Revolutionist In a Baseballcap
11 October 2016
The greatness of Steve Reich is a given. In the 1960s and ‘70s, he found a rigorous solution to a pressing challenge: how to restore, after a long period of experimentation, the primal pleasures of stable harmony and a steady pulse. Reich did this in a way that was unblinkingly modern and not at all nostalgic or neo-Romantic. Reich’s influence is vast, reaching far outside classical music. On some days, as familiar shimmering patterns echo on the sound- tracks of commercials and from the loudspeakers of dance clubs, it seems as though we are living in a world scored by Reich.