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Music for Pieces of Wood ~Percussion!

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Listening to percussion music is a great pleasure - travel back and forth between rhythms and motions. Right, I am going to introduce "Music for Pieces of Wood" (1973) by Steve Reich.


Composer's notes (from https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Steve-Reich-Music-for-Pieces-of-Wood/102362)

A desire to make music with the simplest possible instruments

Instrumentation

Claves, cylindrical pieces of hard wood (A, B, C#, D#, and D# an octave above) for their resonant timbre

A piece without amplification

Rhythmic structure

Rhythmic "buildups" or the substitution of beats for rests, three sections of decreasing pattern length: 6/4, 4/4, 3/4

Genre Chamber music classical

Period Contemporary Modern

Avg Duration 10:06


Analysis:


Beginning

The first player lays down a featureless, metronomic beat that continues throughout the piece. The second player then joins in with a repeating twelve-note pattern. The other players join in one by one playing the same pattern as the second player, either in unison with him or offset by a few beats.


Middle

Each of the players in turn begins to discreetly omit note after note from the pattern, until nothing but the original metronomic beat remains. This entire build-up/tear-down plan is repeated with shorter and shorter rhythmic patterns, until the process is completely exhausted


Reference from Jeremy Grimshaw, ALL MUSIC https://www.allmusic.com/composition/music-for-pieces-of-wood-for-5-pairs-of-tuned-claves-mc0002370366)



Here is the visualized version.



April 2018, Fanling

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