Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for creating a style of music called minimalism in the 1960s and 1970s. His music uses repeated patterns, slow changes in harmony, and overlapping musical phrases. Reich explained his approach in an essay titled "Music as a Gradual Process," where he said, "I want to hear the process happening throughout the music." For example, in his early works, he used a technique called phase shifting, where repeated musical phrases played at slightly different speeds, creating new patterns as they moved out of alignment.

Reich used tape loops—repeating recorded sounds—to make phasing patterns in pieces like It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966). He also used simple, clearly audible processes in works such as Pendulum Music (1968) and Four Organs (1970). His compositions Drumming (1971) and Music for 18 Musicians (1976) are considered important examples of minimalism and influenced experimental, rock, and electronic music. In the 1980s, Reich's work included themes from his Jewish heritage, as seen in Different Trains (1988).

Reich's style has inspired many composers in the United States and Great Britain. A music critic named Andrew Clements said Reich is one of "a few living composers who have changed the direction of musical history."

Early life

Reich was born in New York City to Jewish parents, June Sillman, a Broadway lyricist, and Leonard Reich. When he was one year old, his parents divorced, and Reich spent time living in both New York and California. He is the half-brother of writer Jonathan Carroll. Reich received piano lessons as a child and grew up listening to music that was popular among middle-class people. He had no exposure to music written before 1750 or after 1900. At age 14, he began studying music seriously after hearing music from the Baroque period and earlier, as well as music from the 20th century. Reich studied drums with Roland Kohloff to learn how to play jazz. While attending Cornell University, he took additional courses in music and graduated in 1957 with a B.A. in Philosophy. His B.A. thesis was about Ludwig Wittgenstein; later, he used texts by that philosopher in his music compositions Proverb (1995) and You Are (variations) (2006).

For one year after graduating, Reich studied composition privately with Hall Overton before enrolling at Juilliard to study with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti (1958–1961). Later, he attended Mills College in Oakland, California, where he studied with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud (1961–1963) and earned a master's degree in composition. At Mills, Reich composed a piece called Melodica for melodica and tape, which was included in the 1986 three-LP release Music from Mills.

Reich worked with the San Francisco Tape Music Center alongside Pauline Oliveros, Ramon Sender, Morton Subotnick, Phil Lesh, and Terry Riley. He helped with the first performance of Riley's In C and suggested using an eighth note pulse, which is now commonly used in performances of the piece.

Career

Steve Reich began his work in composition by experimenting with a method called twelve-tone music. However, he found the rhythmic aspects of the number twelve more interesting than the pitch aspects. Reich also created soundtracks for three films made by Robert Nelson in the 1960s: Plastic Haircut (1963), Oh Dem Watermelons (1965), and Thick Pucker (1965). The soundtrack for Plastic Haircut, made in 1963, was a short piece created by combining different recorded sounds, possibly Reich’s first work. The Watermelons soundtrack used two 19th-century minstrel songs as a base, and combined repeated musical phrases in a structure called a five-part canon. The music for Thick Pucker came from recordings Reich made while walking around San Francisco with Nelson, who filmed in black and white 16mm film. This film no longer exists. A fourth film, about 25 minutes long and called Thick Pucker II, was made from leftover footage and audio recordings. Nelson was not satisfied with this film and never showed it publicly.

Reich was influenced by another composer, Terry Riley, whose piece In C uses simple musical patterns that shift slightly in time to create a cohesive whole. Reich used this idea to compose his first major work, It’s Gonna Rain (1965). This piece used a short recording of a sermon by a Black Pentecostal preacher named Brother Walter. Reich repeated the phrase “it’s gonna rain!” on separate tape loops, making them gradually shift out of sync with each other.

Reich’s 13-minute piece Come Out (1966) used a recorded line from Daniel Hamm, one of the Harlem Six, who was injured by police. Hamm had to open a bruise to prove his injury. Reich took the phrase “come out to show them” from Hamm’s speech, recorded it on two channels, and played them in unison before slowly making them shift out of sync. The voices then split into four, then eight, until the words became unclear, leaving only the rhythm and tone.

In Melodica (1966), Reich used a similar technique with a musical instrument called a melodica. He recorded a simple melody, then played it on two channels, shifting them slightly out of phase to create a complex melody. This piece is similar to Come Out in rhythm and shows how the same process can be used in different ways. Reich was inspired by a dream he had on May 22, 1966, and completed the piece in one day. Melodica was Reich’s last work made only for tape and marked his move toward instrumental music.

Reich’s first attempt to use the phasing technique in a live performance was Piano Phase (1967), for two pianos. The performers play a short twelve-note melody together at first. One player keeps the tempo steady, while the other slightly speeds up until the two parts are out of sync by one sixteenth note. The second player then returns to the original tempo, and this cycle repeats three times. A similar piece, Violin Phase (1967), used the same idea. Both pieces were performed in art galleries in New York.

Another example of Reich’s process-based music is Pendulum Music (1968), which uses microphones swinging over loudspeakers to create feedback. Reich never recorded this piece himself, but it was later performed by the band Sonic Youth.

Reich also tried to create phasing using only the human body but found it unsuitable. Instead, he wrote Clapping Music (1972), where one performer keeps a 12-note phrase while the other shifts by one note every 12 bars until they realign after 144 bars.

In 1967, Reich created a piece called Slow Motion Sound, which was never performed. Twenty-seven years later, Chris Hughes performed a version called Slow Motion Blackbird on his 1994 album Shift. This piece introduced the idea of slowing down a recording without changing its pitch or tone. Reich later used this idea in Four Organs (1970), where maracas play a fast eighth-note rhythm while four organs highlight certain notes using an 11th chord. This work focused on repetition and small rhythmic changes. Unlike Reich’s usual cyclical structures, Four Organs used a linear structure. It was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and marked Reich’s first large-scale traditional performance.

In 1970, Reich traveled to Ghana to study polyrhythmic music with a drummer named Gideon Alorwoyie. He also read about Ewe music by A. M. Jones, which inspired his piece Drumming (1970–1971). This work, for a nine-piece percussion ensemble with female voices and a piccolo, marked the start of a new phase in Reich’s career. Around this time, he formed his ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, which became the main group performing his works. The ensemble remains active today.

After Drumming, Reich moved away from phasing techniques and explored other methods, such as augmentation (lengthening musical phrases over time). In the summers of 1973 and 1974, he studied Balinese gamelan music in Seattle and Berkeley, which influenced Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973). Another work from this period was Six Pianos (1973).

In 1974, Reich began writing Music for 18 Musicians, a piece that introduced new ideas while recalling earlier works. It starts with a cycle of eleven chords, followed by sections based on each chord, and ends with a return to the original cycle. This was Reich’s first work for a large ensemble, allowing for more complex sound effects. He expressed interest in exploring these effects further.

Awards

In 2005, Reich was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal.

Reich was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award in Music in October 2006.

On January 25, 2007, Reich was named the 2007 recipient of the Polar Music Prize alongside jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

On April 20, 2009, Reich was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music, recognizing Double Sextet, which was first performed in Richmond on March 26, 2008. The citation described the work as "a major piece that shows how to turn a burst of energy into a large musical event, created with skill and always interesting to listen to."

In May 2011, Steve Reich received an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory of Music.

In 2012, Steve Reich received the Gold Medal in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 2013, Reich received the US$400,000 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in contemporary music for introducing a new way of creating music that uses elements from everyday life and traditional music from Africa and Asia.

In September 2014, Reich was awarded the "Leone d'Oro" (Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Music) by the Venice Biennale.

In March 2016, Reich was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Royal College of Music in London.

Legacy

Kyle Gann, an American composer and critic, said that Steve Reich is often called America's greatest living composer. Andrew Clements, a music critic for The Guardian, wrote that Reich is one of a few living composers who have significantly changed the direction of musical history.

Reich's style of writing music has influenced many other composers and musical groups, including John Adams, Michael Nyman, Aphex Twin, Björk, Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, American Football, Stereolab, King Crimson, Autechre, Matmos, Michael Hedges, the Residents, Underworld, composers linked to the Bang on a Can festival (such as David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe), Sufjan Stevens, Matthew Healy of the 1975, Tortoise, The Mercury Program, JG Thirlwell, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor (which named an unreleased song "Steve Reich").

John Adams said, "He didn’t reinvent the wheel so much as he showed us a new way to ride." Reich's music has also inspired visual artists like Bruce Nauman, and many choreographers have created dances using his compositions, including Eliot Feld, Jiří Kylián, Douglas Lee, and Jerome Robbins. Reich has especially admired the work of choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, who has set dances to his music.

In 1990, the British music group the Orb included a sample of Reich's piece Electric Counterpoint (1987) in their song Little Fluffy Clouds, introducing Reich's music to a new audience. In 1999, an album called Reich Remixed featured new versions of Reich's works by electronic music producers such as DJ Spooky, Kurtis Mantronik, Ken Ishii, and Coldcut.

Reich's piece Cello Counterpoint (2003) inspired a series of compositions for solo cello with pre-recorded cellos created by Ashley Bathgate in 2017. These works include new pieces by Emily Cooley and Alex Weiser.

Reich has mentioned that composers like Pérotin, J. S. Bach, Debussy, Bartók, and Stravinsky influenced him when he was young. Jazz music played a major role in shaping Reich's style, and two early influences were vocalists Ella Fitzgerald and Alfred Deller, whose use of the human voice with little vibrato inspired his early works. John Coltrane's approach to music, which Reich described as "playing a lot of notes to very few harmonies," also affected his style. Reich was especially interested in Coltrane's album Africa/Brass, which he called "basically a half-an-hour in E." Reich's connection to jazz also includes West African music, which he studied through books and a visit to Ghana. Other important influences include musicians like Kenny Clarke and Miles Davis, as well as visual artists such as Sol LeWitt and Richard Serra. Reich has also said he admires the music of the band Radiohead, which inspired his composition Radio Rewrite.

Works

• Pitch Charts (1963) – uses different instruments
• Soundtrack for Plastic Haircut (1963)
• Music for two or more pianos (1964)
• Livelihood (1964)
• It's Gonna Rain (1965)
• Soundtrack for Oh Dem Watermelons (1965)
• Come Out (1966)
• Melodica for melodica and tape (1966)
• Reed Phase for soprano saxophone or other reed instrument and tape, or three reed instruments (1966)
• Piano Phase for two pianos, or two marimbas (1967)
• Slow Motion Sound (1967)
• Violin Phase for violin and tape, or four violins (1967)
• My Name Is (1967) – uses three tape recorders and performers
• Pendulum Music (1968) – revised in 1973

• Pulse Music (1969) – uses phase shifting pulse gate
• Four Log Drums (1969) – uses four log drums and phase shifting pulse gate
• Four Organs (1970) – uses four electric organs and maracas
• Phase Patterns (1970) – uses four electric organs
• Drumming (1970/1971) – uses bongo drums, marimbas, glockenspiels, voices, and instruments
• Clapping Music (1972) – uses two musicians clapping
• Music for Pieces of Wood (1973) – uses tuned claves
• Six Pianos (1973) – also arranged as Six Marimbas (1986), adapted as Six Marimbas Counterpoint (2010), and Piano Counterpoint (2011)
• Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973)
• Music for 18 Musicians (1974–76)
• Music for a Large Ensemble (1978, revised 1979)
• Octet (1979) – replaced by Eight Lines (1983)
• Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards (1979)
• Tehillim (1981) – uses voices and ensemble
• Vermont Counterpoint (1982) – uses amplified flute and tape
• The Desert Music (1983) – uses chorus and orchestra or voices and ensemble (text by William Carlos Williams)
• Sextet (1984, revised 1985) – uses percussion and keyboards
• New York Counterpoint (1985) – uses amplified clarinet and tape, or 11 clarinets and bass clarinet
• Three Movements (1986) – for orchestra
• Electric Counterpoint (1987) – uses electric guitar or amplified acoustic guitar and tape (for Pat Metheny)
• The Four Sections (1987) – for orchestra
• Different Trains (1988) – uses string quartet and tape
• The Cave (1993) – uses four voices, ensemble, and video (with Beryl Korot)
• Duet (1993) – uses two violins and string ensemble (dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin)
• Nagoya Marimbas (1994) – uses two marimbas
• City Life (1995) – uses amplified ensemble
• Proverb (1995) – uses voices and ensemble (text by Ludwig Wittgenstein)
• Triple Quartet (1998) – uses amplified string quartet and tape, or three string quartets, or string orchestra
• Know What Is Above You (1999) – uses four women's voices and two tamborims
• Three Tales (1998–2002) – uses video projection, five voices, and ensemble (with Beryl Korot)
• Dance Patterns (2002) – uses xylophones, vibraphones, and pianos
• Cello Counterpoint (2003) – uses amplified cello and multichannel tape
• You Are (Variations) (2004) – uses voices and ensemble
• For Strings (with Winds and Brass) (1987/2004) – for orchestra
• Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings (2005) – dance piece for string quartets, vibraphones, and pianos
• Daniel Variations (2006) – uses four voices and ensemble
• Double Sextet (2007) – uses various instruments and pre-recorded tape
• 2×5 (2008) – uses drum sets, pianos, guitars, and bass guitars
• Mallet Quartet (2009) – uses marimbas, vibraphones, or solo percussion and tape
• WTC 9/11 (2010) – uses string quartet and tape
• Finishing the Hat (2011) – uses two pianos
• Radio Rewrite (2012) – for ensemble
• Quartet (2013) – uses two vibraphones and two pianos
• Pulse (2015) – uses winds, strings, piano, and electric bass
• Runner (2016) – for large ensemble
• For Bob (2017) – for piano
• Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018)
• Reich/Richter (2019) – for large ensemble
• Traveler's Prayer (2020) – uses tenors, sopranos, vibraphones, piano, and strings
• Jacob's Ladder (2023) – uses four vocalists and large ensemble

• Live/Electric Music (Columbia Masterworks, 1968)
• Four Organs (Shandar, 1970; recorded again for Angel, 1973) – uses four electric organs and maracas
• Music for 18 Musicians (ECM Records, 1978)
• Music for a Large Ensemble (Nonesuch, 1979)
• Octet (Nonesuch, 1979)
• Variations for Winds, Strings and