Added: 3 years ago
From: jameswiman
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  • the fucking needle is stuck

  • Some serious credit is due to these percussionists/pianists, it takes a good amount of skill to place these pieces. I for one don't think I could pull it off.

  • Art.

  • minimalism n phasing, thats whats cool

  • At some time i realised that it is impossible to find out which guy plays which melody. Sad.

    At some time i realised that it is impossible to find out whether I'm crazy to listen to this for just 6:31.

  • @maxetkorn these guys are not of our world

  • I remember watching James and Brandon play this on James' recital - probably the most memorable and intricate piece I heard while at IUP. The patience and diliberateness required to be that sonorous yet independant of each other is incredible and commendable!

  • They both play at the same time together and then gradually one pianist plays slightly faster than the other.

  • @afroboy757 One actually slows down.

  • This is what LSD sounds like.

  • Not appreciated...

  • @ryder187mac Cus you've heard other composers invent this, right?

  • does anyone knows when the second guy starts playing? from what I hear it's not when he puts his hands on the piano.

  • @ShanghaiCheck The second piano slowly fades in.

  • @jameswiman thanks!

  • it grows, it changes, it layers itself to the point where you can "hear" the harmonic series of each note...wow.

  • who would have thought that E, F#, B, C#, D would sound so good when played 8,000 times?!

  • how the fck do these guys play this O_O 

  • Anyone who complains about this should realize that this could have been a tone row rather than a coherent musical phrase. Imagine one of Schoenburgs' pieces as a minimalist phase piece...

  • @marty051892 That would be insane!

  • Mmmmm brain massage.

  • Chocolate rain....

  • This is truly great, thanks for posting.

  • I would find performing that piece utterly confusing. To slowly fall out of time with another player would be so tricky.

  • I felt in trance.

  • ESO ES FALTA DE RESPETO A TODOS LOS COMPOSITORES.

  • @baxuashvili porqué? :(

  • @helloweenarctico

    poreque Stive Riech no es un compositor como Mozart, Beethoven o cualquiera de estos, es un especie de algo que está lejos de lo que se llama musica clasica.

  • @baxuashvili esta obra, además de tener una increíble técnica de contrapunto, tiene un módulo de sólamente 6 notas diferentes, en el cual además de generar una compleja armonía, tiene una melodía implicita. Estas tecnicas composicionales son muy elevadas probablemente para tu percepción, por ende TU comentario es el que es una falta de respeto a un maestro como este.

  • @ChameleonOnline lo siento pero no discutire con usted de eso, este ''compositor'' esta en un nivel donde no se ve nada, y evidentemente sus seguidores tambien.

  • @baxuashvili Por ahí dicen que ¨La arrogancia es un perfume que no dura tanto, pero el que se la pone, la confunde con la ignorancia¨.

    Tampoco voy a discutir de este tema con alguien que no lo entienda.

    :)

    Saludos

  • its amazing.and braincell melting.

  • Take me back to the World of Trance, And, oh, the Orertones. Thank you so much.

  • Take me back to the World of Trance, Thank you so much.

  • Brilliant, almost electronic in some ways.

  • mistake at 2:07

  • @maynrdjkeenan mistake at 0:59

  • This reminds me of watching turn signals of cars and trying to find ones that are on the same time. they never are but they are close enough that for a few moments they are on the same time.

  • @Ethonadon10 I never thought about that but yet i do it all the time...great comparison

  • @Ethonadon10 I'm not the only one!

  • Crazy.... like all that he does XD

    To do a phase, u must have too much concentration, pulse, and knoledge about the "What I'm I doing???". and special details on a simple piece will do the perfection..

    Reich is nice (Y)

  • catchy tune, i play this song at my dance club all all the time. i suggest DJ tiesto if you like this.

  • I really like at about 3:50 when the two pianos come back into sync for a little bit.

  • @Stadlad XD n i lov when they're completely disolved on the phase...

  • @Stadlad they're not actually nsync. This is the middle of the piece where the 2nd piano has sped up to the half way point. It's half a bar in front of the 1st piano. (studying this piece at the moment lol) :P

  • WOW !!!

  • Amazing!!

  • This is very very cool. You can hear things that are not played in it.

    Thankyou for posting this.

  • @faunflynn You cannot hear things that are not played in it. By definition.

  • @mip0larity

    You're betraying yourself, mip0larity! I'd think a man who'd favorited so many music theory videos would be more interested in exploring this piece. Of course the notes played are the ones you hear, but the PATTERNS are unique to your brain. Phasing taps into the very pattern-recognition modules your brain already uses, and presents them with just enough ambiguity to let subtle cues drive perception of the pattern this way or that. Don't take it out on us if you don't get it.

  • @mip0larity Well, you can hear overtones, which aren't necessarily played. But something tells me that's not what he was saying. :P

  • @337336324317313306 I can't speak for him, but I think he means specific melodies and harmonies manifest themselves over time that aren't "played". That's what I understood, anyways.

  • @mip0larity Hearing things that aren't being played is the only reason to listen to music.

  • This music is very intellectual, so it will only appeal to a certain audience. I think it's absolutely brilliant, especially when you listen to it with your eyes closed. :)

  • I think it is sad people say this is not emotional. It frustrates me when others are so dogmatic in their views of music. "Emotion" encompasses countless different causes. We perceive music as "emotional" because we try to find some correspondence between it and something we already understand. Just because YOU personally cannot find a correspondence in your own mind in the music does not mean it lacks emotion. To me this is emotional because it demonstrates an idea. A simple, but powerful one.

  • great piece, and I'm happy to hear all of these great comments by real appreciative music lovers--love the minimalists!

  • I like it. Is similar to water sounds

  • Me gusta. Es lo más parecido a escuchar el sonido de una corriente de agua.

  • I love how it sounds at 2:00. It sounds like 15 different piano parts.

  • I don't get why people don't like this. Even for a contemporary piece it is very pleasant to listen to. My favorite of Reich's 'Phase' pieces.

  • Pretty astounding.

  • hat irgendwer von euch die noten dazu?

  • Music is personal so we don't all have to like the same things, but I just don't get it. ???? Maybe I'm just not cultured enough but give me chopin, beethoven or Tchaikovsky anyday. I do really like Nagoya Marimbas though.

  • @salismarr

    What is exactly what you don´t get, sir?

  • amazing......

  • very bad version

  • Listen guys, this piece is amazing! the idea is great!!!

  • why the fuck can noone spell mozart ?

  • to be clear I said "motzart" in reference to his mispelling of Mozart.

  • I don't get how anybody can find this emotional. It's fascinating but it's not something i could dance, cry, laugh or smile about. Fair enough it's a good loop, but all i can think when people say it's amazing and so expressive is "what a load of bull." that might offend some people, but they offend me when they act as though this is more emotive than motzart and beethoven and chopin etc.

    i like the electric counterpoint by SR though. sounds interesting.

  • Listen to it more.

  • @burtv1610 I don't believe anybody said this piece is MORE emotive than any other piece or composer. But if somebody does have an emotional response to this piece, who are you to say that isn't valid? Not to say there's anything wrong if you DON'T have one either. Music is completely subjective, that's what makes it beautiful.

  • it's non-melodic, o.c.d., drab, idiot-savant, and beautiful ;)

  • Who said its more emotive than "motzart" and Beethoven? I feel sorry for you if you have to compare music that way.

  • I have a life outside youtube you know. What makes you think there aren't more people on the planet than the eight or nine people who left comments on this page?

    I was just making a point. You obviously just wanted to feel a bit better by giving me your pity. And it's not wanted.

  • Sorry, but Reich's music does make me feel something. And I'm not pretending at all.

    Honest.

    I genuinely like it. And for me, to like music, emotional response is a must.

  • @Hyardacil

    what does it make you feel? it´s the same all the time -.-'

  • @SunriseAvenue12 Less so than the average pop song - to me anyways.

  • crack... right from  medelin

  • did they make a mistake at 2:07  ?

  • Yes they did :/

  • Great!

  • What's important is that he has found a way to help people learn how to play this in a traditional way. This can be easily done with a computer program and some circuits, it's not hard at all, no effort needed to make those sounds. But to think that two normal people just like you or me are able to keep pulse going like that! Immense.

  • hab minimal music gerade in der schule gehabt...echt tolle music...

  • Steve Reich - Was soll ich sagen? Als ich die ersten Stücke von ihm hörte, dachte ich: "O mein Gott, was ist denn das??" Aber irgendwie ging auch eine Faszination von dieser Musik aus. Und so hörte ich mir das wieder und wieder an. Das Stück "Six Pianos" ist mittlerweile eines der besten Stücke, die ich überhaupt kenne. Aber auch das Stück, das hier eingestellt wurde, übt mit seiner fast manischen Wiederholung scheinbar einfachster Linien einen ungemein anziehenden Reiz auf mich aus.

  • Wow! This is excellent! I really love Reich.

  • The great aspect of this piece is that you can place the locater on any time of the piece and it always sounds different if you listen carefully.

    Great discreet harmonies.

    Need to listen with headphones to appreciate it more.

  • I love how so many people point out the mistakes. What a dumb way to listen to this piece. Good for you, guys, you can pick out a different pitch from the ones you've heard about a thousand times. Now, let's hear you perform it.

  • you are such a fucking fail, katebabe9

    go back to playing other peoples' music

  • Write a 10 page essay on this then.

  • frightening.

  • Because I am not allowed to say my opinion on this video because I get rated down by two and I get bullied by some idiot with only 6 friends and 1 video I'm going to have to say despite the mistakes wait not allowed to say that...IT WAS REALLY GREAT :D

  • welcome to youtube :) we're all bastards!

  • Lol well your not because your not giving me rubbish for no reason and I no I am not because I don't mean to hurt anyone lol I just don't like it when someone feels they can when they feel like it

  • just remember; people who tell us we have inferior opinions are clearly bestowed with far more intellectual prowess, and we don't deserve to be using the same web as them! :) and btw, there are far too many mistakes in this video!!

  • Lol I like your humour and thank you there are too many mistakes...and you know there are too many opinions for care lol

  • While I can appreciate and respect your opinion, I would offer that there is more to art than beauty. Not every poem is "Ode to a Grecian Urn," not every novel is "Remembrance of Things Past," not every piece of music is Bach's B Minor Mass.

    With Reich's "phase" pieces, what he is interested in here is the repetition of patterns that slowly go out of phase and cycle through the same pattern.

    If you enjoy crosswords you can enjoy minimalism.

    Appreciate the comment!

  • I listened the piece again and I found it more interesting. I guess it requires pretty good skills to be performed.

  • Cippergut - It grows on you and has a strange hypnotic effect. While this piece doesn't really move me emotionally, others can have a powerful effect - I've found myself in tears during a performance of The Desert Music (surprising!) and Different Trains is immense live.

  • Although it is a single line of music repeated, he picked those particular notes for a reason. This piece does sound harmonious and beautiful to me. It appeals to me emotionally as well as intellectually. It's open to interpretation, but I find a certain sadness, desperation, and hopelessness in this piece.

    I'm not trying to sound smart, I really don't know much about minimalism or Steve Reich outside of the few pieces he wrote that I know I like.

  • @jameswiman

    its ode on a grecian urn. not to

  • do don' t understand anything about beauty. if you would, you had to accept that beauty has a million faces... and that is clearly one of them.

    that's all.

    u ever heard about african music tradition?

    repetition and rythmn?

  • Wow your arrogant and you speak out of your ass...wait and your a bully :O not a good combination at all.

  • "Phasing" exposes deep mechanisms within our brains that make music work. Careful listening to what is going on here reveals complex and rhythmic and harmonic relationships, all resulting from something like the superposition of two parallel lines. Yes, it's a repeating twelve note theme. But it's appreciated cerebrally, in more than one sense. The simple layering of the theme over itself, a bit faster, makes your brain perceive deep, complex patterns. It's hypnotic, beautiful, and smart.

  • That was very well stated. :]

  • @autarchicflux It's fucking phasing. Get over it.

  • @mip0larity

    Yes, thank you, I mentioned that in the first word of my comment. Perhaps you can't read? Perhaps you don't understand music? Perhaps you're offended because you can sense your own inferiority?

    Run along, please.

  • @autarchicflux I understand what you're trying to get at, I'm studying this piece at uni currently. But for me, it is just the sounds that the strings make when they are hit by the hammers inside the piano. I cannot fathom any sort of complicated pattern. I have sat here a listened to this piece of structured sonic material again and again and again, yet I cannot recognise any patterns.

  • @1399jn It might just be the percussionist in me talking, but I've never had any trouble picking out those "complicated patterns" that seem to be giving you trouble, all of which I can pretty easily sing/drum out.

  • @autarchicflux Hey I can sound smart too.

    But Reich gets way more recognition than he deserves for what is blatantly a lack of creativity.

  • @ryder187mac You sound like many critics of Jackson Pollock. "I could've done THAT." Well, you didn't. Reich came up with it. Seems simple NOW, but it's pretty ingenious.

  • @ryder187mac He's incredibly creative in a very specific framework. He has set his own rules and adheres to them - his creativity is demonstrated pretty evidently in the framework itself and in compositional ways that that his constraints allow. This is something to be appreciated. For more on this, Ligeti constrained himself to only one pitch in Ligeti's Musica Ricercata part 1... see how creative he can be while imposing such a constraint!

  • I am sure there was a mistake at 2:08, 2:53, 4:30(big one went down some semitones), 4:36,4:58(descending semitones again) 5:02

    5:37 (on the bass part) 6:27(bass again my friend)lol other than that great attempt!

  • for shure, there were a lot of mistakes...

    go home.

  • Wow you spoke up to the bully around these parts...lol By the way there was a lot of mistakes and I was hoping someone with a good frontal lobe could discuss that with me instead of telling me to basically piss off...so thanks for that. :) I didn't find the mistakes pleasant and I felt the need to establish them thank you very much and if you cant hear them open your damn ears their pretty obvious! >:P

  • you are the man! guess we all are well informed now...

  • No only you because you are a pathetic snot that quite frankly you are ignoring the moral point here which is I don't have a problem and you just decided to start bullying me so actually you can fuck off and get some education on how to speak with reason and get some ears that work; by the way I am not speaking to everyone I am speaking to you....YOU not everyone stupid idiot. Is it supposed to make me feel little when you say everyone; yeah nice...you see that's what they would say at school

  • By the way reply with reasoning next time not just something to throw like some woman with a vase and you see your either going to not say anything or you going to say something with just one point which is to bully me. Get a life and don't make prove my point (send another message) TOSSER!

  • anyone knows where can i find some literature about minimal music? =)

  • Google, Amazon may have some books!

  • search for "writings on music 1965-2000" by steve reich

  • great! thanks

  • The book "Repeating Ourselves: American Minimal Music as Cultural Practice" By Robert Fink is worthwhile, also there are some films on Reich and Glass that are worth watching (I think one on Reich is on YouTube)

  • Great! i will try to find something about ir

    realy helpfull information

  • It's minimalistic - wonderful, indeed!

  • I love this!!!

  • why do they play an octave lower?

  • yeah - i noticed that too - maybe its because of their performance they wanted the acoustics to bounce off so it would make it more bassy if they played an octave lower.

  • its the same 12 note line played over and over, as the 1st player stays at the same tempo the whole time the 2nd speeds slightly, once they play at the same time again (1st player on 1st note 2nd player on the 2nd) they pause and play the same tempo. they do this over and over all the way through the 12 notes until they make it all the way around, that is a full phase.

    in most cases the notes are E4 F#4 B4 C#5 D5 F#4 E4 C#5 B4 F#4 D5 C#5, i guess they could modulate them up or down for a dif key

  • Mistake at 4:30. Nice one though

  • Comment removed

  • This is a bit weird... But I do like it!

  • Anyone know where I can find any sort of sheet music for this?

  • look it up on wikipedia it has the notes for it

  • it's only 12 notes. they are in order 4 5 1 2 b3 5 4 2 1 5 b3 2.

  • There were some bum notes on piano one's part, but it remains a fascinating piece of music

  • great experiment. i won't have them play on my wedding though

  • I just saw this performed live tonight, and it was one of the most remarkable musical experiences I've had. I lost absolutely all sense of time-- the phasing in and out simply put me in a trance. There is something satisfying in this music that I can't put my finger on. It doesn't have a real tune or melody which is what i generally care for in a piece of music, but it somehow has the same if not more profound effect as any other great work. Reich is a true musical genius.

  • Glad you liked it. You should have a listen to Hans Otte, The Book of Sounds, if you dig this.

  • they made a few mistakes but the idea is amazing, i love Reich.

  • Then don't listen to it. But I'd imagine with a username like "reallyhatejazz" you probably just surf youtube all day looking for shit to disagree with so you can let everyone know that you've got life all figured out.

  • I'm an average person...and I think this is amazing stuff. I'm not really into classical music but I think because I like the electronic scene this music really appeals to me. I;ve started recently to listen to more of the minimalist music like some of Philip Glass etc...any heads up on who else I should listen too

  • John Adams is another American minimalist. It's almost exclusively an American thing. There is one German that I know of who empored it...check out Hans Otte, specifically Das Buch der Klange (the book of sounds).

    For John Adam, Phygian Gate is an awesome minimalist piano work.

  • Thanks for that will be checking both out now on you tube

  • Make sure to listen to more than Glass's film scores. His brilliance really shines in his Piano Etudes, Piano Metamorphosis, and especially in Glassworks. If you are into electronic music, you will probably love Rubric from Glassworks.

  • try youtube sniper and stuart jones

  • Hmmm.

    I find this music interesting. The methods used are amazing, I think. And hats off to the performers, they did a wonderful job.

    However, I think I prefer minimal music with a bit more of a chordal sound. For example, I'm not sure if you are familiar with the piece "mad rush' by another great composer, Philip Glass. I think that is a perfect balance between pieces that rely on chord progressions, and the great contemporary art form that is minimalism.

  • Very cool

  • I did a funk arrangement of this for my composition class, and it turned out horribly XD. Still got an A though, but only because I followed all the directions.

  • Sheeeeeet, that's some crazy ass music, good one STEEEEEVE.

  • I'm trippin' man, I'M TRIPPIN' !!!

  • I don't think music should be limited to conveying just emotions. As a performer and an audience member I always hope to experience the concept behind the piece - its planning and the more abstract ideas its composer employed.

  • Heh, wow, I've been experimenting with something like this wihout even realising. I have a song that's quite repetitive, so Ijust recorded very amateurishly the chord sequence and will either speed it up or slow it down, and loop it... I know I won't cut it perfect so there'll be something like this created!

  • You are certainly entitled to your opinion. This, of all the pieces that ended up on this recital, was the most commented on piece. Everyone loved it--the irony being that Brandon and I picked this piece specifically to annoy people. It backfired.

    I think Reich is effective because he isn't writing art music, he really is writing something that everyone can "get". If you wonder what messahe he's trying to convey I would suggest watching interviews with him.

    His ideas really are meaningful.

  • There is something in the process of works like this. In all honesty, I performed this work at a point in my education where I really didn't understand it. Now, I wish I understood it better at the time.

    I also think it is a danger to say that art should X or Y. Art is a very plastic thing--it can express and convey many different things, not just emotions, but also philosophies and concepts. It doesn't HAVE to be beautiful or understandable.

    PM if you want to discuss further.

    Thanks!

  • You're absolutely right --- Art is a very plastic thing that can express and convey almost anything. Art in no way has to be beautiful.

    Art DOES have to be understandable. If its audience isn't going to understand what you're saying, what's the point of saying it?

    The artist should not have to hold your hand and explain what they are trying to say. The art should be able to speak for itself.

  • I'm sure his ideas are meaningful, but is it something the average person isn't going to get by listening to it?

    When you have to explain a joke, it's not funny anymore. Same goes with art --- if the meaning of the piece is hidden from the audience, what's the point?

  • Infinite looping of the same, but not a second of this piece of music looks like another one in the piece. It's a repetition of the same but in constant variation... It's a piece of art because it gives an impression, a feeling, for mi of chaos into order

  • Impression and feeling aren't characteristics that define art.

  • Well... 'till now, I haven't heard an actual definition of the concept "art", so if you have one, I'd be glad to hear it!

    For me, art IS about emotion, feelings, impressions, those being translated through some sort of language (music, images, movies, litterature, etc...)

  • Minimalism is about the patterns that are created and the effect that has on the listener. Any one listeners experience of the piece will vary depending on their own musical exposure. What's the point of minimalism. It does, in my opinion, reflect modern society with it's mass production and repetitive nature. If you want to write-off a musical movement I would suggest Impressionism - Debussy consistently uses minimal material to produce 'impressions' - what's the point in that?!?

  • Do you believe there is beauty in mathematics? I do. I think the human brain (or at least mine) derives a lot of pleasure out of interpreting patterns and abstracting. How is this any different?

    Now, this isn't something I'd get up and dance to, but that's not its function. There are as many different purposes for music as there are colors in a beam of white light.

    My only gripe is that it's a two-parter: sort of kills the effect.

  • And dance is not about music either. Your comparison with mathematics is good, for it causes emotions and feelings in me too, and so do other sciences.

    But art is about an specific way of discussing something (that can be an emotion, perfectly). What I mean is that it doesn't matter what something it is. But I can't define either the exact way that arts uses to discuss these "things", because I also don't believe that we can reach this perfect definition. It can always be pushed off.

  • Ah! About the dance... it is about an specific art that uses the human body as main instrument, not about the music. And I'm not going to try to define it, because there's no universal agreement either and people generaly need hundreds of pages to sustain an argument about it. x)

  • I love this piece, and it's the first time i hear a lie version of it, and i have to say i'm quite impressed ! I couldn't imaging it could be so smooth live !

  • the audio sounds great ;-).  no, really, brings back good memories.

  • A remarkable performance for sure. That must be so difficult technically. You probably enter into a different almost trance like state to be able to phase out so slowly. Well done indeed. Top marks :)