Clapping Music (1972) by Steve Reich

Clapping Music (1972) was Steve Reich's attempt to write a piece of music requiring nothing but the human body -- two performers that hand-clap. His first attempt at translating phase technique from recorded tape loop to live performance was his 1967 Piano Phase for two pianos (which I performed on marimbas with Thad Anderson on my Master's recital at UT in 2005). In Piano Phase, the performers repeat a rapid twelve-note melodic figure, initially in unison. As one player keeps tempo with robotic precision, the other speeds up very slightly until the two parts line up again, but one sixteenth-note apart. The second player then resumes the previous tempo. This cycle of speeding up and then locking in continues throughout the piece; the cycle comes full circle three times, the second and third cycles using shorter versions of the initial figure. Although Reich's original intent was for Clapping Music to be a phase piece, he found that the idea of phasing was not appropriate for the simple ways in which to experiment with sound using the human body. Instead, he employed a shifting technique -- still cyclic, like phasing. Reich states that the piece is "to have one performer remain fixed, repeating the same basic pattern throughout, while the second moves abruptly, after a number of repeats, from unison to one beat ahead, and so on, until he is back in unison with the first performer." Clapping Music is intended for performance in a large space where the echoes and reverberations of the clapping create "a surrounding sensation of a series of variations of two different patterns with their downbeats coinciding."

Program Note by Justin R. Stolarik

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Part of Dr. Stolarik's University of Texas at Austin DMA 2 Solo Percussion Recital, entitled "An Unconventional 20th Century Retrospective."

Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 4:30pm in Bates Recital Hall.

My unconventional retrospective concept delivers a wide variety of musical styles of the twentieth-century -- one work from almost every decade. The pieces not originally composed for percussion have been included as a means to demonstrate the contributions by important composers of the century and to expose the listener to the versatility of percussion instruments.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• clapping
• music
• steve
• reich
• justin
• stolarik
• texas
• percussion

[jenn976]

I just noticed this was done in Bates Hall in the School of Music, College of Fine Arts, Univ. of Texas at Austin.

[datimpster]

@jenn976 Correct!

[supranator]

"Clapping Music (1972) was Steve Reich's attempt to write a piece of music "

A bit harsh don't you think? Oh..wait... *presses show more*

[Pasta0fMuppets]

Just try joining up with a friend and see how hard it really is.

It ain't easy.

[SuperTomanator]

The music was great but the actual performance was boring.

[hunnybunny118D]

We attempted this in school but it never got past one beat shift

[rogerjhenry]

Hi - this has been referenced and attributed by the 'Epic Fugue: all things choral' page on Google+. Not able to post the URL here, but you should be able to search for it.

[CaraminTim]

@Pasta0fMuppets Yes it is.

[colourfulwithaU]

@thaiguy20fromla

You learn something new every day. Thanks!

[thaiguy20fromla]

@colourfulwithaU That cell is a very widely used rhythm- it comes from an African 12/8 bell pattern

[colourfulwithaU]

Did anyone else notice that a) the subject this piece is based on is a cluster of 3 eighth notes, then 2 eighth notes, then 1 eighth note, then 2 eighth notes, (3212) then repeat (3212321232123 etc) and b) that exact same rhythm is played by the xylophonist in 'Music for 18 Musicians'?

[swedish1muffin]

This is true awesome.

[earlobe1997]

@ieatcrayons822

Haha

so funny. You really do?!

[pjcvdpol]

Brilliant!!!! I heard this for the forst time performed at a summercamp in the Jura, some twentyfive years ago. I just never realised it was an actual composition...