So while the Brit Awards Brit Award for Best Brit Award was being presented last night, the band said “down with that sort of thing” and went on an outing to see Steve Reich’s ‘Drumming’ performed at the South Bank Centre. Swimming somewhere around my consciousness are some received ideas that Reich gets dissed in certain circles – quite possibly by some Classic FM-y types who might talk about melodic naivety (more below on that) or the lack of ‘emotional depth’ - ‘Classical music’ being freighted with Romantic notions of how music ‘expresses’ something, or that music be ‘representative’ as Tom put it, whereas ‘Drumming’ expresses things through being what it is rather than something else. But I guess he might not be thought of favourably elsewhere for things like the following (said last night during the after-performance discussion): “For some people percussion was a way into electronic music, but I thought ‘what if percussion is a way out of electronic music?’.” Another objection is further down in this post, from Professor Eno.
The what it is of ‘Drumming’ is, firstly, an exploration of timbre, acoustics and phasing. One interesting feature of the performance mentioned in the talk last night was that the players are not only encouraged to listen to the magic effects, the ‘ghost’ sounds that can reach a pulsing intensity, but also to use only what they hear (particularly in the case of the singers), amplifying what’s already, accidentally, there.
It’s also definitely a visual experience, one that lives through being performed. I thought back to the Brian Eno ‘Arena’ documentary, with its talk of cybernetics and feedback (also, hadn’t realised Cornelius Cardew was in Reich’s band)… and I found Eno here knocking ‘Drumming’: “He uses orchestral drums stiffly played and badly recorded. He’s learnt nothing from the history of recorded music. Why not look at what the pop world is doing with recording, which is making incredible sounds with great musicians who really feel what they play.” Last night both confirmed and dispelled that opinion; it was clear that these musicians were ‘really feeling’ what they played, and that feedback was essential to the unfolding of the music (as per ‘listening to the magic effects’ above - band leader Colin Currie confirmed this), with ‘aberrations’, that in some cases might be specific to the room, being emphasised, developed and integrated into the whole; it’s musical evolution, literally. But Reich himself made the point that he’d never really heard ‘Drumming’ the way he heard it last night, with all the musicians being professional percussionists. He admitted to being only a so-so drummer, and the impression he gave was that the same went for others that he played with back then – that might account for the ‘stiffness’. Also, it’s perfectly possible to accept that Reich isn’t any sort of visionary when it comes to possibilities of recorded sound – nothing he said last night indicated that this was his focus (even if the ‘kaleidescopic’ – Currie’s words – musical changes in ‘Drumming’ have a lot in common with dub and techno sound manipulation).
‘Drumming’ also lives through performance because it’s a utopian spectacle – it was remarked upon how each player (all from different walks and stages of life, Currie stressed) developed their own ‘ready stance’ when preparing to start or rejoin the performance, and then subordinated themselves to the larger programme before taking a rest and allowing others to continue the work. Another instruction to the drummers was that they shouldn’t rush and feel obliged to change anything, but if an individual felt the pattern was getting boring and wanted to emphasise something new they should feel free to do so. It’s a process which, for the performers, appeared to be its own reward. And for the audience too, I think. You’re not having your emotions manipulated by the music so much as thinking with and through it.
Also interesting, though, was to see Reich embracing what, for want of a better word, you might describe as the slight cheesiness the actual music (the notes) expresses– I’m paraphrasing here, but it was along the lines of “When I listen, I hear some sheets on a line in the California sun, corny stuff like that. It’s sunshine music.” Simon Reynolds, on the subject of dance music, though, makes the point that for electronic producers, it’s not the notes in a musical figure/riff that count so much as the fact that they are a vehicle for displaying texture, treated sound. For Reich, they’re the vehicle for exploring the acoustic qualities of instruments interacting with each other and the sound of a room. The ‘corny stuff’ is accidental, he seemed to be saying – which does back up Eno in a way when he says that Reich was more interested in process than results. (Where’s the line between Reich and some of Eno’s music in that respect, though – ‘Discreet Music’, say? Just that Eno gets better recorded sound from his processes? The non-musical concepts that feed into Eno’s stuff? That Eno’s music doesn’t have a sunshine cheesy vibe? These are not rhetorical questions, btw…)
Meanwhile, hostess of the after-show discussion Gillian Moore wanted to pin Steve down on a very important matter – just where was the ‘one’? She could well have been on the pipe throughout the show for how lethargic she appeared, but it was fun to envisage an alternate scenario where she pinned him to the wall, screaming “Where’s the ‘one’, Steve? WHERE’S THE FUCKING ‘ONE’!”)
Some additional points/study from Tom:
Steve Reich’s manifesto
The book on African music that was a major influence on Reich:
A comparison between Reich and William Carlos Williams (who Reich got into because of the symmetry of his name apparently).
Williams’s poetry has phasing-esque techniques in it:
“They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her”
And a quote:
"I wanted to compose music that I loved intensely, that was completely personal...but that was arrived at by impersonal means.”
(“completely personal” – so I suppose that could include embracing your sunshine cheesy side rather than dismissing it as an accidental effect?).
