Composer Looks East by Sumanth Gopianth

Gopinath, Sumanth, "Composer Looks East: Steve Reich and Discourse on Non-western Music" Glendora Review:African Quarterly on the Arts, Vol 3 @ No3&4 2004.



PDF file from the Library Archive

p. 134

.....During the last few years in particular, scholars have begun to address the question of Reich's use of non-Western music, usually within broader discussions of the relationship between non-Western music and American experimental composition.  The new attention to minimalism provides a valuable opportunity to re-examine Reich's composition Drumming (1971), a piece that is often described as both " minimalism's first masterpiece" and "overtly influenced by non-Western music."

p. 135
....The year before, just before his [Reich's] trip to Ghana, Reich wrote in his manifesto-like "some Optimistic Predictions about the Future of Music" of May 1970: 'Non-Western music in general and African, Indonesian and Indian music in particular will serve as new structural models for Western musicians.  Not as new models of sound.  (That's the old exoticism trip.)  Those of use who love the sounds will hopefully just go and learn how to play these musics.'

.....In May 1969, in program notes for a concert at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Reich stated explicitly, "I am not interested in improvisation or sounding exotic."  A music aesthetic based on the intersection of Western and non-Wester music could be easily criticised by skeptics of musical fusion and lead to charges of contradicting his prior aesthetic stance.

p. 136
.....Reich's shift to a non-Western based musical aesthetic required that he modify his harsh opinions about the use of non-Western musics and promote the importance of such music as a new basis for composition.  The composer's interest in West African music, which intensified just prior to his trip to Accra in the summer of 1970, then found a legitimized outlet in his own compositional practice.  In particular, by positing the type of binary opposition between sound and structure which is implied by his comment of May 1970, non-Western influence is rendered acceptable on the structural level, even as it remains unacceptable on the surface, sound-oriented level.  By shifiting the focus of his critque away from musical fusion in general and towards surface-imitation in particular, Reich leaves himself breathing space to justify certain uses of non-Western music.

Riley, Reich, Glass, the three big names represents American minimalists.  Reading the comments by Gopinath, it is hard not to notice the similarity in the development throughout Reich's career and in those of the students I worked with last year.

Is there a reason hiding in the culture or history that will explain why those composers often have their interests in electronics, phasing, then rhythmic structure?  Another fact that also strike me is that there are so many pieces claim to focus on certain materials, hence the rest of the components are--sometimes have to be--disregarded.

The similarity in the methods and directions of searching for an answer demonstrated a tread of influence.  Is this from the philosophy developments? the believes in aesthetics? or even, the religions?  Studying the traces of composers looking out for answers actually reflects what 'music' means as a questions to them.

What is even more threatening is that most of the time people are not even aware of these similarities.  We all wish to be unique, but the fact proves that we are not.