Steve Reich and Minimalist Music

Minimalist music is a genre that creates complex musical patterns using simple motifs.

You may have already listened to this style of music without even realizing it! 👀

Introduction

Steve Reich is a contemporary composer and one of the founders of minimalist music in the 1960s. This style of music is based on repetition and uses a technique called phasing, which creates a shift or delay in the repetition of musical motifs.

Phasing

Phasing involves two musicians starting to play the same simple motif (e.g., 12 eighth notes), and one of them gradually shifting, creating a new and more complex motif.

There are two ways to create a phase shift:

• The first involves a sudden shift in a musician’s playing of a note at the end of their motif, while the other continues to play as before. We can see this type of shift in the music **Clapping Music, where after eight repetitions** of the motif, one musician shifts their pattern by one beat and the other continues to clap as before. This process repeats until they have shifted through all possible combinations.
• Another way to create a phase shift is by gradually increasing the tempo of one musician’s playing until they are no longer in sync with the other musician. The change is gradual (like the phasing of pendulums). After a certain amount of time (X repetitions of the motif), one musician gradually increases their tempo until they are no longer in sync with the other musician. This is the case in Piano Phase.

A fun effect of phasing is that the first and last phase shifts will create identical complex motifs (since the two motifs will then be shifted by the same amount). The phased motifs are thus symmetrical throughout the piece.

While phasing can be applied to simple motifs (as in Clapping Music, where only two musicians clap their hands), it can also be applied to much more complex pieces, such as “**Music for 18 Musicians**”, an important work in contemporary music.

The Influence of Minimalist Music in Pop Culture

Without even realizing it, minimalist music (particularly through the influence of Steve Reich on some artists) can be found in many works you probably know:

• David Bowie’s “Weeping Wall,” inspired after he saw “Music for Eighteen Musicians” in concert. If you listen to it, you will notice the resemblance.
• Sufjan Stevens’ album Illinois, which uses repetition and phasing techniques.
• “**Love on a Real Train”, also heavily influenced by S.R.’s “Music for Eighteen Musicians,” is featured in the film Risky Business with Tom Cruise and the Netflix series Black Mirror**.
• Radiohead guitarist **Jonny Greenwood himself performed Electric Counterpoint by S.R. on stage, and in 2016, the song “Daydreaming” uses the same phasing technique as in PianoPhase**.
• Finally, minimalist music is also used in film, such as in the movie **There Will Be Blood, where Jonny Greenwood, who is in charge of the music of the film, uses phasing to highlight the main character’s changing values and emphasize the importance **of the scene by adding tension through the music.

Conclusion

Steve Reich is a pioneer of minimalist music, leaving an indelible mark in music history through his compositions.

His music, both timeless and avant-garde, offers a unique and captivating listening experience that has influenced numerous artists and continues to do so today.

I discovered Steve Reich and minimalist music thanks to the french **Mathémusique youtube channel video on the subject. If you like music and/or maths, I highly recommend it. His video on [minimalist music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47agCNyxfOE)** will allow you to better understand the subtleties of this music and the phase shift effect.

I hope you enjoyed this article different than usual, which discusses a niche but fascinating style of music.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback, and please share if you enjoyed it!

Have a great day!