Drumming

Steve Reich (Composer), Jay Clayton (Performer), Joan La Barbara (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Jay Clayton, Joan La Barbara
• Composer: Steve Reich
• Audio CD (November 11, 2003)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B0000D7Z63
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,228 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #28 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Percussion

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Original "Drumming" Is Back!!, December 9, 2003

By 

Louie Bourland (Garden Grove CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drumming (Audio CD)

"Drumming" is composer Steve Reich's most adventurous and challenging composition. Composed between 1970 and 1971, "Drumming" takes the genre of percussion-based music to a new level. Its use of syncopated and phase-shifting rhythms remains innovative (and some would say pioneering) even today.
The original recording of "Drumming" was made in Germany in 1974 and was released on the Deutsch Grammaphone Label. This version had been unavailable for many years and had become a sought-after collectors item. However, all things must come to pass because now, the much sought-after original recording of "Drumming" has been issued on CD for the very first time at its original length of 84-minutes (the later 1987 recording on Nonesuch Records featured a trimmed-down version running at 56-minutes).
"Drumming" is divided into four distinct parts or movements. The first part is performed entirely on three sets of tuned bongos played with drumsticks. It begins with a single drumbeat which builds up to a syncopated rhythm which carries the entire piece the rest of the way. Throughout it's 25-minutes, this opening section explores nearly every possibility of what can be done with a single simple repeated rhythm. The method of 'phase-shifting' (having one player go out of synch with the other) adds further complexity.
The first part leads directly into the second part as the bongos fade out and the marimbas take over. The marimbas carry on with the piece's simple rhythm which is augmented by two female singers mimicking the pitches with vocal scats. As this part of the piece progresses, the marimbas gradually move from their lowest register to their highest. Like the first part, the hypnotic rhythms are made deceptively complex by the use of phase-shifting.
When the marimbas have reached their highest register, the glockenspiels take over. This begins the third part of the piece. This part is reverse of the second one. The glockenspeils begin at their highest register and gradually make their way to the lowest. Instead of having vocalists mimick the pitches this time, a piccolo and Reich's own whistling punctuate the rhythms.
After this has run its course, beats begin to be taken away until there is a single beat left repeating itself.
This leads into the fourth and final part which is a mix of all the instruments heard in the previous three parts played all together (drums, marimbas, glockenspiels, voices, piccolo and whistles). As the glockenspeils repeat the single beats which ended part three, the marimbas join in on the same beat followed by the bongo drums. The music then builds up into its standard rhythm which in turn builds up to a dynamic and intense rhythmic climax. This brings "Drumming" to its final and exciting finish.
This original recording of Steve Reich's "Drumming" is a revelation compared to its Nonesuch Records counterpart. For all intents and purposes, this original recording is the definitive version. Although the music is uncomplicated and highly repetitive, it is not at all boring. Reich's use of rhythm and percussion on "Drumming" is still some his very best and influential. After many years of being out-of-print, it's great to have the original "Drumming" back on the shelves.
A Definite Must. Highly Recommended!!

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More alive than the Nonesuch recording!, December 3, 2003

By 

Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drumming (Audio CD)

Steve Reich's "Drumming" is an amazing piece of work showing how much you can do with one - yes one - continuous musical phrase. Sometimes I even feel guilty when thinking, "Goodness, I wish Reich would do just one more phasing piece". I love the old Reich and am not afraid to admit it. This album, then, is a dream come true.

Whiile I am a young fan (26) from what I can ascertain this was the original 1973 recording. Maybe it is becuase the piece was so new then but this recording has much more life in it than the Nonesuch. Particularly the first and second movement are noticeable in that the first is more bombastic towards its apex while the second while in some senses calmer than the Nonesuch recording, has this hidden forward motion-energy that is more powerful than the Nonesuch track.

All in all, this piece is a joy and I jump at the chance to hear any recording of it. The only complaints are slight. AS it is a '73 recording, some of the overtones in the second and third movements occasionally sound out of tune (the low marimba and a few of the glockenspiel tones for example) - not because they WERE out, but because (my guess) they recorded that way. Second, of course, is the fact taht one cannot listen straight through, as this is a two-disc set. Small potatoes in relation to such a good recording!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A philosophical work, February 18, 2006

By 

Philip R. Olenick "Civil Rights and Appellate... (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drumming (Audio CD)

I first heard "Drumming" on my car radio (of all places, of course it was probably WBAI-FM in New York) when it first came out in the early seventies. I pulled over to the side of the road to listen, so hypnotic was its rhythm. I have the original three-LP Deutch Grammophone version (the third disk contains two other pieces), which I put on tonight for the first time in many years, and came here to Amazon in hopes of finding a DVD-based version that would play straight through without interruption. (I guess that's still in the future.)

What "Drumming" has always conjured up for me are images from fractal geometry, chaos theory, and evolution - it asserts, wordlessly, that the human being is the product of inevitable processes of differentiation and elaboration, as subtle phase shifts produce beat frequencies and harmonics, starting with a simple syncopated drumbeat, and calling forth the existence of marimbas, flutes, glockenspeils, and eventually the human voice, in order to reach its final expression.

I'm not usually a fan of classical music - jazz is my thing, since it expresses human individuality and group cooperation with a blues-based scale that's a *harmonic* syncopation - but "Drumming" transcends musical categories. As Duke Ellington always said, there are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music.