Minimal Piano
reich & eastman
Programme
Steve Reich
Six Pianos
Julius Eastman
Gay Guerilla
pauze
Julius Eastman
Evil Nigger
about
Why always write scores for orchestra? Would it not perhaps be better to compose for a music store full of pianos? Steve Reich took up the challenge and spent a couple of evenings in a music store after closing time. His experiments resulted in Six Pianos, a composition for six pianos. Preferably no large grand pianos but rather smaller upright pianos placed close together, because too much resonation detracts from precision. Precision that is central to Steve Reich's composition: as the six pianists repeat short melodic figures, allowing them to overlap, scarcely detectable but ever present developments unfold.
One of the most imaginative protagonists of minimalist music is the American composer, pianist, singer and dancer Julius Astman. As singer, he notably performed a very radical interpretation of John Cage's Song Books and was also ideally cast in Pierre Boulez' new production of Peter Maxwell Davies’ extremely demanding Eight Songs for a Mad King. Julius Eastman also left us with a limited number of his own compositions, to which he often gave provocative tiles that reflected his identity as an Afro-American homosexual.
One of Julius Eastmans' best known works is Evil Nigger, written in 1979. At the premiere the work was performed on four pianos, but the composition lends itself equally well to other instruments as long as they are all the same instrument. A rapidly descending figure is endlessly repeated but with variations on each occasion. The end result is highly emotional music - even more so than in the case of Steve Reich.
credits
coproduction
Klarafestival, Concertgebouw Brugge
