Steve Reich: City Life; Proverb
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Steve ReichConductor: Bradley Lubman
Conductor: Paul Hillier
Performer: Steve Reich Ensemble
Orchestra: Theatre of Voices
Performer: Edmund Neimann
Performer: Edmund Niemann
Performer: Nurit Tilles
Performer: Lisa Moore
Performer: Andrea Fullington
Performer: Sonja Rasmussen
Performer: Alan Bennett
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1996-10-15
Music Label: Nonesuch
Soundtracks:
- Proverb, for 3 sopranos, 2 tenors, 2 vibes & 2 organs
- Nagoya Marimbas, for 2 marimbas
- Check it out
- Pile driver / alarms
- It's been a honeymoon - Can't take no mo'
- Heartbeats / boats & buoys
- Heavy smoke
Free Music Notes for Steve Reich: City Life; Proverb
Free Music Review: Wandering from the country into the bustle of city life
Hit: 5 Stars
This 1996 release presents yet another excellent batch of minimalist compositions from Steve Reich. As a long-time progressive rock fan, I have found the music of the minimalist composers, and Steve Reich in particular, to be one of the most refreshing and exciting discoveries in a long time. My only regret is that I did not discover this music earlier. Better late than never I suppose.
The three pieces on the album are performed by the Theater of Voices and members of the Steve Reich Ensemble with Paul Hillier conducting (on Proverb), marimba virtuosos Bob Becker and James Preiss (on Nagoya Marimbas) and finally, the entire Steve Reich Ensemble with Bradley Lubman conducting (on City Life). The performances on this album are thrilling and the marimba piece in particular requires a great deal of skill to play. In addition to the traditional instrumentation, I also appreciate the use of "found sounds". Although many of the 60s-70s progressive acts that I enjoy used found sounds, their use on this album is vastly more sophisticated.
The three tracks are quite different from one another. Proverb (14:01) features three female sopranos and two male tenors along with vibraphones and two electric organs. This is an austere, haunting piece and is my favorite of the three compositions. Vocal melismas (whereby the pitch of a single syllable is changed while it is sung) are one characteristic property and apart from the introduction, the electric organs double the voices. The hypnotic Nagoya Marimbas (4:29) nicely demonstrates the use of ostinato networks (repeated patterns), which get fairly complex - I really enjoy the earthy textures of the mallet instruments on this track. City Life (23:07) follows an arch form (like Desert Music, 1984). Although the instrumental passages are good, one of the most distinctive features includes the use of samples: jackhammers, screeching tires, car alarms, and speech amongst others. The samples are spliced, looped and seamlessly integrated with the other instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets, pianos, percussion, string quartet and bass) in choppy eighth notes and triplets. Interestingly, just like real city life, some of the sampled bits become a little grating and actually made me feel agitated.
Distributed by the Nonesuch label, this is a nice package overall and comes with an outer cardboard sleeve for the jewel case. The liner notes (written by Steve) are nicely detailed and provide in-depth technical information for each piece. The sound quality is excellent.
All in all, this is yet another wonderful example of minimalism from Steve Reich and is one of the more interesting bits of recently composed music that I have heard.
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