Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

1	Music for 18 Musicians, for 4 female voices & 16 instruments / Bob Becker 56:31
2	Pulses 5:26
3	Section I 3:58
4	Section II 5:13
5	Section IIIA 3:55
6	Section IIIB 3:46
7	Section IV 6:37
8	Section V 6:49
9	Section VI 4:54
10	Section VII 4:19
11	Section VIII 3:35
12	Section IX 5:24
13	Section X 1:51
14	Section XI 5:44
15	Pulses 6:11

Barnes & Noble

Where do electronica artists go to seek validation when philistine rock fans complain of techno's "incessant repetition"? Lately they've been turning to San Francisco-based composer Steve Reich and his notion that seemingly "minimal" modern classical music can sound shapely, gorgeous, propulsive, and, yes, funky. With Music for 18 Musicians, composed in 1978, Reich culminated his two-decade rebellion against staid avant-garde composition. Three high-register female voices, clarinet, violin, cello, maracas, piano, and xylophone blend into each other for 70 minutes of pulsing note-modulations that are paced to correspond with the breathing patterns of the musicians themselves. The album starts spare and grows organically, repeating the same lovely theme until the composition reaches a massive, stop-action climax. Today, Reich's influence can be heard in the work of grooveriders like the Orb and Spring Heel Jack and modern classical revisionists from Stereolab to Tortoise. This version (recorded in 1996 and available separately or as part of Nonesuch's ten-CD box Works: 1965-1995) slows down the original piece, opening up the music's pores to give new and old fans a fresh perspective on one of the most compelling records of the century. Jon Dolan

Barnes & Noble

Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians (1978) expanded the boundaries of minimalism, proving that a style based on repetition and slow change could be used to construct a large-scale masterpiece. Philip Glass had already mastered the art of hypnotic pulsation, but the dynamic processes and the surging ebb and flow of Reich's seminal score are a world apart. Each of the 11 sections sets different groups of overlapping melodies and rhythms in motion, creating rich, stimulating, and ever-changing textures. Made in 1996, this is the second recorded performance of Music for 18 Musicians led by the composer with his own ensemble. It takes an expansive view of the score, luxuriating in its sensuous bliss to an even greater extent than the premiere version, and makes the most forceful case imaginable for Reich's enduring importance and unique genius. Scott Paulin