Steve Reich is not yet 90 but the celebrations have already begun, with the world premiere of his new piece for large ensemble, In All Your Ways, at the Edinburgh festival last month and a late-night concert at the BBC Proms. But when I ask this most supremely influential of living composers how he feels about becoming a nonagenarian on 3 October, Reich is coy. I’ll let you know in due course …” Born in New York in 1936, Reich has spent the last six decades producing music that has changed the soundtrack of modern life in Europe and North America, and inspired superlatives from a wide array of music critics.
The New Yorker has called him “the most original musical thinker of our time”. Alongside his US contemporaries Philip Glass, Terry Riley and La Monte Young, Reich was one of the pioneers of musical minimalism. Its repetitive licks, driving rhythms and tonal-ish harmonies have since become the lingua franca of new waves of contemporary classical music, electronic dance music, film soundtracks and more.
Reich dislikes the label but explains minimalism to me as “an intuitive movement towards what we wanted to hear. We loved Stravinsky and Bartók and jazz – and were appreciating Bob Dylan and listening to African and Indian music.” No wonder Reich’s influence has reached so far. His music has been sampled on records by David Bowie and chill-out merchants the Orb.
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has recorded Electric Counterpoint, a work originally written for American jazz musician Pat Metheny. Twenty years ago, UK pop station BBC Radio 1 celebrated Reich’s 70th birthday with a remix competition. His is a musical language familiar to millions, whether or not they know his name.
Today, Reich may be more conscious than usual of his mortality. He is at home outside New York City when we talk, recovering from a recent fall. He broke a rib and has damaged his wrist.
The former “seems to mend itself”, he marvels, but the latter is causing problems because he uses the piano as he composes. I can do it for a minute or two and then it’s really painful.” He has “a few little sketches” for something and is frustrated to be slowed down. But he’s also grateful “that all these wonderful things are happening” for his birthday.
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