Steve Reich's The Desert Music - Excerpt

[erick5bassism1]

Does anyone know the full instrumentation for this? This stuff is great. Heard it live with El Paso Symphony Orchestra. They had screens and were showing footage of besert in fast motion and other cool stuff. But I was watching the orchestra the whole time. Trully entrancing.

[amistrymister]

@erick5bassism1

4(II,III,IV=picc).4(II,III,IV=­corA).4(II,III,IV=bcl).4(IV=db­n)—4.4

(I=picc.tpt ad lib).3.1—timp(2players=rototom­s).perc(7):medium tam-t/

maracas/sticks/2BD/2glsp/2xyl/­2vib/2marimba—2pft(4players)—

strings(12.12.9.9.6) (voices and woodwinds amplified)

AMAZING instrumentation. I love it.

[erick5bassism1]

@amistrymister It IS amazing! Thank you!

[PinkSafire1]

Listening to this for the first time... I realized I had been holding my breath.

[bassoonjoe]

reddyreedyreedy5050, the brass instrumentation is 4 horns, 4 trumpets (1st trp may optionally double picc trp), 3 trombones, tuba

[ikshields]

Oops... "mathematicians".

(I hit "post" before I could correct it.)

[ikshields]

I played percussion in this concert, and what a pleasant surprise to find it on YouTube!

In answer to some of the questions here:

Brass? No, as I recall there is no brass in the "Desert Music".

Hertz Hall at UC Berkeley? Yes it is.

Bad video? Well, it's a university AV department, not PBS; whaddya expect? ;-)

Great piece? You bet, and hard as hell to play, too. A lot of very good musicians on this vid sweating bullets and counting like mathemeticians

[amistrymister]

@ikshields you probably didnt play the full orchestral version of it then..if there is no brass, then its the smaller instrumentation.

[reddyreedyreedy5050]

Does anyone know the brass instrumentation for this piece or if there are brass it's hard to see with the vid quality. -sounds epic though.

[huggy2bear]

this looks like Hertz Hall at UC Berkeley. Does anyone know for sure?

[fordprefectskid]

Bingo. Performed spring 2008.

[Masterpeewee]

amazing music but god the quality is horible

[karlletourneau]

cette musique est incroyable!!

[meshowz]

Desert music my ass

[theritz007]

fucking goddamn great

[fujicity]

いいな。

演奏はかなり難しいのでは？

すごい。

[jickerack]

I think this is one of the most amazing pieces of music ever written. It must have been completely incredible to hear it live. My hairs stand on end just listening to a recording.