Long out of print, Writings about Music is a remarkable artifact from one of the 20th century’s most important composers at the time of his most groundbreaking work. This book, published in 1974, collects several writings by Steve Reich on the first decade of his career as a composer.
Several selections consider broad themes in Reich’s music, as in “Music as a Gradual Process” and a group of excerpts from concert program notes. Others explain specific pieces, including an essay on Four Organs and another on an unrealized textual score called Slow Motion Sound, which was, at the time of Reich’s writing, technologically impossible to perform. Writings about Music ends with a pair of essays: one tracing the history of Reich’s ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, and another tracing Reich’s career as a composer more broadly speaking. Also included are short ethnomusicological studies on Ghanaian drumming and Balinese Gamelan, and notes on the future of dance and music.
Images include photographs from several historic performances, technological diagrams, and reproductions of scores for pieces including Pendulum Music and Violin Phase.