Vermont Counterpoint

Last updated

Vermont Counterpoint is a minimalist composition for amplified flute and tape written by the American composer Steve Reich in 1982. It was commissioned and premiered by the flutist Ransom Wilson. The piece has a duration of roughly 10 minutes and is dedicated to the American philanthropist Betty Freeman. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Reich</span> American composer (born 1936)

Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer who is known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay, "Music as a Gradual Process", by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow.

Violin Phase is a musical work written by minimalist composer Steve Reich in October 1967.

Tehillim is a composition by American composer Steve Reich, written in 1981.

Minimal music is a form of art music or other compositional practice that employs limited or minimal musical materials. Prominent features of minimalist music include repetitive patterns or pulses, steady drones, consonant harmony, and reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units. It may include features such as phase shifting, resulting in what is termed phase music, or process techniques that follow strict rules, usually described as process music. The approach is marked by a non-narrative, non-teleological, and non-representational approach, and calls attention to the activity of listening by focusing on the internal processes of the music.

<i>Different Trains</i> Composition by Steve Reich

Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988.

<i>Six Pianos</i> Composition by Steve Reich

Six Pianos is a minimalist piece for six pianos by the American composer Steve Reich. It was completed in March 1973. He also composed a variation for six marimbas, called Six Marimbas, in 1986. The world première performance of Six Pianos was in May 1973 at the John Weber Gallery in New York City. The European première took place in January the next year in Stuttgart, Germany.

Come Out is a 1966 piece by American composer Steve Reich. Reich was asked to edit down tape footage into a form of collage for a benefit for the Harlem Six and Come Out was a byproduct of the collage's production. The Harlem Six were six black youths arrested for a murder of Margit Sugar, a Hungarian refugee, in Harlem in the weeks following the Little Fruit Stand Riot of 1964. Only one of the six was responsible while the lead witness is generally considered the actual perpetrator. Truman Nelson, a civil rights activist and New Yorker who had asked Reich to compose a sound collage that was separate from Come Out, gave him a collection of tapes with recorded voices to use as source material. Nelson agreed to give Reich creative freedom with the tapes that he presented him for the sound collage. Come Out was a loop of four seconds from the more than 70 hours of tapes Nelson presented to Reich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Fluffy Clouds</span> 1990 single by the Orb

"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the British ambient house group the Orb. It was originally released in November 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at number 87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. "Little Fluffy Clouds" was re-released several times with different B-sides, with its 1993 re-release reaching number 10 in the UK.

David Russell Borden is an American composer and keyboard player of minimalist music.

Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast," "Slow", and "Fast". Reich has offered two versions of the piece: one for electric guitar and tape, the other for an ensemble of guitars. The work shares similarities with Reich's New York Counterpoint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Freeman</span> Arts patron and photographer

Betty Freeman was an American philanthropist and photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ransom Wilson</span> American flutist and conductor (born 1951)

Ransom Wilson is an American flutist, conductor, and educator.

Eight Lines is a work by American minimalist composer Steve Reich which was originally titled Octet.

<i>Steve Reich: Triple Quartet</i> 2001 studio album by Kronos Quartet

Steve Reich: Triple Quartet is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet and other artists. The music was composed by Steve Reich and was commissioned by the quartet; Reich and the quartet have worked together since 1989.

Steve Reich: Works 1965–1995 is a 1997 10-CD box set of compositions by composer Steve Reich released by Nonesuch Records as part of Reich's 60th birthday celebration. Described as, "monumental... essential... beautiful", it includes full track and personnel listing, career chronology, appreciative notes, a new interview, and "his most famous works" with the "curious exclusions" of Violin Phase, Music for Pieces of Wood and Vermont Counterpoint.

2×5 is a composition by Steve Reich written in 2008. It is scored for five musicians and pre-recorded tape, or two identical quintets on rock instruments, in total: 2 drum sets, 2 pianos, 4 electric guitars, 2 bass guitars. It is described as a "rock and roll piece".

A musical argument is a means of creating tension through the relation of expressive content and musical form:

Traditional dialectal music is representational: the musical form relates to an expressive content and is a means of creating a growing tension; this is what is usually called the musical argument.

<i>Radio Rewrite</i> 2012 composition by Steve Reich

Radio Rewrite is a 2012 musical composition by the American composer Steve Reich, inspired by two songs by the British rock band Radiohead: "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and "Everything in Its Right Place". It is the first time that Reich has reworked material from western pop or rock music.

New York Counterpoint for amplified clarinet and tape, or 9 clarinets and 3 bass clarinets, is a 1985 minimalist composition written by American composer Steve Reich. The piece, intended to capture the throbbing vibrancy of Manhattan, is notable for its ability to imitate electronic sounds through acoustic instrumentation.

Cello Counterpoint is a composition for cello and pre-recorded tape by the American composer Steve Reich. The work was jointly commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and Leiden University for the cellist Maya Beiser. It was given its world premiere by Beiser on October 18, 2003 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The piece was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

References

  1. Reich, Steve (1982). "Vermont Counterpoint". Boosey & Hawkes . Retrieved August 5, 2016.