A piece that needs to be seen as well as heard. Was amazed when I first saw it performed in the 80's and thanks to TH-cam, a wider audience can appreciate the visual aspect as well.
You hear the tonal melodies of the drumming emerge with each player's entrance, and then linger in some skeletal form with each player's exit, reminding the listener that this most ancient craft - tribal percussion - lingers too in the minds of modern musicians, and perhaps always shall.
Holy, shit. That. Was. Insane. Like, what did I just stumbleupon? I was mesmerized and captivated, almost hypnotized even. Stellar performance. Bravo. BRAVO!
Such a clean execution of one of my favorite pieces of music for percussion ever! The precision of syncopation between all four members that is required for the clean execution of this piece is so incredibly difficult, but it is so beautifully hypnotic when performed as well as this group does. Great job to all!!! Additionally, it warmed my heart to see one of my fellow percussionists from the U of O School of Music in the lineup and playing so very, very well: shout-out to Brian Gardiner!
@Edgar Leonarz I think the detail he's referring to is how one part will either speed up or slow down by a few bpm to get to that polyrhythm. Steve used to play two tapes of the same thing and then manually slow one down slightly until it synced into the next polyrhythm and returned it to the same tempo.
@turn7_boom You might want to reconsider how you phrase pretty much everything in that sentence, or at least inform yourself a bit better about this piece. At best your comment is ignorant; at worst, it's unintentionally racist. 1. this isn't "shamanic chants and stone age spirit incantations," it's based on modern Ewe drumming which is a dynamic and living practice of drumming and dancing among one of the ethnic tribes of Ghana. To liken it to "stone age spirit incantations" is to treat West African music as "primitive." This is how people thought in the late 19th century at the height of European Colonialism. 2. Reich isn't being "mathematical" in these rhythms...he's working based off existing African polyrhythms which are phased in a loose and somewhat improvised way. Any two groups playing this piece will manage that phasing slightly differently. The score even tells the drummers to gradually slide from the first rhythm to the out of phase rhythm, but it doesn't "mathematically" notate that transition. 3. This isn't "most modern," this piece is 50 years old.
@@brown9671 sorry, I didn't mean you to think I was replying to you! I was replying to the OP. Your comment was right on...the OP was out of line with his comment
my dad showed me this back in 2019, a couple weeks before him and I performed _Clapping Music_ on typewriters at NMASS; I didn’t think that much of _Drumming_ until recently when I really got into Reich. knowing what I now know, this is such an incredible piece, and I’m super glad it’s had a nice long life so far by the way, I feel like some people underestimate how difficult this piece actually is. it’s incredibly easy to lose focus and forget where you are, and it can cause things to train-wreck really quickly
At first I thought, "Wow, they really should've cleaned up that unison playing." Then I realized this was written by Steve Reich and dirtiness is written in.
+Josh Dilly I love the phase shifting. You think, okay what exactly is going on here, why is one of them slowing down? Then it all makes perfect sense just a few seconds later. Love love love Reich's compositions.
+fuck google plus Like you could play half as clean as these guys... Riiiiight. They're putting on a clinic and you're, well... just failing at trolling. So, troll on, Fail Troll, and keep practicing.
I referencing around the 1:57 mark where it is written to sound flammy. I'm not trying to troll anyone. Next time trying watching the video before jumping to the comment section.
I love how Steve Reich takes one beat, turns it into a pattern, and phases that pattern through all the different percussionists. I'm not a percussionist myself, but I am a music major, and this is so cool.
What? That was my favourite part of the performance. I'm pretty sure it's the entire idea behind Reich's work. It's about the emergent sounds that happen when music is played in unusual ways
When I saw this performed, Reich explained that he had found transcriptions of west African drumming, including the exact ‘out of phase’ intervals. He used that to create this piece. I wish he’d do this with anglolan/ Brazilian drums…
this is also a personality test to the musicians. at about 7:55 the fourth one enters and kind of 'disturbs' the order and harmony they had build up. he leaves at 8:19 to come back in at 8:30 by constantly becoming louder climaxing at 8:40 with a more simple beat so the others might realize he wants to join their group. .. amazing.. reich uses the percussive mantra of this tune to symbolize mankind as a being that belongs to and interacts in groups since the prehistoric time where we used the percussions while gathering round fires and merely being cavemen. this is so subtile but you can feel it.. i love it!!
Não tem pra ninguem !!! muito Sério, Muito perfeito !!! AMÈRICA !!! The Land of The Promision !!!! Great Steve Reich !!! Great Portland Percussion Group !!!
Hahahahaha that was a trip and a half!! The time signatures going out of sync creates the most enjoyable drum patterns. Phasing, reverb....that piece was SUPER HIGH quality. 100%
eventually the percussive sounds and the pitches of the drums become detached to the ear and even though you can still hear the sharp percussive noise, the pitches sound almost like a xylophone/marimba.
This is intense, visceral, brutal, savage, uncanny, ominous and masochistically precise. The ear those people have and the coordination of the phase shifts according to the sound outcome is way too much. The level of skill for this is INHUMAN.
+Joko Modus Yeah I have been doing this all morning. I have these Steve Reich videos playing and listening to other steve Reich on spotify at same time. its pretty cool how they just work together. not just drumming either.
Yes. It also reminds me of Taiko drumming with all the rhythmic phasing. Also naturalistic. The earliest deviations from the beat remind me of drops of rain, dripping of a ledge onto a bucket.
Rhrythm was the ever neglected issue through Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romanticism. But in Modern and Contemporary classical music rhrythm is the "melody of durations", not the melody made of pitches anymore.
Just love the sound of those rhythms speeding up to catch up with each other. I accidentally did something quite similar to this in a composition a few years ago. Wish I'd heard of this piece before then so I could have structured it a bit better haha
Now that is discipline and concentration. And hard listening with all those unintended but unavoidable millisecond out-of-syncs. Wonderful : the beauty of near, but not absolute perfection.
I've just been listening and I looked at some of the comments. I couldn't care less who -if anyone- messed up, or when!! I find the music mesmerising. now it's finished I think I'll listen again, not so I can count beats but just so I can hear it again☺
only a few patterns are used here. each player has to remember 2 or 3 patterns. than once a pattern is set - by switching a bit of starting points - another 2 will play improvizations of the tones used in the 2 overlapping pattern. Than join all 4 players. and certainly there is a build-up and build-down of the pattern, as you see. This is the basic idea of the piece. It is very interesting.
CannibalWHORE22 you can inherit an aptitude but it’s just love of the thing and practice “talent” doesn’t really exist to much in music(in my opinion) It’s different with things like running because you can inherit bone structure and the way muscle forms of course you can have a good ear naturally but that just helps you start off (all in my opinion)
This sounds great. I remember searching for simply some sharp and simple music which'd be like clapping or tapping, and just that. Then I came across this which while not exactly what I was after, was really close. I love this because it's so nice to listen to. I don't get annoyed or anything that this is supposedly out of tune/sync (I don't notice)
There are no other instruments. The reverb is either added in post, or more likely is a result of the acoustics of the location they're playing in. Think of it as similar to an echo, but with the echo being so close to the original sound that it blends together, creating a thicker and more lasting sound. If you listen closely you can hear how the sound takes a couple of milliseconds to fade out completely, creating a sound somewhat similar to slapping the floor in an empty warehouse.
The people who disliked are the people who were on set and noticed the second guy messed up the 827th beat because they spent way too much time preparing XD
Presumably this is just part 1? Anyway, I can only imagine how long this took to practice and perfect. These boys are so cool. I am simply phased by their phasing!
Wow, the guys walking up will pick out a beat, and then leave, but I can still hear the beat as if they were still there playing it. Is that what's going on here, or have I been watching to many videos today...
let the sacrifices begin!
Bruno no Surname HALA HOO HAH HULA HOO HOO HA HA HALA HALA KALA GAHALA
OOGA BOOOOOOOOOGAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
A piece that needs to be seen as well as heard. Was amazed when I first saw it performed in the 80's and thanks to TH-cam, a wider audience can appreciate the visual aspect as well.
You hear the tonal melodies of the drumming emerge with each player's entrance, and then linger in some skeletal form with each player's exit, reminding the listener that this most ancient craft - tribal percussion - lingers too in the minds of modern musicians, and perhaps always shall.
Holy, shit. That. Was. Insane. Like, what did I just stumbleupon? I was mesmerized and captivated, almost hypnotized even. Stellar performance. Bravo. BRAVO!
I think that's the point. A lot of minimalist music is made to invoke a meditative state.
Such a clean execution of one of my favorite pieces of music for percussion ever! The precision of syncopation between all four members that is required for the clean execution of this piece is so incredibly difficult, but it is so beautifully hypnotic when performed as well as this group does. Great job to all!!! Additionally, it warmed my heart to see one of my fellow percussionists from the U of O School of Music in the lineup and playing so very, very well: shout-out to Brian Gardiner!
"Hey, you know how you guys have practiced hitting the percussions exactly on beat every time for years?
You can forget all that now."
what
But this IS hitting the drums precisely on beat...
@Edgar Leonarz I think the detail he's referring to is how one part will either speed up or slow down by a few bpm to get to that polyrhythm. Steve used to play two tapes of the same thing and then manually slow one down slightly until it synced into the next polyrhythm and returned it to the same tempo.
It's great how this most modern and mathematical of classical music manages to reach back to shamanic chants and stone age spirit incantations.
Turn7 Boom most music has it‘s roots somehow back there, I guess?
Bro what the fuck did you just say
@turn7_boom You might want to reconsider how you phrase pretty much everything in that sentence, or at least inform yourself a bit better about this piece. At best your comment is ignorant; at worst, it's unintentionally racist.
1. this isn't "shamanic chants and stone age spirit incantations," it's based on modern Ewe drumming which is a dynamic and living practice of drumming and dancing among one of the ethnic tribes of Ghana. To liken it to "stone age spirit incantations" is to treat West African music as "primitive." This is how people thought in the late 19th century at the height of European Colonialism.
2. Reich isn't being "mathematical" in these rhythms...he's working based off existing African polyrhythms which are phased in a loose and somewhat improvised way. Any two groups playing this piece will manage that phasing slightly differently. The score even tells the drummers to gradually slide from the first rhythm to the out of phase rhythm, but it doesn't "mathematically" notate that transition.
3. This isn't "most modern," this piece is 50 years old.
SmoothAtonalSound no one thinks you’re smart
@@brown9671 sorry, I didn't mean you to think I was replying to you! I was replying to the OP. Your comment was right on...the OP was out of line with his comment
my dad showed me this back in 2019, a couple weeks before him and I performed _Clapping Music_ on typewriters at NMASS; I didn’t think that much of _Drumming_ until recently when I really got into Reich.
knowing what I now know, this is such an incredible piece, and I’m super glad it’s had a nice long life so far
by the way, I feel like some people underestimate how difficult this piece actually is. it’s incredibly easy to lose focus and forget where you are, and it can cause things to train-wreck really quickly
At first I thought, "Wow, they really should've cleaned up that unison playing." Then I realized this was written by Steve Reich and dirtiness is written in.
+Josh Dilly
I love the phase shifting. You think, okay what exactly is going on here, why is one of them slowing down? Then it all makes perfect sense just a few seconds later. Love love love Reich's compositions.
+fuck google plus Like you could play half as clean as these guys... Riiiiight. They're putting on a clinic and you're, well... just failing at trolling. So, troll on, Fail Troll, and keep practicing.
I referencing around the 1:57 mark where it is written to sound flammy. I'm not trying to troll anyone. Next time trying watching the video before jumping to the comment section.
+Josh Dilly I believe he was referring to the comment by "fuck google plus"
A joke it is... and, as it is with so much "culture", hypnosis is its foundation. I like it but, that doesn't mean it's healthy.
Takes me back to listening to The Best Of Phil Collins. Thanks guys.
Reich is the god of syncopation
@@MSILBB we wuz syncopation an sheeit
@@DolphinPain fuck off
@@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX fr
@@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX no you
@@harrisonbrand8985 fr fr no cap fam the house down boots sksksksks go wig off sis! And I oop
Second guy messed up on the 826th beat.
Funny, I swear it was the 827th. Hmm, I will have to listen again.
I thought I heard that also
Stop being lazy just count
I am sure it was all part of the performance
Sorry. It was 827th!
This is such a groove I love hearing how the parts interlace
It's weird how you start to hear so much Melody from this much rhythm. Very cool.
I literally applauded out loud to myself at 9:35. Such control. My god. Good stuff!
those phasings...just awesome.
I love how Steve Reich takes one beat, turns it into a pattern, and phases that pattern through all the different percussionists. I'm not a percussionist myself, but I am a music major, and this is so cool.
Anybody else hear how cool the reverb is?
Max DeVincenzo Now I do. =]
Thanks!
Once I heard it I couldn't unhear it and now it's distracting me from the actual performance :(
how do you play the reverb?
Some times sounds like hands clapping... Cool.
What?
That was my favourite part of the performance. I'm pretty sure it's the entire idea behind Reich's work.
It's about the emergent sounds that happen when music is played in unusual ways
When I saw this performed, Reich explained that he had found transcriptions of west African drumming, including the exact ‘out of phase’ intervals. He used that to create this piece. I wish he’d do this with anglolan/ Brazilian drums…
Always makes me think of hearing djs synching up the next record
this is also a personality test to the musicians. at about 7:55 the fourth one enters and kind of 'disturbs' the order and harmony they had build up. he leaves at 8:19 to come back in at 8:30 by constantly becoming louder climaxing at 8:40 with a more simple beat so the others might realize he wants to join their group. .. amazing.. reich uses the percussive mantra of this tune to symbolize mankind as a being that belongs to and interacts in groups since the prehistoric time where we used the percussions while gathering round fires and merely being cavemen. this is so subtile but you can feel it.. i love it!!
Cavemen were pretty cool then!
No
Sounds African
Amazing. Not only for the phase shifting, it's more like time shifting. I love it.
Absolutely brilliant exposition of the transcendental unity of apperception.
This is my favorite video on here right now.
Great piece.... Amazing musicians. Bravo.
That looks (sounds) very difficult.
Not every drummer can play out of sync.
You could try it yourself with both hands off beat.
@@MasleyVystupoe i can play out of sync so well that it's all I can do lol. Yeah, I suck a little.
@@maxsync183 haha
And some drummers can ONLY play out of sync! ;)
One word Larz
This part right here 9:17-9:38 is absolutely jaw-dropping. Unbelievable.
I would like to believe that the paucity of comments stems from people being left speechless by this brilliant performance. Bravo!
1:50 to 2:20 is ridiculously impressive
Não tem pra ninguem !!! muito Sério, Muito perfeito !!! AMÈRICA !!! The Land of The Promision !!!! Great Steve Reich !!! Great Portland Percussion Group !!!
This phasing is ... just ... beyond ones mind. Wonderful!
Hahahahaha that was a trip and a half!! The time signatures going out of sync creates the most enjoyable drum patterns. Phasing, reverb....that piece was SUPER HIGH quality. 100%
Thus far I have never known there is such relaxing genre of music :D just beautiful. Skills of these drummers are amazing.
Jiří Kylián and his choreography Falling angels brought me here... Love it! ❤️
I love the fact that this performance and the video of if highlight the meta-musical visual aspect of watching percussion performance.
Amazing execution. Love the takes of the hands with the drumsticks only
blows my mind. every time
1:52- sounds extremely difficult. But, to the ear it’s beautiful.
This is one of my favorite "orchestral"/"Classical" pieces
eventually the percussive sounds and the pitches of the drums become detached to the ear and even though you can still hear the sharp percussive noise, the pitches sound almost like a xylophone/marimba.
This is intense, visceral, brutal, savage, uncanny, ominous and masochistically precise.
The ear those people have and the coordination of the phase shifts according to the sound outcome is way too much. The level of skill for this is INHUMAN.
i cant tell you how much i love this piece
This is honestly amazing
This is an unbelievable performance. Congratulations!
its unbelieveble, that you can any song of steve reich, play to this drumming an have a nu sound.
***** yes an a new (nu) sound
+Joko Modus Yeah I have been doing this all morning. I have these Steve Reich videos playing and listening to other steve Reich on spotify at same time. its pretty cool how they just work together. not just drumming either.
People with tubs and sticks doing what people with tubs and sticks do best
The best asmr trigger for me
Steve Reich got me into playing Mali djembe because of stuff like this :D
so beautiful. the syncopation is so precise and weird. gorgeous
2:18 n°3 join the chat
[awkward contribution]
2:45 n°3 left the chat
clearly a study in African music & polyrythms. Nice!
Yes. It also reminds me of Taiko drumming with all the rhythmic phasing. Also naturalistic. The earliest deviations from the beat remind me of drops of rain, dripping of a ledge onto a bucket.
Nice
This is very western sounding to me.
polyrhythms are not an exclusively african thing
In what way?
Polyrhythms are a very simple concept that basically every culture stumbled upon
@nuberiffic Sure, but Reich's pieces in this style owe a lot to Ewe drumming from Ghana
Rhrythm was the ever neglected issue through Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romanticism. But in Modern and Contemporary classical music rhrythm is the "melody of durations", not the melody made of pitches anymore.
Just love the sound of those rhythms speeding up to catch up with each other.
I accidentally did something quite similar to this in a composition a few years ago.
Wish I'd heard of this piece before then so I could have structured it a bit better haha
revisiting this piece by watching this live video, still intriguing.
What I find incredible is the fact that there are 100 sad individuals that have thumbs downed this. Bless their misguided souls.
I like the freedom of oppinion. Don't you?
Why are you bothered
I got to hear them live back in the 90's.
Play it on double speed and it sounds like a v-8 with some serious timing issues.
Totalement hypnotique ! En fait je découvre que j'adore...
amazing, what a great musicians
Now that is discipline and concentration. And hard listening with all those unintended but unavoidable millisecond out-of-syncs.
Wonderful : the beauty of near, but not absolute perfection.
Very cool. So Reich challenged both the players and the listening audience, and thus advanced musical detail one step further ? !
@@agerven Yes, it's really difficult to do. I've heard other performances that were even more precise in the in and out of phase passages. Whew!
I've just been listening and I looked at some of the comments. I couldn't care less who -if anyone- messed up, or when!! I find the music mesmerising. now it's finished I think I'll listen again, not so I can count beats but just so I can hear it again☺
How in the world do they remember what to play when?
only a few patterns are used here. each player has to remember 2 or 3 patterns. than once a pattern is set - by switching a bit of starting points - another 2 will play improvizations of the tones used in the 2 overlapping pattern. Than join all 4 players. and certainly there is a build-up and build-down of the pattern, as you see. This is the basic idea of the piece. It is very interesting.
muscle memory
Practice or just inherent talent?
CannibalWHORE22 you can inherit an aptitude but it’s just love of the thing and practice
“talent” doesn’t really exist to much in music(in my opinion)
It’s different with things like running because you can inherit bone structure and the way muscle forms
of course you can have a good ear naturally but that just helps you start off (all in my opinion)
Djesse penny It’s a very good opinion
That’s some amazeballs rhythmic modulation
This sounds great. I remember searching for simply some sharp and simple music which'd be like clapping or tapping, and just that. Then I came across this which while not exactly what I was after, was really close.
I love this because it's so nice to listen to. I don't get annoyed or anything that this is supposedly out of tune/sync (I don't notice)
Great music. Great performance.
And excellent audio/video production. Nice work!
The reverb is insane.
Getting a Samurai Jack feeling
Our ancient (african) cultures did this every day. Alienly good.👽
To me its like the arc of a life, some years go smoothly and well while other times are more burdensome and out of sync.
This touched me
supremely incredible
it had all of us dancing around the living
So amazing how they do the phasing
11:12 ohh shit, here we go again
Very Nice gentlemen!
je suis là car j'ai un devoir dessus en musique
Imagine J. K. Simmons in Whiplash listening this. Just absolutely losing his mind, throwing chairs.
“NOT QUITE MY TEMPO”
My neighbors were just not having a good time listening to me enjoying this
Das knallt echt rein, bin auf 'nem super Trip
Richard Mannheimer was haste dir gegönnt? :)
this seems really difficult to play. sounds amazing though.
Mesmerising.
Count from 1.
I can see where King Crimson in the 80s get their influence from!
Nice job, fellas. Arranging some Steve Reich for indoor ;)
Cold, mechanical and confining.
great sample material.... might be cool for a remix.
9:20 Wow.
Is there an additional instrument's recording on this one? . Can someone explain the Reverb that was mentioned in other comments?\
Thanks in advance,
There are no other instruments. The reverb is either added in post, or more likely is a result of the acoustics of the location they're playing in. Think of it as similar to an echo, but with the echo being so close to the original sound that it blends together, creating a thicker and more lasting sound. If you listen closely you can hear how the sound takes a couple of milliseconds to fade out completely, creating a sound somewhat similar to slapping the floor in an empty warehouse.
At 8:47 a FLUTE joins. Am I hearing things that are not there? Am I this crazy.
What kind of music you like?
Me- drums
The hell am I watching this at 5 am
always end up in a steve reich youtube hole after midnight for some reason
The people who disliked are the people who were on set and noticed the second guy messed up the 827th beat because they spent way too much time preparing XD
Presumably this is just part 1? Anyway, I can only imagine how long this took to practice and perfect. These boys are so cool. I am simply phased by their phasing!
Is there a vid of the rest of the piece? Peace.
the music of water dripping off a roof from melting snow
Wow, the guys walking up will pick out a beat, and then leave, but I can still hear the beat as if they were still there playing it. Is that what's going on here, or have I been watching to many videos today...
Mark Connely Cannot unhear that
God Level!!!!!!!
Clean clean clean.
hypnotic
It sounds considerably comfortable
Any suggestions, where to buy the transcription of this composition. Thank you...
What kind of monstrous demon are they summoning?
👌🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🎧👍💞💓😚
Excellent 👍