Music 210: Harmony & Form IV Spring 2016
Assignment 19

Steve Reich, Piano Phase

 

Audio here; score is in the MG Anthology

Piano Phase begins with a repeating pattern of 12 sixteenth notes, played by one pianist. A second pianist enters imperceptibly, playing the same pattern in unison with the first pianist for 12-18 repetitions of the cycle. The second pianist then speeds up almost imperceptibly, getting gradually ahead of (out of phase with) the first pianist—changing speed so slightly that it takes between 4 and 16 repetitions of the 12-note cycle for Pianist #2 to get one single note ahead of Pianist #1.

Now the two pianists are back in phase with each other at the sixteenth-note level, but Pianist #2 is a note ahead in the pattern (thus out of phase at the larger 12/16 level). After playing this new juxtaposition of the pattern against itself, one note out of sync, approximately 20 times, Pianist #2 again speeds up imperceptibly until the two pianos are two notes out of sync. This process is repeated until Pianist #2 cycles all the way through, eventually returning to the original unison pattern. This is the first 10 minutes of the piece; after that, the same process plays out for two other patterns.

Re-read this excerpt from Reich’s essay “Music as a Gradual Process”. Listen to the first 10 minutes again and see if you can follow the process.

What is it like listening to this? Does the piece interest you? Does it drive you crazy? Do you appreciate knowing the process underlying what you hear? Write a few sentences about your listening experience.

Reich’s interest in phase-shifting stems from his early tape pieces. Come Out is based entirely on a prerecorded spoken text, which Reich made into an endless tape loop (this was before computer-based audio editing existed outside of major research facilities). Reich put two copies of the speech on two separate mono reel-to-reel tape machines in order to create stereo effects. An unintentional but inevitable side effect was that the slight discrepancy in speed between the machines, or a slight difference in length of the two tape loops, caused the two copies of the recording to go gradually out of phase with each other. This mechanical, tape-based phase-shifting gave Reich the idea for instrumental, consciously composed “phasing” pieces like Piano Phase which occupied him for the next several years.