Six Marimbas" is actually a variation of the piano work composed several years later. Here's info from an article on Wikipedia: "Six Pianos is a minimalist piece for six pianos by the American composer Steve Reich. It was completed in March 1973. He also composed a variation for six marimbas, called Six Marimbas, in 1986. The world première performance of Six Pianos was in May 1973 at the John Weber Gallery in New York City." The complete article is HERE. On to Plan B: I searched for a concerto for multiple instruments, and it didn't take long to find Reich's "Music for 18 Musician." Though not a concerto, I decided to listen to Reich's work. Here's some info on the work from another article on Wikipedia: "Music for 18 Musicians is a work of minimalist music composed by Steve Reich during 1974–1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976, at The Town Hall in New York City. In his introduction to the score, Reich mentions that although the piece is named Music for 18 Musicians, it is not necessarily advisable to perform the piece with that few players due to the extensive need for musicians to perform on multiple instruments. The piece is based on a cycle of eleven chords. A small piece of music is based on each chord, and the piece returns to the original cycle at the end. The sections are named 'Pulses.' and Section I-XI. This was Reich's first attempt at writing for larger ensembles, and the extension of performers resulted in a growth of psychoacoustic effects, which fascinated Reich, and he noted that he would like to 'explore this idea further.'" The complete article is HERE. I realize that minimalist music isn't for everyone, and I admit -- minimalism is not my usual "go to" when I listen to classical music (which is rather frequently); however, I found Reich's work to be captivating if not hypnotic, mesmerizing. I only have one suggestion for a change -- based on personal preference -- in case, Mr. Reich, if you happen to stumble upon my comments (LOL) -- and I'll get to my proposition soon. First, let me relate an anecdote from a concert I attended a couple of years ago where the featured orchestra played Maurice Ravel's "Bolero." I love Ravel's "Bolero," and I've heard it many times. As a matter of fact, "Bolero" is on my Top 100 list of classical music "favorites," HERE. So why the info on "Bolero"? Well, when the snare drum player -- situated front and center at this particular concert -- began drumming Bolero's hypnotic rhythm, I think I began to sweat! LOL -- I'd never thought much of the pressure on a singular musician during a live performance, but at this concert I was witnessing it firsthand! The cadence is described (again, on Wikipedia, HERE) as follows: "It is built over an unchanging ostinato rhythm played 169 times (I added the underline) on one or more snare drums that remains constant throughout the piece" -- although there is, in fact, a slight deviation between the two repeating measures of the "constant" rhythm (on the third beat of each measure), shown below: Therefore, 169 times the drummer plays two eighth notes on the third beat, and 169 times the drummer plays two sets of sixteenth note triplets -- and how they can keep it straight as the song repeats over and over and over and over (etc.) is beyond me!
So that brings me back to Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians." Listening to the work on the video linked above is one thing, but watching the video is quite another! I watched in complete awe and admiration as the musicians (LOL -- I never counted them -- I assume there were eighteen) stayed in sync with one another. I know how easy it could have been for any one of them to have gotten lost in the mesmeric melodies and rhythms. Not only is the music trance-inducing, but their performance was engrossing. Of course, the music itself is engrossing and intriguing (and begging pardon for being redundant -- hypnotic and mesmerizing). It reminds me of taking a train trip and looking out the window only to be lulled into a trance-like reverie induced by the constant but ever- (and gradually) changing scenery. The blur of landscape is hypnotic, mesmerizing (oops, I said it again). I thoroughly enjoyed the piece. I found it to be -- well, I suspect you already know what two adjectives I would use to describe the music; however, I would suggest one change for the work -- and interestingly, it's related to an issue I had with another piece by Reich I listened to months ago ("Different Trains," reviewed the week of 6/7/2021, HERE): I just wasn't keen on the human voices as some of the "instruments," and I would have preferred those parts to have been written for specific woodwind or other instruments. The voices grew on me over the course of the hour-long performance, so I got "over it." LOL. Still, I think I would have preferred additional woodwinds. And still -- I loved the piece. ; )
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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