Please do not remove this page Steve Reich and Canon: The Polyphony of Influence in Tehillim and Proverb Stanić Kovačević, Nevena https://scholarship.miami.edu/discovery/delivery/01UOML_INST:ResearchRepository/12355415900002976?l#13355524090002976 Stanić Kovačević, N. (2019). Steve Reich and Canon: The Polyphony of Influence in Tehillim and Proverb [University of Miami]. https://scholarship.miami.edu/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991031447756102976/01UOML_INST:ResearchR epository Embargo Downloaded On 2021/09/29 12:46:14 -0400 Please do not remove this page UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI STEVE REICH AND CANON: THE POLYPHONY OF INFLUENCE IN TEHILLIM AND PROVERB By Nevena Stanić Kovačević A THESIS Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Coral Gables, Florida August 2019 ©2019 Nevena Stanić Kovačević All Rights Reserved UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music STEVE REICH AND CANON: THE POLYPHONY OF INFLUENCE IN TEHILLIM AND PROVERB Nevena Stanić Kovačević Approved: ________________ _________________ Marysol Quevedo, Ph.D. Anne Searcy, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Musicology Assistant Professor of Musicology ________________ _________________ Juan Chattah, Ph.D. Guillermo Prado, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Music Theory Dean of the Graduate School STANIĆ KOVAČEVIĆ, NEVENA (M.M., Musicology) Steve Reich and Canon: The Polyphony of Influence (August 2019) in Tehillim and Proverb Abstract of a thesis at the University of Miami. Thesis supervised by Professor Marysol Quevedo. No. of pages in text. (102) From the early 1980s onwards, Steve Reich’s musical influences evolved. Before the 1980s, he drew from non-Western music and later from Western classical composers, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Perotinus. The purpose of this study is to investigate the aesthetic shifts in Reich’s opus and also to explore Reich’s claims about changes of influence in his music and its consequences in the reception of his work. Through a close examination of Tehillim (1981) and Proverb (1995), I explore Reich’s position within postminimalism and his relation to the musical tradition of counterpoint from historical, stylistic, and analytical perspectives. I also discuss Reich’s poetical narratives and style in relation to both the early music movement and US and European “spiritual” minimalism. I argue that the change in Reich’s aesthetics and narratives around his work is the result of three factors: Reich’s turn to postminimalism; his turn to spirituality and Judaism; and his connection with important classical music institutions and the early music movement. Reich turned to Bach and Perotinus in part because of specific elements in their compositional technique, such as imitation, doubling, and isorhythm. These new elements in Reich’s work affected his style, specifically his treatment of melody, text, and canonic technique. In Tehillim, Reich integrates psalm text into his music for the first time, which affects his approach to melody and rhythm. He also implements canonic technique in a more traditional way than in his earlier compositions. This approach was later applied in Proverb. Additionally, both compositions draw from spirituality: Tehillim is inspired by a psalm text and Reich’s Jewish background, while Proverb connects to spirituality more broadly, through Perotinus’s early sacred music and the early music movement in general. Thus, Reich’s reference to Bach’s and, later, Perotinus’s music, is personal, artistic, and historical. Through these stylistic and spiritual influences in his opus, demonstrated in Tehillim and Proverb, Reich shows the elasticity of his aesthetics and its importance in the establishment of different communicative gestures between the composer, audience, and critics. The narrative Reich presents in his frequent interviews has strong connections with classical music that further makes his compositions more identifiable and accessible to the audience. Reich’s narrative also coincides with the acknowledgment of his work among renowned institutions, ensembles, and audiences. The increased accessibility of his music allowed audiences to reconsider his earlier, previously undervalued works. Therefore, such high appreciation of Reich’s music intersects with its successive commissions and performances. Additionally, Reich’s public engagement with presenting his work within the Western counterpoint musical tradition led to the canonization of this composer in the classical music world. To my brother Jovan. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF EXAMPLES ........................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 I. Reich’s Aesthetic Turn from the 1980s ..................................................... 3 II. Literature Review and Terminology Distinctions ...................................... 8 III. Methodology .............................................................................................. 17 IV. Chapter Overview ..................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 1: REICH, MINIMALIST SPIRITUALISM, AND BACH IN TEHILLIM… 22 I. Minimalism and “Spiritual” Minimalism .................................................. 24 II. Reich’s Jewish identity and Tehillim ......................................................... 30 III. Tehillim and Bach ...................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 2: THE POLYPHONY OF INFLUENCE IN REICH’S CAREER AND PROVERB ....................................................................................................................... 50 I. Influences in Reich’s Work ....................................................................... 51 II. Institutions and Canonization of Reich’s Work ......................................... 58 III. Reich’s Relationship to the Early Music Movement ................................. 65 IV. Proverb in Canon ....................................................................................... 69 V. Communicative Gestures in Proverb ......................................................... 77 CONCLUSION: REICH AND CANON ................................................................... 82 WORKS CITED…………… ............................................................................................ 96 iv LIST OF EXAMPLES Example 1.1: Text in Tehillim… ............................................................................................. 36 Example 1.2: The opening of Tehillim, female voice section, section A, mm. 1- 29 .............. 38 Example 1.3: The beginning of section D in Tehillim, Part I, with clarinet doubling of vocal parts and drones in the string sections .............................................................................................. 39 Example 1.4: The beginning of Part II in Tehillim, horn and oboe doubling voices, mm. 1-4. 44 Example 1.5: Comparison between Bach’s and Reich’s imitative melodies ........................... 45 a) The beginning of Bach’s Aria Duetto of Cantata No. 4 b) The beginning of Part III in Reich’s Tehillim Example 2.1: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value, aphorism from the manuscript written on September 2, 1946 ................................................................................................................... 71 Example 2.2: Perotinus’s influence; a comparison between tenor lines in Proverb and Viderunt Omnes ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 73 Example 2.3: Harmonized, non-canonic sections in Proverb .................................................. 75 a) Sections 2 (mm. 198-224), mm. 200-6, augmentation b) Coda (mm. 628-58), mm. 631-40, without augmentation Example 2.4: The opening of Proverb, mm.1-11, soprano theme ........................................... 79 v INTRODUCTION The whole phasing idea is a footnote to the history of canon in Western music.1 Steve Reich From the early 1980s onwards, Steve Reich’s claims over influences in his music changed from non-Western music toward Western classical music.2 Particularly, Johann Sebastian Bach’s and Perotinus’s music influenced the aesthetics of two of Reich’s vocal- instrumental compositions – Tehillim (1981) and Proverb (1995). New compositional procedures are reflected in Reich’s intention to reference Bach’s sacred Cantata No. 4 Christ lag in Todes Banden in Tehillim and Perotinus’s Viderunt Omnes in Proverb. In Tehillim, Reich sets music to text that, for the first time, shapes his approach to melody and rhythm; instead of short repeating melodic and rhythmic patterns, Reich implements long melodic phrases that follow the flux of the words. In both works, Reich traditionally uses canonic technique: principles of counterpoint and imitation become more dominant from this period on in Reich’s output as opposed to the technique of phase shifting in his compositions from the 1960s and early 1970s, in which one of the voices would gradually speed up when compared to another. Tehillim is also Reich’s first piece that directly references his Jewish identity, which the composer embraced in the mid-1970s. Through psalm texts in Hebrew language, Reich set a new path in his career that he continued in many of his later works, such as Different Trains, The Cave, and Three 1 Éric Darmon and Franck Mallet, “Steve