Customer Reviews

Drumming

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This hour-plus piece of music is based upon a single, measure-long rhythmic fragment which lasts perhaps two seconds, but when played out-of-phase with itself generates an incredible variety of "emergent" patterns. Scored for various percussion (bongos, maribas, glockenspiel), voice, and whistle, listeners get to hear how these instruments create new emergent melodies on the fragment through the percussions' differing harmonic profiles. This is a great example of process music, and may put you in a trance. It rewards both close and relaxed listening (when one's attention is diverted then re-trained, missing one's "place" in the relentless, driving pulse, it sounds like a differently-arranged piece!)

Since the old, 2CD DG recording of this piece is not available, this is the only choice. "Drumming" is a very fine work by Reich, more rigorous and less immediately lovely than "Music for 18 Musicians," but rewarding nonetheless. It's an important transition piece between his early work and "18." The first section is literally all drumming, and builds through an arch structure using Reich's technique of rhytmic patterns moving in and out of phase. The following sections add tuned percusion, e.g. marimbas, and move towards his newer style of more harmonic richness, with chords gradually building, shifting, conflicting and moving to new tonal centers. Obviously, if Reich's style of Minimalism doesn't appeal, you won't like this CD. But if you enjoy his other work, this will be a great addition to your collection.

Preface - Probably not for first time Reich buyers (along with Four Organs). Newcomers should get Music for 18 Musicians or Different Trains....

I have to admit I heard the old DG version first on LP many years ago, and have looked for that version on CD ever since. When this version came out, I bought it immediately. In comparison to the DG version, it doesn't hold up.

This version is at least 20 minutes shorter (perhaps a feature for some;) ) than the DG version, but the gradual changes in this version don't happen nearly gradually enough, especially the sections where different players go in and out of phase with each other. It happens so quickly here that it just sounds like the players flubbed their parts. The slower pace of the DG version makes the subtle changes in the piece that much more rewarding.

I was later able to locate a copy of the DG version on CD, and this one has been gathering dust ever since. But since no other version is available, this is worth a listen.

This is the piece in which Reich first developed the technique of gradually replacing rests with notes & notes with rests. & he does it so well! The rhythms, & melodies, are so complex, & they get into your head. Hypnotic, beautiful, very interesting, from Reich's studies of African music. He studies music so hard. He once got malaria while in Africa studying music. Anyways, this piece is phenomenal.

Reich made the pioneering recording of "Drumming" back in 1974, for DG: not only did he supervise the recording, he also played the marimba in Parts II and IV, and whistled in Part III. One of the drawbacks of that recording was that it lasted circa 85 minutes - Drumming, completed in 1971, was back then and remains the longest piece ever composed by Reich: instead of being played continuously (as it was conceived), each part had to be broken down to one LP side, and even when it was reissued on CD (in 1989) on DG's 20th-Century collection (Reich: Drumming; Six Pianos; Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, later reissued in the 20/21 collection, still on two CDs but with no complement, Drumming), Part IV was rejected on CD II. In the latter case, the damage wasn't so bad, since Part III in fact tapers off to a single repeated note on the glockenspiel, then picked up by other instruments in Part IV, but still, DG's decision to fade out then fade back in wasn't the most clever one: it might have been better to simply cut off on the last glockenspiel note and start with the next one.

So the interest of this 1987 recording on Elektra/Nonesuch, whose duration is 56:40 minutes, is to enable you to hear the piece continuous. There is a certain degree of freedom afforded to the performers in playing "Drumming", based on how many repeats are made. Funny that, in the liner notes to this Elektra/Nonesuch release, Reich should comment that "Drumming lasts from 55 to 75 minutes". Hey man, haven't you counted how long your own 1974 recording lasted???? At 75-minutes, it would have fitted on a single CD no problem, and there would have been no need for this remake.

Another nice feature of the re-recording is that it involves many of the original performers. But after all, it was hardly more than a decade later. Stupidly, the booklet's credits list them in alphabetical order, so you don't know who's playing what. In Drumming, Reich (to quote his own presentation in the booklet of the DG release) brought to the "final refinement [his] phrasing technique in which two or three identical instruments playing the same repeating melodic pattern gradually move out of synchronization with each other, but the work also introduce[d] several new techniques: (1) gradual changes of timbre while pitch and rhythm remain constant, (2) the use of the human voice in an instrumental ensemble imitating the exact sound of the instruments, (3) the process of gradually substituting beats for rests (or rests for beats) within a constantly repeating rhythmic cycle". So Drumming is made of four parts, the first scored for four pairs of tuned bongo drums, the second for three marimbas and two soprano voices, the third for three glockenspiels, whistling and piccolo flute, the fourth combining all these instrumental groups. Each part develops the same melodic patterns, and at the beginning of each next section the new instruments enter doubling exactly the pattern of the instruments already playing, and these then taper off. So, here, all you are told is that Reich whistles, Mort Silver plays the piccolo and Pamela Wood Ambush and Jay Clayton (the latter was already part of the 1974 recording) sing. But from the members of the 1974 recording, you can make the educated inference that Russ Hartenberger and Bob Becker play the bongos and that Glen Velez, Bob Becker, Russ Hartenberger and James Preiss play the glockenspiels (they all did so in 1974). Among the nine performers who played the marimbas in 1974, five are still there in 1987: Reich, Hartenberger, Becker, Ben Harms and Glen Velez, and three new names appear whom I'll suppose play the marimbas as well: Gary Kvistad, Gary Schall and Thad Wheeler. Who's the 9th performer and whether there is a 9th performer, maybe we'll never know.

So, it all seems nice and well, but there is also a drawback to doing a "short" version: it doesn't always have time to unfold. Just one telling illustration. The piece starts with one bongo playing a single pitch in a regular beat, soon joined by a second playing the same pitch, and then followed by a second pitch. In 1974 second bongo entered after 13 seconds and second pitch at 0:23. In 1987 the second bongo enters, if my ears don't betrray me (it is almost indetectable) at 0:05, and the second pitch at 0:08. No wonder then that the new recording should be about as short as, according to Reich himself, the piece can be. Just compare section by section (the side breaks aren't exactly the same; add 30 seconds to tracks 1 & 2 of the 1987 recording (and substract as much from track 3) to make things comparable).

Part (1974) 24:35 (1987) 17:31
Part II (1974) 25:19 (1987) 18:11
Part III (1974) 15:40 (1987) 11:11
Part IV (1974) 18:57 (1987) 9:50

This may be not so much a drawback as an advantage for some people, likely to find the 85 minutes of repetition of the 1974 recording a little too much to swallow. I do find the 24+ minutes of Part I somewhat too long and repetitive, because it involves the relatively bland colors of the skin-struck bongos. But I am not sure that the shorter version will sound less bland and boring to those inclined to find it bland and boring, because what is lost even in that movement is the slow building of the patterns, the ritualistic aspect of the music (Reich acknowledge the influence on the composition of his voyage to Africa in 1970). What's left, in the two outer parts, is only the energetic and tension-filled sense of rhythm, and, in Part IV, of an inexorable crescendo and rise in tension. Part IV is more hypnotic in 1974. Despite the significant timing discrepancy I didn't find that the difference was as perceptible in Parts II and III. What is immediately perceptible though is that it is more dynamically and propulsively played in 1987, which accounts at least for some of the timing difference. No judgment here: the sweeter and more dreamy approach of 1974 also as its value. I like both in fact. Still, Part III, with its tinkling bells, is so exquisitely fairy-tale like, I am happy with the 4 additional minutes I get in 1974.

Is there at least a significant sonic improvement that would make the 1987 preferable, if only on that ground? Not really. If anything, there is slightly more vividness in the earlier recording of the bongos. The 1987 sonic perspective is slightly more distant and airy. Strangely, it is the opposite in the other tracks, but there differences are marginal.

Still, despite my few reservations and the negative comments on the 1987 recording posted by a number of reviewers of the 1974 recording, I think the Elektra/Nonesuch version remains a valid option for those who'd want Drumming on a single disc - especially at the price now asked for it. But confonted with a choice between 55 minutes and 85 minutes, Reich should have chosen 75, really.

I am doing undergraduate studies in music composition, and bought this mp3 because it's an important part of 20th Century repertoire. I am quite happy with the recording quality, the clarity and balance of the instruments. Particularly artful is the engineer's use of the stereo field. It called attention to details within the music which I might otherwise have missed. As this is the first recording I've heard of the piece I cannot compare it to others, but I think the performers have given a fairly precise and artful rendition, given the time frame they had to work with.

Minimalism is not for everyone. For those people who have found this piece tedious, I would suggest listening while doing some repetitive activity. I got through it for the first time while knitting, but the piece really shines if you listen while running. The rhythm is perfect for pacing oneself and lends a primordial, meditative quality to the experience.

My first exposure to Steve Reich was the perfection of his "18 Musicians." I've since tried five or six of his other titles, but I rarely if ever play them.

This one in particular has been gathering dust almost since I brought it home. Perhaps I "just don't get it," but it seems just plainly repetitous, with no real evolution taking place.

I found this to be a very boring, almost make you crazy CD. I wish I would have paid more attention and got something different.