Opinion on Steve Reich

I also had the opportunity of reading through the first chapter of the book written by Steve Reich. I searched for most of the songs and videos mentioned in the text as I read with the intention of understanding a little more. I'm not going to lie, my first impression was: "what the hell is this guy doing?". I don't mean to insult anyone and by no means I consider myself an expert in the area. I just didn't get it; especially "It's Gonna Rain" and "Come Out". I found both pieces hard to listen to. I honestly tried my best to make it past the 2 or 3 minute mark. Something I do have to mention is that this is innovative for its time. In Steve Reich's Wikipedia article it is mentioned that "he is considered to have altered the direction of music history". I'm pretty sure you can't say that about a lot of other artists.

My opinion started changing a bit when I searched for "Violin Phase" and "Drumming". In the text he talks about stepping away from technology for a bit and do something more instrumental so it could be played live. So I searched for live performances of these two songs. Then, my mind was blown away. Not necessarily by the content of the work but by the skilled musicians who actually play it. I am not trained in music, the little I know I've learned on my own, but I understand enough to know that playing this and this takes a lot of focus and training. To purposely move around the beat in phase then out of phase is amazing. So, I think I understand Reich's work better now.

I appreciated more of his late work, like Alexa mentioned. "Different Trains" and "City Life" is much more complex and I find it a little more pleasing. It was very interesting to learn about Steve Reich and knowing the importance he's had on music history.