Steve Reich Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Steve Reich
Sound
Biography
Steve Reich was born on October 3, 1936 in New York City, New York, USA as Stephen Michael Reich. Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer who, along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, pioneered minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's style of composition influenced many composers and groups. His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (for example, his early compositions It's Gonna Rain and Come Out), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, Pendulum Music and Four Organs). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably Different Trains. Writing in The Guardian, music critic Andrew Clements suggested that Reich is one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history".[6] The American composer and critic Kyle Gann has said that Reich "may ... be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer". From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filmography Movies
Acting
Plastic Haircut
"Dada-inspired performance in which absurd actions take place in an environment of strange symbols and graphic forms." -Mark Webber. Design by William T. Wiley and Robert Hudson. Sound collage by Steve Reich.
New Music: Sounds and Voices from the Avant-Garde New York 1971
With participation of John Cage, Earle Brown, David Tudor, Gordon Mumma, David Behrman, Max Neuhaus, Morton Subotnik, Phil Corner, Joe Jones, Alvin Lucier, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Ben Patterson, Wolf Rosenberg In 1971 we produced, in association with West German Television, a documentation on New York’s musical avant-garde. It was broadcast only in Germany at the time. By 2010, after nearly 40 years, it seemed desirable to recycle the performances and interviews with the composers and to create a revealing look back to those years for English-speaking New Music fans. The film offers valuable insights into the nature and issues of advanced composition at the beginning of the 1970s.
Steve Reich: A New Musical Language
A profile of composer Steve Reich, a leading creator of stripped-down, "minimal" music. The program explores how Reich's music eventually became accessible to the musical audience at large. Included are interviews with the composer himself, and contemporaries, and also performances of some of his works.
Thirty Second Spots: TV Commercials for Artists (1982-83)
Inverting the form, style and time frame of commercial television advertising, Logue has produced a unique series of dynamic video portraits of avant-garde artists, writers, musicians and performers. In 30 Second Spots: New York, which Logue terms "commercials for artists," each of the succinct vignettes conveys the artistic essence of her subject with clarity, wit, and an elegant economy of means. John Cage, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Spalding Gray and Steve Reich are among the artists who are captured here with concise drama. Each subject performs in close-up before a stationary camera.
BAM150
A captivating history of the nation's oldest performing arts center - which largely mirrors the evolution of experimental and progressive performing arts in 20th century America - BAM150 chronicles the vibrant past, present and future of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Through footage of recent performances, intimate interviews, and an astonishing treasure trove of 150 years' worth of archival materials, BAM150 is a testament to the power and stamina of the institution that established Brooklyn as a cultural mecca-serving as a home to such greats as Enrico Caruso, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, Merce Cunningham, Robert Wilson, Mark Morris, Laurie Anderson, and Pina Bausch.
Michael Nyman in Progress
Featuring unprecedented access to Michael Nyman's working life, this film shows one of the great composers of our time in all his diversity and endless energy. From London to Berlin, Mexico, Poland, the Netherlands, and Portugal the film is also a journey through the musical world today. It shows Michael Nyman, the musician, in his concerts with The Michael Nyman Band and live collaborations with other internationally known musicians and orchestras. But throughout his journeys, this film discovers Nyman's increasing passion for filming and photography.
In the Ocean
A brief overview and focus on composers Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, John Cage, Steve Reich, Elliott Carter and their contemporaries.
Steve Reich - City Life
Delve into the life story and professional career of musical genius Steve Reich, considered one of the greatest American composers of the 20th century. Manfred Waffender's documentary reveals how Reich's minimalist style and phrasing innovations have altered the direction of musical history. Special attention is paid to "City Life," a collection of everyday streets sounds brought together to create an aural representation of the urban landscape.
Steve Reich: Phase to Face
A student of Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio, musician Steve Reich (born in 1936) quickly developed a style of his own, inspired by Baroque music, Bartók, Webern and Stravinsky, as well as jazz, traditional music (especially African), and Hebrew cantillation. As a trailblazing exponent of minimalist music, Reich rejected the characteristic complexity of mid-20th-century classical harmony and tonality in order to make large-scale works from minimal materials a single chord, a brief musical motif, a spoken exclamation – thereby reconciling sacred and popular music. In this profile he looks back on the key stages of his 40-years lasting career, from the formation of his own group, Steve Reich and Musicians, to the American avant-garde he helped to create, from new video performances to his quasi-religious music. Despite his success and wide recognition Steve Reich has never renounced his independent spirit.
Reich at the Roxy
Concert video of music by Steve Reich played by Alarm will Sound.
Production
Oh Dem Watermelons
Commissioned by the San Francisco Mime Troupe as a short to be screened during intermission for its rather infamous 1965 Minstrel Show (Civil Rights from the Cracker Barrel), which assaulted racial stereotypes by wildly exaggerating them. Scored by Steve Reich. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.
Shadow on the Snow
A man who leads a lonely existence with his young daughter accidentally gets involved with a robbery before a manhunt ensues.
Drums
Present in nearly all cultures and used for many purposes, drums have unique shapes, sounds, names and accents in each region of the world. Behind this vast legacy are individuals who play them and are touched by these ancestral instruments. From the rare budimas used by Tonga people in Zambia to the large drums of the Chinese temples, from the religious festivals of Brazil to the rhythmic richness of the Arab World, these men and women keep this tradition alive.
Regard de ma fenêtre
A mind-blowing film which borders on the structural but which manages to avoid being so. A study of colour, stasis, and different modes of multiple-exposure. The film slides from a doctored reality towards fantasy. A large part of the film takes place in one single image that continually changes aspect: the buildings on the square, Place d'Italie, seen from my window from when I used to live in that district in Paris on the eighth floor of a kind of council housing block.
Riding Light
In our terrestrial view of things, the speed of light seems incredibly fast. But as soon as you view it against the vast distances of the universe, it's unfortunately very slow. This animation illustrates, in realtime, the journey of a photon of light emitted from the surface of the sun and traveling across a portion of the solar system, from a human perspective. Liberties were taken with certain things like the alignment of planets and asteroids, as well as ignoring the laws of relativity concerning what a photon actually "sees" or how time is experienced at the speed of light, but overall the size and distances of all the objects were kept as accurate as possible. It was also decided to end the animation just past Jupiter to keep the running length below an hour.
Plastic Haircut
"Dada-inspired performance in which absurd actions take place in an environment of strange symbols and graphic forms." -Mark Webber. Design by William T. Wiley and Robert Hudson. Sound collage by Steve Reich.
Steve Reich in Concert - Salle Pleyel 2014
The American composer Steve Reich joins for this concert the Estonian-American director Kristjan Järvi and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir to interpret some of his most famous compositions at the Salle Pleyel.
PAPERS
Abstract animation assembled from newspapers.
Portraits
Faces pass by in quickly edited, split-screen recordings. A 'structuralist' film in which the film material itself plays an important role. Grain, scratches and flickering give the film texture. The music is by Steve Reich.
C.O.G.
A gay cocky young man travels to Oregon to work on an apple farm. Out of his element, he finds his lifestyle and notions being picked apart by everyone who crosses his path.
Gallery
