Composers Forum

Few composers make the editorial page of the New York Times and Steve Reich is one of them.  Among other nice things, the Times said this: 

Ascribing the universal appeal of Mr. Reich’s music only to its driving rhythms is simplistic. Deep knowledge of counterpoint, harmony, history, narrative drama and an unerring instinct for beauty are everywhere in his work. But most of us are not musical experts. And rhythm is a language humans grasp from birth.

For those of us raised on beat-heavy pop, rhythm and blues, and rock, Mr. Reich’s infectiously rhythmic music was a path into “serious music,” a realm that might have once felt closed. Among Mr. Reich’s legions of fans must be many a rock, funk or hard-core devotee who came upon works like “Drumming,” or “Music for 18 Musicians” “” two of his best known and most hypnotic percussion epics “” and found themselves somehow changed.