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

-----------------------------------

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]

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*

[crashtestdeity]

You needed someone else to make you sure?

I have to laugh at people who can't understand this kind of music,yet put soo much (-)energy(+) in to it...

How it irritates them that they can't understand it.

Like those who scoffed at Beethovens Große Fuge,

like those who mocked Charles Ives style,

like those who rumbled at Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps,

like those who laughed at Cage's soundscapes,

like those who booed Reich's Four organs...

Yet they all end up being...the real Heroes!

[ginnyawe]

Love minimalism...phasing...I love Steve Reich. Good stuff!

[Vdrummer182]

I believe pitch is a very common element in music but it is not a must. Try to use the definition of music that Daniel Barenboim uses: "Music is sonorous air"... therefore it applies... :)

[Therkanova]

0:02

[merman4]

how is this music? it's percussive... no pitches

[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]

Yes it is.

[colourfulwithaU]

You learn something new every day. Thanks!

[thaiguy20fromla]

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'?