Writings unpublished in French or retranslated

The Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris has recently published a number of works, including a series dedicated to the writings of composers. One of the latest volumes, devoted to Steve Reich, provides a good introduction to the music of the most important representative of the American minimalist movement, thanks to some ninety texts spanning half a century, either unpublished in French or retranslated. Their chronological classification allows us to follow his evolution, although readers can take less linear paths, according to their interest or whim.

This book contains presentations or more detailed analyses of some fifty works - the equivalent of virtually Reich's entire catalog - several interviews conducted at various points in his career, short tributes to fellow composers on both sides of the Atlantic, and other writings on subjects as diverse as the relationship between spoken language and music, the layout of the orchestra, and the use of videotape in his compositions. Much more practical than theoretical, his musical thinking focuses on certain axes (canons, metric ambiguities, rhythm, role of interpretation) or on the influences that have nourished it, including medieval and Renaissance polyphony, synagogal cantillation and extra-European music (such as that of West Africa and Bali), which he is convinced currently represents "the most important source of new ideas for Western composers and musicians", whose knowledge "also sheds new light on the Western system and shows us that it is only one among many. " Considering himself a craftsman with a heavy responsibility towards those who listen to his music, he talks of his affinities with composers he esteems (including Copland, Pärt or Weill), or his relationships with other "minimalists" (Glass, Adams,...) and their works. His positions on the music of his time, sometimes abrupt and lacking in nuance, testify to a great restraint with regard to contemporary European music, which seems mannerist to him, and on the contrary to an enthusiasm for Anglo-Saxon music and emancipated composers.

Steve Reich, Différentes Phases, 480 p., € 30.00, Philharmonie de Paris, 2016, ISBN 979-10-94642-12-2