Steve Reich
Drumming for eight small tuned drums, three marimbas, three glockenspiels, male and female voices, whistling and piccolo
1971/1972
2 x Vinyl LP, gatefold cover + 30 pp. printed score in the form of a leporello. SIGNED, numbered and dated (1972) in pencil by Steve Reich on final leporello leaf (46/500) and in pen on back cover (43/500). Published by John Gibson & Multiples, NYC.
leporello: 14 x 11 in (35.56 x 27.94 cm)
record cover: 12 1/2 x 12 in (31.75 x 30.48 cm)
|SR001
Minimalist composer Steve Reich created Drumming after a visit to Ghana. Drumming employs Reich’s signature technique of phasing which is achieved when two players are playing a single repeated pattern in unison, usually on the same kind of instrument. One player changes tempo slightly, while the other remains constant, and eventually the two players are one or a number of beats out of sync with each other. “In Drumming,” Reich states…. “We’re playing in unison and I pull away slowly, as slowly as I can, until I get one 16th note ahead. And we hold. And what you hear are basically canons, or rounds, like ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat,’ except instead of a tune you’re hearing a pattern. Different people, depending on where they’re sitting, will hear different patterns. It’s like looking at a complex rug, and saying, ‘Hey, do you see that pattern over there?’”
$ 1,000