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Steve Reich

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Steve Reich (Stephen Michael Reich), 1936-, American composer, b. New York City. A well-known exponent of minimalism , he attended Cornell (B.A., 1957), the Julliard School of Music (1958-61), and Mills College (M.A., 1963), where he studied with Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio . Also influenced by John Cage , he began to create experimental works in the 1960s, showing an interest in electronic and tape-recorded elements. By the late 1960s, he was composing works based on the almost hypnotic repetition of short modular units of minutely changing chords, tonal progressions, chiming timbres, and steady rhythms. He also founded his own ensemble in 1966. Having studied drumming in childhood, he has retained an interest in percussion and has incorporated such instruments as the Balinese gamelan and Ghanian tribal drums into his compositions. Voice is also an important component of many of his works. Critics have noted that over the years his works have become both more intimate, freer, and more expansive. Reich's compositions include the film score for Plastic Haircut (1963), Drumming (1971), Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76), Tehillim (1981), Different Trains (1988), City Life (1994), Proverb (1995), Triple Quartet (1999), Three Tales (2002), and Daniel Variations (2006).

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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press