Customer Reviews

Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I own all three recordings of Music For 18 Musicians; I suggest that for anyone who is truly interested in the work, owning all three is a must.

In order of preference for me, the recordings go ECM, RCA, and Nonesuch.

No recording of 18 quite captures the piece as it sounds live. (I've had the luck to see it twice with Steve Reich & Musicians at the San Francisco Symphony.) However, the ECM version comes close to duplicating the timbre of the real thing. To my ears, it sounds the most "live".

The RCA/Ensemble Modern recording is perhaps the best performed. Ensemble Modern emphasizes Reich's earlier philosophies about music as a process; they clearly delineate the various instruments and lines in the recording, and they properly accentuate the lead mallet lines. (I say "proper" because that's what it sounded like when I saw 18 performed live.) What this recording lacks in lush beauty, it gains in near-academic perfection.

The new Nonesuch recording was designed from the ground up to be a recording, not a live performance. Most instruments are close-mic'd, which gives the odd feeling of standing next to all of the instruments at the same time. I love it for its open spaces, surprising tempo, and stunning imaging of the mallet instruments. It is as lush and beautiful as the ECM recording, but I prefer the subtleties and pacing of the ECM more.

This CD can either send you into a deep trance or a screaming fit, depending on your tolerance for repetative minimalist music. Music for 18 Musicians is Reich's great transition work from the small ensemble pieces of the 70's to his large scale work of the 80's and 90's. It's densely layered repeating patterns gradually shift in and out of phase with each other, creating a kalideoscope of timbres, and endlessly varied crossrhythms. To listen to this piece with an open mind is to enter an entrancing world of color light and imagination. Reich proves why he is the most imitated and inimitable of all of the minimalists.

The performance is definitive. These musicians were all members of Reich's performing groups of the 70's. And ECM engineers have a genius for atmospheric sound that is perfect for this music. This is a delightful CD.

This recording of Reich's most canonical piece is perfect. & the music is absolutely brilliant. It has everything Reich did with compositional structure to that point; rests are gradually replaced with notes over a thick, juicy fabric of repetition. The musicians phase. There's also a new idea for him in this piece: music determined by the length of human breath, as the woodwinds periodically pulse a note, & each player pulses it just until s/he runs out of breathn. The music also is incredibly beautiful, in a way exceptionally modern & also eternally emotional. Get this cd. It's an absolute must for any Reich or minimalist collection.

There are few pieces in my opinion that one can continually return to and still be as moved as when they heard it for the first time, never tiring of hearing the same music; but for me, this was one such piece. Seven years after originally buying it, 'Music for 18 Musicians' still sounds as fresh as on that first day.

Along with Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue', 'St. Matthew Passion', and Nancarrow's 'Studies', Music for 18 Musicians was for me one of those rare landmark musical events that dramatically changed the whole way I thought about music.

18 Musicians suits the characteristic sound of the ECM label perfectly. Of the three recordings now readily available (the other two being the Nonesuch and the RCA Victor) this is by far the best and most balanced. ECM also resisted the temptation to split the piece into separate tracks, resulting in a CD with one single track on it - which is how this piece should be heard. The cover art (which, incidentally is by Reich's wife, the artist Beryl Korot) is ideally suited to the wonderful, shimmering sonic experience that is 18 Musicians. Indeed, everything about this release is just right.

If you buy only one Minimalist CD in your life, then buy Music for 18 Musicians, and if you decide to buy it, make sure it's this recording!

That sure is one mesmerizing hour-long work. I remembered first hearing parts of the work on the PBS Series "Cosmos" (particulaly, "Pulses", Sections I and IIIb). It wouldn't be until recently (about 2002) that I find out that it was "Music for 18 Musicians" by Steve Reich. The ECM recording contains 1 track. I have the Nonesuch CD (which I like as much) which separates the sections into tracks - which I think it could've (or should've) been done on the ECM CD as well. I managed to figure out when a section begins by carefully comparing both CDs. I notice that the ECM mentioned 10 sections (possibly a missprint) while the Nonesuch mentioned 11. Here's listing which I think would be helpful to those who listen to the ECM CD:

Pulses 0:00
I 3:46
II 8:03
IIIA 12:04
IIIB 16:02
IV 20:05
V 25:53
VI 31:24
VII 35:53
VIII 39:29
IX 42:47
X 47:01
XI 48:34
Pulses 52:50

This music, as I heard in one review somewhere, can really be considered trance music. Despite the lack of electronics and turntables, it retains a continuous pulsing beat over a swirling array of pianos, marimbas, clarinets, and voices, all looping melodies that are fascinating to listen to or to zone out to.

Reich in a sense really is one of the starters of trance, from the beginning with his phasing pieces to his massive drumming piece. While it is more than safe to say that this work has more variety than the previous two examples, he has retained a similar idea. The music is beautiful and stunning, however it sounds incredibly hard to perform, from a musicians point of view (I don't know many, if any, who could keep a constant rhythm for 56 minutes on a marimba.)

Technical aspects aside, the music itself is really what makes the piece magnificent. There is a constant shifting and pulsing, yet a feeling of ambience. You get the feeling that the musicians are performing in an echo chamber. The piece is very light. I've listened to it every night for about a year now, as I normally play it when I go to sleep. However, don't be fooled, this music is great to listen to even when you're not tired. It is fascinating and mind-blowing, and to say the least entertaining.

If you are seeking an introduction to experimental music, there is no better place to start. This music is not only experimental in its ways (what Reich has done is taken an 11 chord cycle and based each section on a chord), but also highly listenable and not at all abrasive to the ears. Definitely give this a shot.

This is a brilliant - arguably the definiitive - recording of a challenging and visionary work by one of our most gifted and consistently interesting contemporary composers. Any of the three available studio performances has merit (I haven't experienced the live recording) and each offers something different in tempo, mix, length...this is my favorite and the one I recommend to friends.

The previous reviewer who gave it one star and warned not to bother also gave five stars to a soundtrack recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (one star each, I guess, for overblown synthetic emotions, derivative motifs, utterly goofy lyrics, cheesy Broadway mock-opera presentation and people in cat suits. No, sorry, that was one of Sir Andy's other "masterpieces".) No surprise that Reich and Music for 18 Musicians eludes him. If you, on the other hand, appreciate genuinely original composition and music with the power to transport, this piece, and this recording in particular, will be a staple in your collection. If you're not yet familiar with much/any other Steve Reich work, this is the perfect way in.

This is Reich's greatest composition and the one that established his reputation.

The piece is based on a series of static background harmonies that are colored by Reich's estimable sonic hues. Each section elaborates a set of fixed tones in which different instruments play individual notes or groups of notes in different repeating rhythms. That might sound either very simple or overly academic, depending on your viewpoint, but the result is breathtaking.

Reich is able to get his ensemble of instruments and voices to pulse and breathe like a human/machine hybrid: human in its ebbs and flows, mechanical in its precision. The sounds are quite unlike any other piece and its newness (especially consider how Reich writes for the voice) is still striking.

If you are at all interested in Minimalism, this is THE composition to hear.

I don't know into what kinds of waves this composition puts your brain; delta, alpha, or what...but your brain will thank you for listening. Occasionally the piece gets under the skin when it seems not to change (although no timbre is repeated more than 4 times.) I have found that the intonation on the most recent recording is a bit off sometimes, but due to the nature of the piece this passes quite rapidly.

This is wonderful travel music. Think of the underlying themes as the horizon and more rapid motifs as what moves by close to the road. The hour-long piece will make the driving time fly by. Watch for speeding.

This is also incredible for listening to whilst on a treadmill.

I hope you buy it.

Just heard this for the first time. If you're an artist of any kind, put it on while you're at work on something, i think it made my left brain more eccentric, but still controlled. If i lived in an apartment i would use it as a wake up album and keep it playing throughout the quarters as i got ready for my day, brushing teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast, etc. this album has to put a faint, maybe unrecognizable smile on your face. really unique and and inspiring music.