Music for Pieces of Wood

I played this arrangement of Music for Pieces of Wood by Steve Reich for a DMA recital at Arizona State University. Cut off the first bit for youtube length regulations. This piece is meant for 5 players on 5 pitched claves. JB Smith, director of percussion studies, came up with the solo version idea with clave sample accompaniment. If you find this version disturbing, upsetting, inappropriate, or otherwise bad, I make no apologies. I understand that Mr Reich is quite particular about the integrity of his compositions, and this one is certainly no exception. I know that many think pieces like this should not be played in any fashion other than what they were originally composed for. That is an honorable artistic stance and after performing this, I might agree. Clearly, I needed to work on speed and cleaning up rhythms a bit. What is not shown here is that my brain exploded shortly after.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Matt
• Coleman
• percussion
• Steve
• Reich
• Music
• for
• Pieces
• of
• Wood
• Arizona
• State
• University

[amistrymister]

This is amazingly intense. Bravo, but dude how long did it take you to practice that?!!!

[mprimecoleman]

@amistrymister Thanks. It took about 6 months. I must say, you have some fabulous recordings on your channel. I'll definitely be back in the future.

[blahblibidyblahblah]

can you say "quadridextrous"? awesome execution. Well done, sir.