thanks steve!
when i first got to college i was literally a “hayseed from kansas” (lenexa, kansas that is) and although i liked much of the music we were studying i kept asking my theory professor and long suffering composition teacher (dr. walter mays/wichita state university) for music by composers who were “alive now”.
to his credit he started with ligeti, then moved on to martin, stockhausen, berio, lutoslowski, penderecki… they were all interesting artists but none of them really “spoke” to me. all that changed after he gave me the score to reich’s “8 lines”. listening to that piece changed my life. i then knew i had found my “home”.
to his credit even though “those minimalists, that passing fad” (not said with a sneer, but more like a disapproving uncle) were not his cup of tea, he soon introduced me to glass and riley and always respected my early aesthetic. that little “push in the right direction” was all i needed.
steve reich might have won the award for the double sextet. but encountering his music in my youth was important because it showed that great art music was possible outside of the academic, orchestral, and modernist traditions.
FTO!
