Table Of ContentRethinking Reich
Rethinking Reich
EDITED BY
Sumanth Gopinath
Pwyll ap Siôn
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Gopinath, Sumanth S. | Pwyll ap Siôn.
Title: Rethinking Reich / edited by Sumanth Gopinath and Pwyll ap Siôn.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018041188 | ISBN 9780190605285 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780190605292 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Reich, Steve, 1936— Criticism and interpretation. |
Minimal music— History and criticism.
Classification: LCC ML410. R27 R47 2019 | DDC 780.92— dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2018041188
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Paperback printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
To Beth and Nia, and dedicated to John Thomas Becker (1986– 2017) and
Dafydd Tomos Dafis (1958– 2017)— two close friends who were also very talented
musicians. They will be missed.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Copyright Permissions xi
List of Contributors xv
Introduction: Reich in Context 1
Sumanth Gopinath and Pwyll ap Siôn
I Political, Aesthetic, and Analytical Concerns
1 “Departing to Other Spheres”: Psychedelic Science Fiction,
Perspectival Embodiment, and the Hermeneutics of
Steve Reich’s Four Organs 19
Sumanth Gopinath
2 “Moving Forward, Looking Back”: Resulting Patterns, Extended
Melodies, Eight Lines, and the influence of the West on Steve Reich 53
Pwyll ap Siôn
3 Different Tracks: Narrative Sequence, Harmonic (Dis)continuity,
and Structural Organization in Steve Reich’s Different Trains
and The Cave 75
Maarten Beirens
4 “We Are Not Trying to Make a Political Piece”: The Reconciliatory
Aesthetic of Steve Reich and Beryl Korot’s The Cave 93
Ryan Ebright
II Repetition, Speech, and Identity
5 Repetition, Speech, and Authority in Steve Reich’s “Jewish” Music 113
Robert Fink
6 Steve Reich’s Dramatic Sound Collage for the Harlem Six: Toward a
Prehistory of Come Out 139
John Pymm
vii
viii Contents
7. From World War II to the “War on Terror”: An Examination of Steve
Reich’s “Docu- Music” Approach in WTC 9/ 11 159
Celia Casey
III Reich Revisited: Sketch Studies
8 “Save as . . . »”: Hybrid Resources in the Steve Reich Collection 179
Matthias Kassel
9 Sketching a New Tonality: A Preliminary Assessment of Steve
Reich’s Sketches for Music for 18 Musicians in Telling the Story
of This Work’s Approach to Tonality 191
Keith Potter
10 Improvisation, Two Variations on a Watermelon, and a New
Timeline for Piano Phase 217
David Chapman
11 Steve Reich’s Counterpoints and Computers: Rethinking the 1980s 239
Twila Bakker
IV Beyond the West: Africa and Asia
12 Afro- Electric Counterpoint 259
Martin Scherzinger
13 That’s All It Does: Steve Reich and Balinese Gamelan 303
Michael Tenzer
14 “Machine Fantasies into Human Events”: Reich and
Technology in the 1970s 323
Kerry O’Brien
Works Cited 345
Index 369
Acknowledgments
The two editors of this volume would like to thank the following:
The Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel, and all the scholars and staff there, especially
Matthias Kassel (curator of the Steve Reich collection), Tina Kilvio Tüscher, and
Isolde Degen; Oxford University Press, especially Suzanne Ryan, who provided
much- needed guidance, advice, and encouragement from our initial, tenta-
tive proposals to the final publication; also Vika Kouznetsov, Lauralee Yeary,
Jamie Kim, Adam Cohen, Dan Gibney, Eden Piacitelli and all those at Oxford
University Press who have assisted with copyediting and indexing; Christina
Nisha Paul (Project Manager for Newgen Knowledge Works), Sangeetha
Vishwanthan, Susan Ecklund, and Pilar Wyman; Janis Susskind, Mike Williams
and Tyler Rubin at Boosey & Hawkes; Katie Havelock and Matthew Rankin
at Nonesuch Records; Livia Necasova at Universal Edition; Philip Rupprecht,
Laura Tunbridge, and Marianne Wheeldon, as editors of previous volumes in
the Rethinking series for readily sharing valuable advice; Lynda Corey Claassen
(Director of Special Collections & Archives at UC San Diego Library), Shelley
Freeman; Josh Rutter for his willingness to participate in this project and his
contributions to it.
The editors also wish to thank all the contributors to this volume for their
willingness to respond to requests for changes, corrections and additions; and
for their patience throughout the publication process.
Sumanth Gopinath wishes to thank friends and family, especially his partner
Beth, his parents, Sudhir and Madhura, and his brother, Shamin, for their un-
wavering support and love; Pat McCreless, Michael Veal, Michael Denning,
Hazel Carby, Paul Gilroy, Robert Morgan, Jim Hepokoski, John MacKay, Greg
Dubinsky, Michael Friedmann, Matthew Suttor, and other faculty members
who were important influences on his work on Reich while in graduate
school; Beth Hartman, Robert Adlington, Jonathan Bernard, Trevor Bača, Seth
Brodsky, Thomas Campbell, Michael Cherlin, Eva R. Cohen, James Dillon,
Eric Drott, Gabrielle Gopinath, Ted Gordon, Russell Hartenberger, Michael
Klein, Matthew McDonald, Leta Miller, Ian Quinn, Rob Slifkin, Jason Stanyek,
Vic Szabo, his co- editor and all of the contributors to this volume, all grad-
uate students participating in his “Musical Minimalisms” seminar between
2005 and 2018, his colleagues in the music theory division (Matt Bribitzer-S tull,
David Damschroder, and Bruce Quaglia) and School of Music at the University
of Minnesota, and many other interlocutors on Reich and minimalism over
ix
