The Philip Glass – Steve Reich thing aka the feud

For a Nonesuch Celebration at BAM, Reich and Glass Bury the Hatchet

by Allan Kozinn, May 12, 2014

NY Times

Among the biggest surprises, and a measure of the regard in which the label is held in musical circles: Steve Reich and Musicians and the Philip Glass Ensemble will be sharing a program, something they haven’t done since the 1970s, when they apparently had a falling out that each has consistently refused to comment on publicly. The two ensembles will play three programs (Sept. 9-11) that will include many of their major works, including Mr. Reich’s “Drumming” and “Music for 18 Musicians,” and excerpts from Mr. Glass’s “Einstein on the Beach,” “Koyaanisqatsi” and “Music in 12 Parts.”

The Philip Glass – Steve Reich thing aka the feud

Steve Reich on Philip Glass: By early 1968, he had done a piece called One Plus One. And One Plus One was to Phil what It’s Gonna Rain was to me. It was his first original musical insight – the additive process. After that, he wrote a piece which he dedicated to me, but later took the dedication away. It was called Two Pages for Steve Reich, but is now Two Pages, subtitled Music in Unison. Basically, what happened between Phil and me was very much the kind of thing that had happened to me with Riley, which is a lot of things are floating around in your mind and somebody comes along who really sets things straight. The difference is that, for whatever reasons, he has been unwilling to admit that. And that has been one source of grief between us, for sure. I don’t quite understand, will all the success that he’s had, why that remains something he’s very uptight about. But those things happened; they are documented in programs, reviews, and scores. It’s not conjecture.

La Monte Young: …according to Steve, Phil and Steve had a group together, and Phil began to play the way he does after he was in a group with Steve.

William Duckworth: Everybody seems to have different stories about what happened.

La Monte Young: Well, Phil claims to come out of a vacuum. Nobody ever existed according to his book. At least that’s what I understand.

William Duckworth: What’s your interpretation of all this?

La Monte Young: Well, the story I tell is that there’s only one concert that I know of where all four of us appeared together. This was a concert that was put on by a group at Yale called Pulsa. They were doing a lot of work with light and…

Marian Zazeela: A lot of art and technology stuff…

La Monte Young: the concert was in 19…

Marian Zazeela: …I think it was ’67 or ’68…

La Monte Young: …and it was all tapes. I played a tape of Map of 49’s Dream—very sophisticated La Monte Young. Terry Riley probably played some of that two-tape recorder stuff he recorded with a saxophone—very clearly Terry Riley. And Steve Reich was sounding like Steve Reich. But Phil Glass played a piece that just sounded like a single line. It was either a violin or a saxophone.

Marian Zazeela: It was a violin.

La Monte Young: …and it just went on and on. It was incredibly dull. There was none of what you would call minimalism going on at all. Now OK, maybe it wasn’t a representative work. I don’t know. All I know is that’s what he played. Later on, I heard him…

Marian Zazeela: It must have been in the early ‘70s.

La Monte Young: …and there he was; he had a new sound. I don’t know what happened, but that was my experience. Now, maybe it wasn’t a characteristic piece. Maybe he had other pieces hidden away in 1968 that were just full of this minimal stuff. I don’t know,

From Talking Music by William Duckworth, 1995

Update August 21, 2014

Seth Colter Walls (TimeOut NY): You’re reuniting on a stage with Glass for the first time in decades. In between, there’s been a lot of talk about a feud, and hurt feelings. Too much talk?

Steve Reich: Well, look. This is Nonesuch’s 50th birthday. Bob called me up and said, “I’d like you to come and have lunch with me and Phil Glass.” And I said, “I’d love to!” And I’m sure he did the same with Phil. Actually, Phil and I had seen each other about a month before that, at a lunch—a kind of a homage to the Kronos Quartet, who had their 25th anniversary. People who had worked with them—both Phil and myself—were giving testimonials to how great they were. But the lunch, the idea, this whole [Nonesuch Records at BAM] project is Bob Hurwitz’s idea. And it’s a great one, and so here we are.

more from this recent interview here.

Harold Budd and Jon Gibson in NYC: April 24, 1997

Harold Budd and Jon Gibson
in NYC: April 24, 1997

Harold Budd and Jon Gibson, two principle figures of ambient music and minimalism, played at the Merkin Concert Hall in NYC on Thursday, April 24, 1997. Budd is perhaps best known as a collaborator with Brian Eno and the Cocteau Twins, and his controversial work “Madrigals of the Rose Angel” (1972), performed by a topless female chorus, harp, percussion, celeste and lights. Gibson is a saxophonist/flautist who has played with all four “major” minimalist composers: Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

Set List:

Gibson- CHROME I (1996; World premiere)
Budd- NOVE ALBERI (New York premiere; poem “The Butterfly” by Michael McClure)
Budd & Gibson- CUIDADES (1996; World Premiere)
Budd- MORE THAN THIS [the Roxy Music song]/ CAROUSEL AT THE END OF THE WORLD [Francesco Landini] (New York Premiere)
Budd & Gibson- FLAGS: Parallel Eagles-Jagged-Dance of the Cubes-Stan I- Stan II-Lambda Halved-Lambda Squared-A Rose It Isn’t-Pleasure [by Steven Brown]-The Night is Remiss- Parallel Eagles (World Premiere)
Budd- FRAGMENTS FROM “1000 CHORDS” (for John Foxx) (New York Premiere)
Gibson- MUCH ADO (World Premiere)
Budd & Gibson- CONSTELLATION OF SPIRES (World Premiere)

Gibson started the set out with “CHROME I”, a piece comprised primarily of merely five notes, with long, extended, hold-your-breath-till-it-hurts trills frenetically played on saxophone. His fingers could be heard audibly tapping the valves of the instrument, almost like a telegraph. Very interesting work.
Budd then came out and delivered “NOVE ALBERI”, a very haunting piece very reminiscent of Laurie Anderson’s work, with a pre-recorded backdrop and Budd’s sparse piano drifting unnoticably in and out of the atmosphere. Budd delivered the poem deep and dark, almost as if in a trance. Really captivating stuff.

The two came out and then played “CUIDADES”, a very simple work with Budd playing two ascending riffs (improvising each time by dragging out the spacing or by omitting notes), while Gibson played a beautiful some beautiful stuff over it.

Budd’s next piece, a combination of Bryan Ferry’s “More Than This” (so transformed as to be virtually unrecognizable) and Francesco Landini’s “Carousel at the End of the World” was a highlight of the evening: spritely and energetically delivered.

“FLAGS” was the evening’s crux, with many varied sections. “Parallel Eagles” was a broad ‘n’ brooding, legato piece while “Stan” had an upbeat, jazzy feel to it.

“FRAGMENTS from 1000 CHORDS” made heavy use of the Budd trademark: the “hazy”/”languid” chords (usually sevenths, ninths, augmenteds, diminisheds) that he executes masterfully on his most beautiful pieces.

“MUCH ADO” brough Gibson back on solo, for a wild performance of heavily echoed flute cadenzas.
The duo closed with “CONSTELLATION OF SPIRES”, another hauntingly beautiful piece to enamour the audience.

I really enjoyed the performance, and hope that some of this stuff, if it isn’t already, gets recorded (I think, though I could be wrong, that “Nove Alberi” is already on Budd’s latest studio album “LUXA”). One thing you took away from the performance was Budd’s us of spacing; listening to him play live, it gives the illusion that each note he plays has travelled a few light years to get from the piano to your ears! That’s seriously what it seemed like to me: watching a starry sky at nighttime.

After the show, I talked with him for a bit- he’s really a great guy, again (like Terry Riley, who I had seen maybe a month ago), very approachable, friendly, easy to talk to. If you do talk to him, however, be warned that he prefers not to shake hands (though someone else there did and he didn’t scowl at them or anything 😉 )-apparently, I think his left hand may be slightly injured (?). I asked him about his experiences with making “THE MOON AND THE MELODIES” album (with the Cocteau Twins), to which he said that he enjoyed making the album with them, though they went into it completely in the dark, not knowing what to do or expect; although he doesn’t consider it a perfect album, he’s overall happy with it (at least we both agreed that “Memory Gongs” was a great song! 🙂 )…and what were the Cocteau Twins like, I asked? “Oh, they are absolutely wonderful people! Totally unpretentious, no egos, or..you know…*none of that crap* !! Plus, she [Elizabeth Fraser] has an absolutely beautiful voice…” “Is Brian Eno like that, too?” “Oh yes, most definately…” (!!) 🙂

Joe McGlinchey
Sun, 27 Apr 1997

Note: I was at Harry Partch’s Oedipus across town so I missed this rare appearance by Harold Budd in NYC. Good thing Joe was there! This review originally appeared in the USENET newsgroups and appears here with the authors permission.

db
10/2/1997

Originally published online at Juxtaposition Ezine.

Theatre of Voices, John Cage, Terry Riley, Paul Hillier

Litany for the Whale
Theatre of Voices
John Cage, Paul Hillier, Terry Riley
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907187

Paul Hillier is mostly known for his performances of early music, although he has recorded the music of Ingram Marshall, minimalist composer Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt and others. On this CD by radical avant gard American composer John Cage (1912 – 1992), Hillier is joined by his ensemble Theatre of Voices and special guest early minimalist Terry Riley. There’s a wide range of vocal music by Cage on this disc.

A pastoral duet between Theatre of Voices members Alan Bennett and Paul Elliott on Litany for the Whale opens the disc. 26 minutes of Cageian vocalese based on the word whale where two voices sound as one. I listened to this piece a few times and read the liner notes before I realized there was more than one person singing.

Aria No. 2 starts with thunder and a kiss, Paul Hillier explores vowels and consonants from five languages: Armenian, Russian, Italian, French and English. On the late Cage piece, Five, five voices blend harmoniously. Hillier’s solo voice on The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs is accompanied by closed piano. One can hear him tapping about on the piano while singing text from Finnegan’s Wake. Solo for Voice from Songbooks, is split up between two performers who make textural breathing sounds that are in turn electronically processed.

Soloist Andrea Fullington sings Experiences No.2 based on e.e cummings “III,” Sonnets-Unrealities, Tulips and Chimneys (1923). This sweet ballad serves as an introduction to conversational tone of: Mesostics re and not re Marcel Duchamp as performed by Paul Hillier and Terry Riley. Back and forth: Riley recites and Hillier sings through various digital sound processing devices.

Aria (for Cathy Berberian) is a theatrical festival for seven voices and electronics. Hillier arranged the piece for multiple voices to cover the different vocal styles. The electronics give the listener an added colorful element of enviroment . Bells, breaking glass, water, the surf and other sounds illustrate the work.

A satisfying and frequently unpredictable survey of Cage’s vocal music as performed by Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices. Highly recommended.

David Beardsley
7/22/98

Originally published online at Juxtaposition Ezine.

Influenced by Gamelan: Bill Alves & Patrick Grant

Historically, there’s a tradition of western composers not only studying the music of Indonesia but visiting Bali or Java and keeping the influence in their works. In the late 1920’s a Canadian living in New York, Colin McPhee, was exposed to the gamelan (a tuned percussion ensemble) music of Bali by a gramophone recording. The music became a passion for McPhee, he spent five years in Bali in the 1930’s and the music became a powerful force in his music. In modern times minimalist Steve Reich studied gamelan in the early ’70s and King Crimson guitarist/original member Robert Fripp showed an obvious gamelan/minimalist influence on the 1981 album Discipline. While Fripp and Reich probably didn’t go there, they obviously heard recordings. The two cd’s reviewed here are also by western composers who have traveled east and brought the gamelan vibration home to live on in their music in the west.

The Terrain of Possibilities
(EMF)
Bill Alves

The influence of Bill Alves studies show up in the cyclic patterns in his compositions. In Redundant I, highly manipulated samples of soprano Eve Vazana’s voice rotate past the listener and return. Bending Space has a highly ritualistic meditative quality a beautiful timeless moment. The composition The Terrain of Possibilities uses just intonation tuned samples of various Indonesian metal instruments, Korean chimes, piano, various percussion instruments and voice for a rhythmically driving work full of drama. Other musical influences are present too. Spectral Motion was inspired by the polyrhythms of West African drumming ensembles while the techniques of English change ringing informed Redundant I,.

Time Auscultations as well as the other remaining tacks on the album move forward with the drive of gamelan while displaying Alves command of timbre: with the exception of The Question Mark’s Black Ink where Vicki Ray, piano and Mark Nicolay, percussion perform with tape, all of the works on the album were realized on the Synclavier II computer music system. The samples seem to be optimized for the tunings. Very much an electronic music album as well as being influenced by gamelan: a beautifully fascinating CD.

Fields Amaze
(Silent Treatment)
Patrick Grant

Patrick Grant’s time in the east manifests itself in an amazingly relentless clock-like drive. Unlike the Alves cd, the Grant album is entirely acoustic. On the first track Fields Amaze Grant’s piano, percussion and gamelan is assisted by Barbara Benary on gamelan and David Simmon’s percussion. This composition – a well as the rest of the cd – rocks – in the sense that the dynamics are relatively flat and the timing is solid. A Visible Track of Turbulence seems to draw on early 20th century Euro-American chamber music with it’s instrumentation of flute, clarinet and piano – and of course stylistically too. Relative Segments for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, piano and keyboards reinforces the impression that Steve Reich and Phillip Glass also seem to be an influence. In Everything Distinct; Everything The Same piano, percussion and gamelan show an obvious debt to the Indonesian metal instrument ensemble. This cd is also stunning.

In response to my inquiry about the tunings on this cd, Patrick Grant replied:

The pieces on this CD that were referred to in the article
are in two different tunings, nothing too fancy. The first
works in various modes of Gb natural major and the second
is in a combined pelog and slendro taken from Barbara Benary’s
gamelan. The latter results in a scale that has 10 tones per
octave of varying widths. Octaves are not perfect in that they
all have a 5 cent stretch (i.e. c to c’ = 1205 cents). On the
electronic keyboard I have tuned the two unused keys enharmonically
to their nearest neighbors so they could be used for some
quasi-bariolage effects. Thanks for asking.

db
5/3/1998

Originally published on line at Juxtaposion Ezine.