Works by Reich which use pre-recorded sounds and speech samples

'It's Gonna Rain' (1965)
1. Opens with the story of Noah
2. 2 identical tapes loops of black preacher intoning 'it's gonna rain' on 2 different tape recorders
3. Beginning in unison 2 simultaneous tracks shift out of sync (phase shifting)
4. Subdivided into 4 then 8 parts that phase against each other
  1. Produce a variety of resulting harmonic, melodic and polyrhythmic combinations
'Come Out' (1966)
1. Uses spoken speech from voice of a Harlem boy
2. "Come out to show them" re-recorded on two channels
  1. Phase shifting effect created as they slip out of sync
3. Gradually the gap widens to become a reverberation and then almost a canon
  1. 2 voices split into 4, looped continuously, then 8, until actual words are unintelligible
    1. Only rhythmic and tonal patterns of spoken words are left
'Electric Counterpoint' (1987)
1. Comissioned for jazz guitarist Pal Metheny
  1. Metheny recorded all guitar tracks under Reich's supervision to create a stereo backing track
    1. Metheny would then perform a live part to create an ensemble performance with himself
2. Written for 12 guitars and 2 bass guitars
3. Tonal ambiguity caused by frequent key shifts between E minor and C minor
4. Features change of metre between 3/2 and 12/8 but not in all parts
5. Difficult to accomplish due to need for precise timing
'Different Trains' (1988)
1. 3 movements
  1. Live string quartet
  2. Taped string quartet
  3. Taped sampled speech fragments
  4. Train sounds
2. Described as politically motivated ‘documentary and musical reality’
3. Based on child experiences
  1. Jewish children travelling around Europe
  2. Himself as a child travelling from New York to LA
4. Contains speech fragments selected on the basis of their natural rhythmic and melodic phrasing
  1. Not metrically precise and requires tempo adjustments
    1. His governess
    2. Three Holocaust survivors
    3. A retired Pullman porter
5. Use of tape meant live players had to keep with the tempo of the recording
6. Musical and verbal continuity provided with unifying semiquaver string motive
'The Cave' (1993)
1. Multimedia opera in 3 acts
  1. Speech fragments
  2. Video
  3. Music
2. Presents differing views of Muslims, Jews and Christians as to their ‘claim’ on the Cave of the Patriarchs
3. Melodic lines are first used in conjunction with the speech that gave rise to them and then used independently
4. Melodic lines and video images developed by fragmentation and repetition
'City Life' (1995)
1. Orchestral work
  1. Unpitched, unamplified percussion
  2. 2 flutes
  3. 2 oboes
  4. 2 clarinets
  5. 2 vibraphones
  6. 2 samplers
  7. 2 pianos
  8. String quartet
  9. Double bass
2. Digital samples play back sounds and speech samples such as car horns, car alarms, air brakes, pile drivers recorded in New York City
  1. Last movement uses extracts from field communications from the New York Fire Department during 1993 World Trade Centre bombing
  2. Reich integrates these into the ensemble
  3. Include fragments of speech, some of which have their 'speech melody' performed by the other instruments
3. Divided into 5 movements in an arch-like form (ABCBA)
  1. Each named after a sample within it
  2. A: wind chorale B: rhythmic sampled sounds C: speech driven
  3. Paired movements share a chord cycle
'WTC' (2011)
1. 3 movements with no pause between them
2. 1. 9/11/01
  1. Uses speech samples from New York Fire Department and eye witnesses
3. 2. 2010
  1. Uses taped recollections of the day recorded by Reich
4. 3. WTC
  1. Uses recordings of the Jewish hymn of the dead

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Works by Reich which use pre-recorded sounds and speech samples

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	Created by Eleanor Grace over 9 years ago