“Drumming” by Steve Reich (1971) – Art Sunday

Lately I’ve been enjoying a great piece by Steve Reich simply titled “Drumming”. It’s a highly rhythmic piece of music written with many complex and intricate patterns to make the listener pay attention to the subtleties. It’s one that could be listened to over and over again with a new experience for the listener each time. I wanted to share this music with you all today as a part of Art-Sunday this week.

There are several things to listen for here. 1. Pay attention to how the piece changes from sections of pure rhythm to sections with tonality mixed into the rhythms. 2. Listen to how the piece evolves over time. How is this done whenever there is a change? 3. Pay attention to phasing. Steve Reich is known for his phasing technique in which two melodies, played at once, fall out of sync with each other. The tempo of one musician will clash with the other and for a moment it will sound like chaos. But then listen as this chaos evolves into a new complex section in the music.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I do!

It is a difficult piece to get into at first, but the more you really listen to it, the more the brilliance of it is made clear. Not everyone may like music like this, but I certainly do! I hope you can see why too. Enjoy :)

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