Piano/Video Phase (excerpt)

The original 'Piano Phase' for two pianos was composed in 1967. Both pianists play the same repeating pattern but one of them gradually increases tempo so as to slowly move one-eighth note ahead or out of phase with the other. This process is repeated with three repeating patterns that get shorter in duration. The video portion of this piece was created by David Cossin in 2000 and utilizes a pre-recorded video of him playing the piece on midi percussion pads that then trigger piano samples of the notes of the piece. Against this pre-recorded video, projected on a screen in front of him, he then plays the moving part that gradually moves ahead, or out of phase with the recorded part. The audience can then see and hear the process unfolding. Steve Reich

• Category

  Music

[MADRRRRR]

i got him 4 times ! cause i got 2 'tabs' of this page open .. :P

[Glen Tindal]

very interesting and impressive!

[senorwatkins99]

Thanks for posting this. I just saw the piece being performed in Paris. Absolutely incredible -- the phasing was totally hypnotic and I found myself being transported to a different plane.

[WielkiZielonyMelon]

Yesterday I attended a concert. Bang on a Can All-stars performed Steve Reich pieces.

They started with clapping music with Steve Reich himself. I never thought that two people clapping hands could make such incredible music.

They finished with 2x5.

But Video Phase was probably the best part of the evening. There was a projection of this musician and behind it was a real musician phasing in and out... I lost myself so many times this evening. One of the best concerts I have ever attended!

[EDWARD JAZZ-CORE]

STEVE REICH: LO MEJOR DEL SIGLO XX.

[Corey Adam]

I opened 4 windows and I could still hear the phase effect. There was still a pattern. So fascinating. I could listen to this in my car or while working. Love it.

[BilboHalfling]

Steve Reich originally made this piece by playing two identical tapes on different machines, and one played slightly slower. So the effects you are talking about would have been there. But regardless, the word phase here is totally valid. Phase in this case would be about two things that are in phase with each other, slowly coming out of phase (or sync, etc). This meaning was around long before the advent of audio engineers, who applied the original meaning to recorded sound.

[antfactor]

beautiful! I love this!

[Jdcie]

This is really sweet, but the word "phase" is really thrown around. If there was truly phase fluctuation in this piece, you'd hear comb filtering as various frequencies add and subtract.

[Vasudevan Panicker]

this is amazing