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Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians |  | Artists: Composer: Steve Reich, Performer: Steve Reich Ensemble
Label: Ecm Records
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy New: $10.65
as of 11/27/2009 04:32 CST details
You Save: $7.33 (41%)
New (29) Used (8) from $9.47
Seller: -importcds
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 3918
Format: Original recording reissued
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 821417
UPC: 042282141729
EAN: 0042282141729
ASIN: B000026258
Release Date: April 18, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Music for 18 Musicians, for 4 female voices & 16 instruments |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
This has to be Steve Reich's most difficult work to perform; but he's done it. Several times. Music for 18 Musicians is for violin, cello, two clarinets doubling bass clarinet, four women's voices, four pianos, three marimbas, two xylophones, and a metallophone (vibraphone with no motor). It's a 1974 composition that focuses entirely on the rich staccato that gives minimalism its unique sound. However, Reich turns all of this into actual music by adding the richness of the metallophone and the women's voices. Whatever else people may have said about minimalism, pro or con, a work such as Music for 18 Musicians demonstrates its legitimacy. --Paul Cook
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
 one of my favorite modern classical albums October 14, 2009
Deven Gadula (san francisco, ca, united states)
This is not only my favorite music by Steve Reich but one of my favorite modern classical albums. Next to Songs From The Trilogy by Philip Glass, Farewell To Philosophy by Gavin Bryars, Symphony Of Sorrowfull Songs by Henryk Gorecki or Tabula Rasa by Arvo Part. Out of all these albums Music For 18 Musicians is of the highest energy and tempo. This music evolves and takes you in. It makes you feel like you are riding a fast and steady moving train through an amazing landscape you seem to be very familiar with after a while. It may feel a little monothonic but these are the rides which allow you to focus on your own real trip so you let the train just take you... I can listen to this music over and over all day; I really like repetitive elements. Good balanced life seems to me to be full of them. If we could just eliminate mistakes... Most of Steve Reich's music is very good and original. My next recommendation would be Different Trains, which is an even more modern approach.
The Original Recordings are the Best! September 22, 2009
Richard Komm (San Francisco, CA United States)
The World Premiere of this work took place at Town Hall in New York City -- on Saturday, April 24, 1976. And this is the World Premiere Recording of that epic performance! This truly being the original recording (I do have a thing about those!), I like this one the very best of all. Indeed, it was this very recording from which clips were taken, and used in Dr. Carl Sagan's 13-part "Cosmos" TV Series. Here is one thing it reminds me of: seeing the landscape of a new world (such as Mars) for the very first time! I also have a thing about music that was used in that series; TV entertainment that truly comes only "once in a blue moon".
This work was conducted by the composer, by the way -- who opened it from the marimba to set the tempo, so that everyone else could follow and join in at the appropriate times. Boy, talk about a nearly-impossible work to perform! -- too bad I'm only allowed to give it a paltry five stars! o:-)
Probably the best version around of this hypnotizing work July 19, 2009
G.D. (Norway)
This release caused quite a stir when it originally appeared, and it is still a remarkable performance of a remarkable work. I think I would recommend newcomers to Reich's style to start with a later work - Different Trains would be an obvious choice - but you cannot, in the end, get around this hypnotic, straight out weird work. It won't ever be for everyone (again as opposed to his later work) but its status as a masterpiece isn't in doubt; perhaps not in the league of the equally revolutionary Pierrot Lunaire, but still a masterpiece. One thing is the general overarching idea(s), but listening to the piece one will also realize how eminently skillfully and ingeniously well-crafted it is; the textural variations work together subtly (such as the darkening occurring at the end of the opening, middle and final sections, working together to create a sense or an illusion of development and culmination). Compared to other versions, this one is rather quick-paced (not a criticism), although the shorter total timing is to a far greater extent due to the number of repetitions of the elements; balanced so that the piano is rather prominent (perhaps a tad too much so?); and generally rhythmically tauter and more urgently propulsive. But it is just as fresh-sounding and idiomatic as any of the later sets. If I have one major reservation, it is that the whole thing is fitted onto a single track; while I realize that, despite being divided into sections, we are talking about a single overarching span, at least ECM should have insert individual tracks to help listeners the first times around.
Where it all began April 15, 2009
S. M. DeVries (Aurora, IL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've been on a bit of a musical history / influence / anthropology kick lately and stumbled across "18" when someone on iTunes commented that Tangerine Dream's "Love on a Real Train" (from Risky Business) was quite obviously directly influenced by "18". And, in turn, "8:07" by Global Communication influenced by Tangerine Dream; a track that just recently resurfaced on the Grand Theft Auto IV game soundtrack.
The point of all this is that there is rarely a game-changing piece of music released these days. A composition that truly changes the face of contemporary music is rare, but this is one of them.
That said, "18" is not for the faint of heart. I have been listening to ambient, minimal, abstract music for some time so I "got it" pretty quickly. Give it a few listens. It takes a few volleys to really pick up on the beautiful changes and timbres that come from the "pulsing" style of this recording.
Steve is one of the few composers still alive in N. America that have had such a profound impact on the minimalist movement. This is a good intro into what he was hoping to pass on to the next wave of composers.
 Makes Great Background Music February 20, 2009
Robert S. Costic
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a fan of contemporary classical music I had this piece recommended to me by several friends, but I feel pretty ambivalent whenever I listen to it. This may have been ground-breaking when it was first composed, but to me it sounds like so much trance music. It's not something that I could listen to just for the sake of listening to it, because there isn't enough material for me to find it interesting; but because of that, and because its sounds are soothing, it makes for solid background music while I'm at work.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
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