Steve Reich: The Desert Music - Michael Tilson Thomas

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Michael Tilson Thomas's advocacy of American mavericks has long been a significant facet of his career. This disc offers an outstanding example of his championship of Steve Reich, whose stature among composers of his generation only continues to increase. There's a famous story of a 1973 Carnegie Hall concert with MTT participating as one of the performers of Four Organs, during which a near riot ensued, reminding some of the heated reception that attended the legendary Rite of Spring premiere in Paris. The Desert Music--given its premiere in 1984 under MTT--marks a departure for Reich from his writing for smaller groups and calls instead for a vast orchestral ensemble and chorus. This visionary cantata reflects the composer's belief that "the particular is the nub of the universal," setting lapidary but prophetic texts by William Carlos Williams, whom Reich considers the most resonant of modern American poets. MTT clearly understands how this music conveys its effect of moving not just through time but through space; he allows the score's harmonic density to coalesce into shimmering, mirage-like chords without losing sight of its complex overlay of asymmetry against regular, driving pulses. The chorus, too, is beautifully blended--sometimes imitating the iterations of percussion instruments--as Reich's musical textures oscillate between despair and hope, fire and light. "The mind is listening," says Williams, and MTT conveys its impressions with maximum clarity. -Thomas May

Steve Reich: The Desert Music - Michael Tilson Thomas, Music, Steve Reich, Michael Tilson Thomas, Chorus & Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Choral, Classical, Classical Composers, Jazz Music, Minimalism, Modern Composition, Secular Choral Music with Orchestra

Average customer rating:

You could do better

huge sounds, huge lines

Great composer, not in the best light

The Desert Music is worthwhile

list CD

Steve Reich: The Desert Music - Michael Tilson Thomas
Steve Reich , Michael Tilson Thomas , and Chorus & Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Reich, Steve | ( R ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Choruses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Minimal Techno | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Reich: Different Trains, Electric Counterpoint / Kronos Quartet, Pat Metheny

Steve Reich: The Four Sections / Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices & Organ

Tehillim

Tehillim

Reich: Triple Quartet, Music for a Large Ensemble, Electric Guitar Phase

ASIN: B000005IXI
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

The Desert Music: First Movement (Fast)
The Desert Music: Second Movement (Moderate)
The Desert Music: Third Movement Part One (Slow)
The Desert Music: Third Movement Part Two (Moderate)
The Desert Music: Third Movement Part Three (Slow)
The Desert Music: Fourth Movement (Moderate)
The Desert Music: Fifth Movement (Fast)

Amazon.com essential recording

Michael Tilson Thomas's advocacy of American mavericks has long been a significant facet of his career. This disc offers an outstanding example of his championship of Steve Reich, whose stature among composers of his generation only continues to increase. There's a famous story of a 1973 Carnegie Hall concert with MTT participating as one of the performers of Four Organs, during which a near riot ensued, reminding some of the heated reception that attended the legendary Rite of Spring premiere in Paris. The Desert Music--given its premiere in 1984 under MTT--marks a departure for Reich from his writing for smaller groups and calls instead for a vast orchestral ensemble and chorus. This visionary cantata reflects the composer's belief that "the particular is the nub of the universal," setting lapidary but prophetic texts by William Carlos Williams, whom Reich considers the most resonant of modern American poets. MTT clearly understands how this music conveys its effect of moving not just through time but through space; he allows the score's harmonic density to coalesce into shimmering, mirage-like chords without losing sight of its complex overlay of asymmetry against regular, driving pulses. The chorus, too, is beautifully blended--sometimes imitating the iterations of percussion instruments--as Reich's musical textures oscillate between despair and hope, fire and light. "The mind is listening," says Williams, and MTT conveys its impressions with maximum clarity. -Thomas May

Customer Reviews:

You could do better.......2006-06-18

This piece holds the distinction of being the only Reich composition I've seen performed live, at UCLA in the spring of 1985; and this recording was the first I ever purchased on CD. Over time, though, I've come to realize that this is one of my least favorite Reich pieces. In fact, if I liked it any less, it would be among the ones I never listen to.

Only the first movement is really worth hearing. It is spirited and has some catchy driving rhythms. The piece never fully regains this energy, though it picks up some in the last movement. It is really brought down by the interminably slow third movement, which reaches its nadir in some horrendously drunken-sounding siren effects. Overall, the work is characterized by chords that to me are ugly and have none of the tremendous emotional impact that I get from my favorite Reich pieces.

Almost everyone recommends starting with "Music for 18 Musicians," but if you already have that, I would recommend any work from the period 1978-86 that isn't this one.

huge sounds, huge lines.......2003-08-06

The orchestral recording of The Desert Music gives you Reich's society colored in these wonderful huge dense sounds, which to most of his listeners is almost alien to their experience with his music, although most fulfilling in so many changing ways. The density of the music is an interleving bundle of soundfibers, a civilization that lives and breathes.

If you like this piece you should also check out "Olson III" by Terry Riley - the city of this piece is a wild ride into the very fabric that we live in everyday. Democracy, or so they say.

Great composer, not in the best light.......2002-08-09

Steve Reich came to fame writing chamber music for his own ensemble, and with reason -- this is where he does his best work. For those new to his music, I can't lavish enough praise on his unique, brilliant works for smaller ensembles: Music for 18 Musicians; Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ; Tehillim. And there are good recordings of all of these.

The Desert Music is Reich's first effort to really compose for symphony orchestra, and he seems to be trying to step into other composers' shoes, to write a great symphonic work in the tradition of so many choral-orchestral masterpieces. But really, this isn't where Reich's gifts are. His athletic counterpoint comes out sounding bloated, awkward, heavy, and -- to my taste -- a little slow. Nowhere on this recording does one hear the lightness of touch that this music requires. Reich's own ensemble approaches even his most rhythmically complex scores with grace, ease, and a sort of pop-music stylishness. Probably, it's not possible to do that with the mammoth 108 player Desert Music orchestra.

There might well be a good piece in The Desert Music -- certainly there's some gorgeous writing. But I don't think it'd being heard here. Michael Tilson Thomas and the Brooklyn Phil do excellent work, but I suggest waiting for the anticipated release of Reich's chamber version of The Desert Music, which is supposed to be coming out soon. I've heard this version performed live, and it's much more successful than the original orchestration. And if you're anxious to get a piece of Reich in your home, he's got a whole lot of great chamber music out there on record already.

The Desert Music is worthwhile.......2000-08-20

The Desert Music is beautiful music, tho not especially "minimal" (is any of it?) & less entrancing than Reich's earlier chamber works. The texts from William Carlos Williams are thoughtfully chosen & reflective of Reich's strong social concerns. The problem is that I happen to believe composers should be guided by a poet's voice. There isn't much guesswork with Williams' intended delivery because he recorded many of his poems. Williams was a very economical poet, so to chop up, reassemble & repeat lines of his poems is hardly collaborating with them ... or him.

A fine example of a contemporary composer really hearing a poet can be found in Steve Swallow's settings of poems by Robert Creeley on the album "Home."

The Desert Music is worthwhile, but probably not the port of entry for Steve Reich's music. For that I could recommend Music for 18 Musicians; Music for Mallet Instruments, Voice & Organ; or Different Trains.

Bob Rixon

list CD.......1999-06-16

To enjoy this CD you must embrace the Zen-like subtle changes of Reich's music. Who says true minimalism can't be written for a large orchestra? My greatest memory of this was watching Metropolis with this as the soundtrack. Oh yes, and Sid was there.

Average customer rating:

Boring and unimaginative
Children of Reich Create Loving Homage
Decent, but disappointing overall.
Great music for an electronic fan
Proxy for a Reich's Greatest Hits CD?

Reich Remixed

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Big Beat | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Trip-Hop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Compilations | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

House | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

IDM | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Acid Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | R&B | Styles | Music

General | Rap & Hip-Hop | Styles | Music

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Proverb/Nagoya Marimbas/City Life
Glasscuts, Philip Glass Remixed
Remixed 2006
Reich: Different Trains, Electric Counterpoint / Kronos Quartet, Pat Metheny
Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

ASIN: B00000I5LV
Release Date: 1999-03-02

Tracks:

Music For 18 Musicians (Coldcut Remix) - Steve Reich
Eight Lines (Howie B Remix) - Bang On A Can/Bradley Lubman
The Four Sections (Andrea Parker Remix) - London Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas
Megamix (Tranquility Bass Remix) - Steve Reich/London Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas/Theatre Of Voices...
Drumming (Mantronik Maximum Drum Formula) - Steve Reich
Proverb (Nobukazu Takemura Remix) - Theatre Of Voices
Piano Phase (D*Note's Phased & Konfused Mix) - Double Edge
City Life (DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid Open Circuit) - The Steve Reich Ensemble/Bradley Lubman
Come Out (Ken Ishii Remix) - Steve Reich
Bonus Track 1 - Various Artists

Amazon.com

The beauty of Steve Reich's minimalist compositions can be found not in their repetition but in their evolution. Listening to the Kronos Quartet perform Different Trains, the listener quickly gets over the camp value of the conductor samples to discover an unfolding theme that harks back not only to bustling industrialism but also to the horror of the Nazi concentration-camp trains. Reich is a master of such subtle changes in sonics, and his impeccable timing turns simple phrases into musical tapestries. On Reich Remixed, some of dance music's more innovative artists pay homage to the composer in the way they know best: by sampling his works and remixing them into their own. Coldcut's take on Music for 18 Musicians adds a fast-paced techno flair to the classic composition, Howie B's Eight Lines respectfully keeps the integrity of the original piece, and Tranquility Bass peppers "Megamix" with voices and (eventually) beats. There are some misses here, and, most unfortunate, DJ Spooky's schizophrenic treatment of City Life lobotomizes a previously fine composition. No, you still can't dance to Reich, but you can see how others use him for source material. But after hearing these condensed and diced versions, you might find it's worth delving back into Reich's originals to hear what the fuss is all about. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews:

Boring and unimaginative.......2005-07-13

My opinion is that this compilation doesn't glorify Reich or electronica. I used to think that most techno enthusiasts and maybe even techno composers had probably never heard of him. While I've come to learn that this isn't true, I think this CD would be a good argument in favor of it. I certainly didn't expect Reich Remixed to compare with the originals. And there is certainly nothing wrong with a tribute. But everything here is against Reich's style, both too fast and too simple.

The Coldcut remix of Steve Reich's 18, unfortunately the best track on the disk, is laughable in comparison and a warning against the tracks that follow. After reading the reviews for the original Music for 18 Musicians, there are several people who can say nothing except that it is slow and boring. I think you might as well include Coldplay in that number. It is as if he recorded himself skipping forward through the first 5 or so minutes of the original and smiled at his creation.

He isn't the only one who obviously missed the point. Most of the remixes use some of the cheapest sounding instruments and methods I've heard; these aren't just bad tributes to Reich, they are bad tributes to techno! And don't expect to hear phasing, which was introduced for the first time in Come Out and Drumming, in their remixes. That would require at least some trivial knowledge of Reich's contribution to minimalism, which these artists obviously do not have. And anyway, Reich used much more than rhythmic, vocal/musical repetition and staccato notes, let's get that straight.

I wasted my money on this one. If you haven't been introduced to Reich, I envy you! Try Music for 18 Musicians and Different Trains, many agree that those are among Reich's most powerful pieces.

Children of Reich Create Loving Homage.......2005-04-16

The entrancing hobby of looping gave birth to essencially all forms of techno in existence today, and all followers should be thankful Steve Reich's cassette tapes messed up one day to create a looping effect. He soon became obsessed with overlapping sounds and varying tempos, a basic foundation for modern day electronic music. Such is the reason why a wide variety of artists came together to create a tribute album to this obscure classical composer, and the end result is a diamond in the rough.

If "Reich Remixed" has any style permeating through the whole album, it is the esoteric sounds of trance. Each track brings in a sentimental mourning, but also sings out hosannas of joy, hailing the appreciation of the father of techno. Tranquility Bass's "Megamix", succeeding fully in painting a mural of Reich's repertoire, Coldcut's loving recreation of "Music for 18 Musicians", and Howie B's "Eight Lines" tribute will draw you in with their joyful melodies. Yet darkness lies ahead as well. Andrea Parker brings in a creepy Trip-Hop version of "The Four Sections", perfect for committing a bank robbery if you get off on that. The bonus track from freQ Nasty & B.L.I.M. has the rough sound of Drum n' Bass without corrupting the original message, although it sounds a bit out of place on this album. The masterpiece is Nobukazu Takemura's "Proverb", which stacks the voices in one loop, which will make one double check the CD for scratches. It not only holds true to what Reich was attempting, but re-interprets.

To those who were already die-hard Reich fans, a word of caution. This CD will sound repititive, perhaps even like cheap rip-offs of the original tracks, as they cannot possibly recreate the massive pieces Reich composed in six or seven minutes of CD time. As well, there are slip-ups. "City Life" is butchered to pieces and essentially impossible to enjoy, and "Come Out" only highlights the limitations of techno's possibilities to create as compared to pen, paper, and a symphony orchestra.

The album explores techno's creative possibilities to new levels, and is an aural treat. Consider it Reich's first DJing experience, changing the world of music in the same way his originals shook the ear drums.

Highs: Techno symphony, with the same variety as an orchestra, skillfully mixed, loving and appropriate recreations of Reich's original masterpieces.
Lows: Reich's originals are better, sometimes butchered here, same repitive downfall of techno at times.
The Score: A-, Reich not Lost in Techno Translation.

Decent, but disappointing overall........2002-01-05

There are a few really good tracks on this CD. My personal favorites are Music for 18 Musicians, Four Sections, the Megamix, and Piano Phase. The Desert Music remix (the bonus track) is okay, not great, but okay. And then there's the bottom end of the spectrum, which is everything else. Unfortunately, what I like is overpowered by what I dislike.

Great music for an electronic fan.......2001-10-04

I enjoyed every one of these pieces on their own. I am familiar with most of the electronic artists and each one of these songs is beautiful. I had never heard Steve Reich's music before this. I enjoyed his music but, I didn't think that the remixes were completely true to his form. Reich's music has some good ideas that the remixer's somewhat expanded upon. I think the idea was to take some of Reich's ideas and put it in to a more modern style. If they wanted someone to rehash his ideas, then it would have been boring. I enjoy these artists, but there are artists out there that are using some of his ideas already, namely Plastikman and Tortoise. Overall the songs are great in any sense.

Proxy for a Reich's Greatest Hits CD?.......2001-06-16

Of all modern classical composers, Steve Reich is the one whose music is most likely to attract the rock-oriented ear. 'Music for 18 Musicians' was a ground-breaking album which closed out the 1970s, and it took much of the audience that had been nurtured on Tangerine Dream's 'Ricochet' and, before that, Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells'. It was only to be expected that other artists would start sampling Reich's works.

I can't get enough of 'Music for 18 Musicians' -- I bought it on LP in 1979, and two versions on CD. It is my No. 1 self-hypnosis album. So I was intrigued to discover how it would be re-worked for this album. I was disappointed, frankly. The Coldcut Remix provides no evidence that the DJ has listened beyond the first five minutes of the original.

But there's no heresy in modifying Reich's music. I welcome every effort to do so. I knew about half of the pieces selected here, so, for me, it's partly a Reich sampler. The great thing about the album is that not only did it get me buying more of Reich's output, but it also got me listening more to the originals.

For me, the stand-out track here is 'Piano Phase', which applies prog-rock values to a piece I didn't know at all well. It could so easily be Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson playing the synth lines over the piano loop!

The opening track has grown on me over the years. At first listen, the Megamix seemed to have too many different samples crowded in; it seemed too ambitious in searching for common musical themes between no fewer than nine of Reich's albums. But now it flows nicely.

The closing track, supposedly based on the Desert Music, is a straightforward techno track, almost Prodigy-like, whose relationship to Reich's music seems entirely tangential.

I believe every Reich fan should hear this album, even though a few will find perhaps nothing to like. And I'd recommend anyone who buys this album without knowing Reich to listen also to 'Different Trains', 'Electric Counterpoint', and of course, 'Music for 18 Musicians'.

Tracks:

Come Out
Piano Phase
It's Gonna Rain, Part I
It's Gonna Rain, Part II
Four Organs

Tracks:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Tracks:

Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ
Clapping Music
Six Marimbas

Tracks:

Music For 18 Musicians: Pulses
Music For 18 Musicians: Section I
Music For 18 Musicians: Section II
Music For 18 Musicians: Section IIIA
Music For 18 Musicians: Section IIIB
Music For 18 Musicians: Section IV
Music For 18 Musicians: Section V
Music For 18 Musicians: Sectionn VI
Music For 18 Musicians: Section VII
Music For 18 Musicians: Section VIII
Music For 18 Musicians: Section IX
Music For 18 Musicians: Section X
Music For 18 Musicians: Section XI
Music For 18 Musicians: Pulses

Tracks:

Eight Lines
Tehillim: Part 1: Fast
Tehillim: Part 2: Fast
Tehillim: Part 3: Slow
Tehillim: Part 4: Fast

Tracks:

The Desert Music: First Movement
The Desert Music: Second Movement
The Desert Music: Third Movement, Part One
The Desert Music: Third Movement, Part Two
The Desert Music: Third Movement, Part Three
The Desert Music: Fourth Movement
The Desert Music: Fifth Movement

Tracks:

Works: New York Counterpoinnt: Fast
Works: New York Counterpoint: Slow
Works: New York Counterpoint: Fast
Works: Sextet: 1st Movement
Works: Sextet: 2nd Movement
Works: Sextet: 3rd Movement
Works: Sextet: 4th Movement
Works: Sextet: 5th Movement
Works: I. Strings
Works: II. Percussion
Works: III. Winds And Brass
Works: IV. Full Orchestra

Tracks:

Works: Different Trains - America - Before The War
Works: Different Trains - Europe - During The War
Works: Different Trains - After The War
Works: Electric Counterpoint - Fast
Works: Electric Counterpoint - Slow
Works: Electric Counterpoint - Fast
Works: Movement I
Works: Movement II
Works: Movement III

Tracks:

The Cave: Typing Music
The Cave: Who Is Abraham?
The Cave: Who Is Ishmael?
The Cave: Genesis XVIII
The Cave: Genesis XXI
The Cave: The Casting Out Of Ishmael And Hager
The Cave: Machpelah
The Cave: Genesis XXV
The Cave: Interior Of The Cave
The Cave: Surah 3
The Cave: El Khalil Commentary
The Cave: Who Is Abraham?W
The Cave: Who Is Sarah?
The Cave: Who Is Hagar?
The Cave: Who Is Ishmael?
The Cave: The Binding Of Isaac
The Cave: The Cave Of Machpelah

Tracks:

Proverb
Nagoya Marimbas
City Life: 'Check It Out'
City Life: Pile Driver - alarms
City Life: 'It's Been A Honeymoon - Can't Take No Mo'
City Life: Heartbeats - Boats & Buoys
City Life: 'Heavy Smoke'

Amazon.com essential recording

In the afterglow of his 60th birthday in 1997, Nonesuch Records delivered Steve Reich and his listeners an immense gift, this 10-CD retrospective of his work for the label, extending from his earliest tape-manipulation pieces to his most recent compositions utilizing samplers and the video artistry of Beryl Korot. Aside from the ear's liquid sense-making when it hears the dense and limber marimbas of Reich's Six Marimbas or his taut, dizzying Piano Phase, there is a physical response almost inevitable in Reich's music. It stuns and holds you. And he knows it. It's Gonna Rain struck an early chord of inventiveness, featuring an African American Pentecostal preacher's sermon and eventually spinning the title phrase into a jangling repetition of single words. Percussion works abound here: Clapping and Drumming stun with their deceptive similarity and warm clarity. Perennial favorite Piano Phase features pianists Nurit Tilles and Eduard Neumann synched up on two pianos and careening at full tilt in unison before their four hands fall out of time and phrase with each other, only to realign in a powerful swooping demonstration of energy and focus. The latter CDs hold abundant delights, many revealing Reich's late-discovered spiritualism and Judaica: Different Trains' examination of the Holocaust; Tehillim's shimmering Hebrew texts sung with fascinating choral power; Proverb's invocation of Perotin. Closing the set are recent pieces: Nagoya Marimbas, and the sampler-rich City Life and The Cave. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Classic, but not the definitive..........2004-05-20

While a multi CD collection spanning 30 years does sound very promsing, Nonesuch cannot offer all of the best recordings of some of Reich's masterpieces (Music for 18 Musicians or Drumming), and some have been missed out completely (Music for a Large Ensemble), presumably because the piece was not recorded under the Nonesuch label. While the collection is formidable, a listener wanting to hear the best recordings of all the pieces might do better seeking out the older (or longer!) recordings of the pieces.

Essential.......1999-02-24

The term "essential" gets thrown about too much. And heck, the claim that certain words get thrown about too much gets thrown about too much. But here is a collection that really *is* essential to understanding the nature of a whole shift not just in classical music, but in popular music and indeed in popular culture. So many of Reich's ideas and concepts have become so deeply embedded in current classical music, film scoring (any number of examples, but think about Tangerine Dream's score for "Risky Business" and Hans Zimmer's score for "Thin Red Line," for starters), electronic music and even the visual arts.

This box set gives the listener all of Reich's major works. I can't even attempt to describe them individually, but every one of these 10 CDs is compelling. For the totally uninitiated, take out "Music for 18 Musicians" (presented here in a crystalline new recording) to get an idea of what the core of this guy is all about. From there, you might want to listen to "Different Trains," "Electric Counterpoint" and "Six Marimbas" to get an idea of the pointillistic pulse minimalism that Reich contributed to the world. The earlier material is the more challenging, exploring the subtleties of rythym, phase relationships between sounds and shifting timings. Among these, the new recording of "Four Organs" is just outstanding.

Reich's works, along with the early works of Terry Riley and Philip Glass, form the foundation of an enormous edifice that has grown of music that attempts to return to its essential and hypnotic roots. With this box set, one of those pylons becomes clear.

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Music Review

Are You Gonna Be My Girl? [CD-single] [Import]

Schubert: String Quintet / Overture D 8 C Minor

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier / Karajan, Della Casa, Jurinac, Gueden, et al. [Box set]

Man Comes Around [Import]

Sounds Like Inertia

Solitudes Sampler

Old Gold Anthems: Songs of the Wolves

The Art of Rolling [Enhanced]

Sharing the Night Together

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3

Speak Like a Child [Original recording remastered] [Import]

Not in Love [CD-single] [Import]

Merenhits Remix

Music for My Little Friends

Jazz Music jazz-music-28