Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936 in New York City) is an America… Read Full Bio ↴Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936 in New York City) is an American composer. He is a pioneer of minimalism, although his music has increasingly deviated from a purely minimalist style. Reich's innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (examples are his early compositions, "It's Gonna Rain" and "Come Out"), and the use of processes to create and explore musical concepts (for instance, "Pendulum Music" and ""Four Organs"). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures and phasing effects, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially that of his country.

The Guardian has described Reich as one of the few composers to have "altered the direction of musical history."

Reich often cites Pérotin, J.S. Bach, Debussy and Stravinsky as composers he admires, whose tradition he wished as a young composer to become part of. Jazz is a major part of the formation of Reich's musical style, and two of the earliest influences on his work were vocalists Ella Fitzgerald and Alfred Deller, whose emphasis on the artistic capabilities of the voice alone with little vibrato or other alteration was an inspiration to his earliest works. John Coltrane's style, which Reich has described as "playing a lot of notes to very few harmonies", also had an impact; of particular interest was the album "Africa/Brass", which "was basically a half-an-hour in F." Reich's influence from jazz includes its roots, also, from the West African music he studied in his readings and visit to Ghana. Other important influences are Kenny Clarke and Miles Davis, and visual artist friends such as Sol Lewitt and Richard Serra.

Reich's music is published by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishing, www.boosey.com/reich.

Steve Reich won the Polar prize in 2007.

Section II
Steve Reich Lyrics

We have lyrics for these tracks by Steve Reich:

Drumming: Part III This text was withdrawn at the request of its author…
It's Gonna Rain He began to warn the people. He said: "After a…
Its Gonna Rain He began to warn the people. He said: "After a…
It’s Gonna Rain/ 1965 He began to warn the people. He said: "After a…

Proverb How small a thought it takes to fill a whole…

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos

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Comments from YouTube:

playingmusiconmars

8y↑28

I noticed this video was linked by a rock singer via Twitter and wanted to thank him for garnering attention for this kind of music. I wanted to encourage his fans to further explore Reich and other composers music and watch the videos of perfomances that I and other people uploaded on Youtube.

Try to expand your horizons in terms of music and don't be afraid to learn about new things on your own.

Kyófú

7FatBears This is hilarious. The 1975 have been in my top 3 favourite bands since 2013, and Steve Reich changed my whole life and perception of music seven years ago. I've never fallen in love with a piece of music as much as I had with Music for 18. Then Matty mentions this piece several times in 2016 and even tweets about it. That's the coolest feeling ever! If this band was influenced by Reich, it totally makes sense how much I love their music, because Reich is ingrained in my DNA since childhood, he even made me write music because I enjoyed the minimalist technique so much. Now I'm a passionate composer & songwriter & musician and here, my two major influences intersected. You shouldn't hate on fans of the band who came here just because of the tweet, maybe they will experience the same joy I did when I first discovered Music for 18, just because they're fangirls or whatever doesn't mean they can't enjoy or appreciate this. Don't be an asshole about it.