Music For 18 Musicians

Ken Ishii (Performer), Richard Cohen (Performer), Virgil Blackwell (Performer), Steve Reich (Composer), David Van Tieghem (Performer), James Preiss (Performer), Jay Clayton (Performer), Larry Karush (Performer), Nurit Tilles (Performer), Steve Chambers (Performer), Steve Reich (Performer), Rebecca Armstrong (Performer), Shem Giubbory (Performer), Shem Guibbory (Performer), Elizabeth Arnold (Performer), Pamela Fraley (Performer), Bob Becker (Performer), Glen Velez (Performer), Russ Hartenberger (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Ken Ishii, Richard Cohen, Virgil Blackwell, David Van Tieghem, James Preiss, et al.
• Composer: Steve Reich
• Audio CD (March 15, 1994)
• SPARS Code: AAD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B0000031QC
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #196,117 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Music For 18 Musicians

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This has to be Steve Reich's most difficult work to perform; but he's done it. Several times. Music for 18 Musicians is for violin, cello, 2 clarinets doubling bass clarinet, 4 women's voices, 4 pianos, 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones and a metallophone (vibraphone with no motor). It's a 1974 composition that focuses entirely on the rich staccato that gives Minimalism its unique sound. However, Reich turns all of this into actual music by adding the richness of the metallophone and the women's voices. Whatever else people may have said about minimalism, pro or con, a work such as Music for 18 Musicians demonstrates its genuine legitimacy. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TUNE IN, TURN ON, DROP OUT, BABY, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

Hey you acidheads: this is the bomb. In all seriousness, if any one record has the power to induce an altered and higher state of consciousness, it is Reich's seminal 1978 release on ECM. I spent days with this disc on repeat holed up in a desert apartment when it debuted, and it's amazing how 20 years later it still hold the power to transform and enchant. Indelible!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first time around still stays with me..., April 29, 1999

By A Customer

This is the one! One of ten or so pieces that changed my life (in the way of listening and influences, along with "The Rite of Spring", "Take Five," Webern en masse, and "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" (seriously!)). I even had the pleasure of meeting Steve Reich a few years ago after a concert, asking him to autograph my copy of this disc, and thanking him for writing this (he greatly appreciated it). How this piece changed my life was that it got me listening to music in yet another way (hitting me similarly like Stravinsky, Brubeck, Webern, and Zappa, amongst a host of others). I came across this piece (via LP) almost nine years ago (as of this writing), and I can say without exaggeration that I have been listening to this at least once a week since then. What is it about this piece that often sends me into such a passionate frenzy? To be honest I really cannot say, perhaps it was the timing, a setting, I cannot tell. What I do know though is that this is still by far the best recording of "18" that I have heard (not to take away from the other two that have followed) and it still sounds fresh to my ears as it did then and will still many weeks from now (as of this reading).

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing, April 30, 2008

By	J. Halmos (Toronto) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The section that begins at 31:08 and continues for the next 10 minutes is emotional, mesmerizing, magical, and exhausting. One of my truly favorite musical moments. It's also the section that Tangerine Dream reproduce electronically in Make Love on a Real Train which you can hear in the big romantic/erotic fantasy scene in Risky Business. And you can also hear this section done twice in different ways on ambient electronica group Global Communications' 76:14.