From Janet.Treadaway Sent Thu, Apr 8th 1999, 17:49
From Janet.Treadaway Sent Thu, Apr 8th 1999, 17:49
I forwarded the article from The Independent to a friend of mine (not a
member of this list) who's a big Reich fan. He had some comments that I
thought some people might find interesting. Remember I'm just the
messenger...
<<The idea that any sound could be used to make music was not new. Pierre
Schaeffer did it in Paris in 1948 and called it "musique concrete".>>
Edgar Varese did it with "Ionization," which used two sirens, some
gongs and only two pitched instruments out of a dozen, in 1936.
<<The "classical" composers are labelled by the pop world as academic,
stuffy and pretentious>>
That's a load of crap. Frank Zappa loved Varese; Brian Eno, David
Bowie and Robert Fripp loved Reich and Philip Glass years ago. Eno credits
Satie for inspiring ambient music. The Beatles surely listened to Bach and
Mozart; their producer George Martin certainly did. Dave Edmunds had a hit
with a
version of Khatchaturian's "Sabre Dance." Jeff Beck had a song called
"Beck's Bolero" in the Sixties. There have been many rock operas written
-- surely their composers must have admired some classical music. The list
goes on and on. We won't even get into Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer
(because
we shouldn't).
<<while the "pop" composers are taken seriously by media and cultural
studies departments but not at all by the music departments.>>
A broad generalization with no backup. "Not at all"? What, did this
guy survey every music department in the world?
<<Now, more than 30 years after "Revolution 9", there are indications that
the two cultures might be negotiating a merger.>>
This conveniently omits Frank Zappa's many neo-classical albums as well
as side two of David Bowie's album _Low_, which was a direct homage to
Reich and Glass. And see the above list of pop/classical crossovers. Also,
one album does not constitute broad "indications" of a merger.
<<Reich is definitely from the world of "classical" contemporary music; he
was trained to write string quartets and symphonies>>
No, not "definitely" -- he also received extensive training in Indian,
African and Indonesian music which influenced his compositions profoundly.
<<He was influenced by the pop music of his time - which for him was the
jazz of John Coltrane>>
John Coltrane did not make pop music.
<<and now pop music is influenced by minimalism.>>
"Now"? What about the Velvet Underground, Neu and the Modern Lovers,
just to name a few?
<<this particular merger of pop and classical seems uneasy; it's not really
his music, it doesn't really sound like his, but his name appears on the
album sleeve.>>
This guy has clearly never heard a remix album before.
<<Reich's early pieces sounded like nothing ever heard before: they were
extreme, even dangerous>>
Dangerous? Please. Nitroglycerin is dangerous. Escaped convicts are
dangerous. Steve Reich's music would only be dangerous if it were drowning
out a fire alarm.
<<on the rare occasions that his music was played on the radio, the
switchboards were jammed with complaints.>>
The switchboards were actually jammed? _Every_ time it was played?
When? Where? Typical Brit hyperbole with no regard for factuality.
<<Reich's work doesn't need techno processing because his music has it
already.>>
I'm not sure what the author means by "techno processing," but whatever
it is, Reich's music does not have it.