Analysis of Emergent Beat-Class Sets in Steve Reich's "Clapping Music" and the Yoruba Bell Timeline

Analysis of Emergent Beat-Class Sets in Steve Reich's Clapping Music and the Yoruba Bell Timeline Justin Colannino, Francisco Gomez, and godfried t. toussaint 1. Introduction The history of music isoften the history of humanity's reactions to it. A good example of thismay be observed inMinimalism. Since the Second World War, mainstream classical music had been dominated by composers such as Boulez, Berio, Cage, Ligeti, and Stockhausen, among others. These composers represent postwar Modernism, either through postserialism, Boulez being its most prominent figure, or through I I 2 PerspectivesofNew Music indeterminacy, where Cage is itsmost notable figure. Although the term Minimalism was originally used for the visual arts, itwas later applied to a style of music characterized by an intentionally simplified rhythmic, melodic and harmonic vocabulary. Indeed, Timothy Johnson has argued that the termminimalism may be defined most fruitfullyas a technique rather than an aesthetic or style. The music of LaMonte Young, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich represent themajor reaction to the Modernism epitomized by the aforementioned composers. Indeed, whereas Modernism is decisively atonal, Minimalism is clearlymodal or tonal; whereas Modernism is aperiodic and fragmented, Minimalism is characterized by great rhythmic regularity; and whereas Modernism is structurally and texturally complex, Minimalism is simply transparent. Minimalism has different materializations depending upon the particular composer, but minimalist works share concern for non functional tonality and reiteration ofmusical phrases, often small motifs or cells, which evolve gradually. For example, while Young uses sustained drones for long periods of time, Glass chooses recurrent chord arpeggios, and Riley and Reich incorporate repeated melodies and quick pulsating harmonies. No less significant is the fact thatminimalist music possesses almost none of the main features ofWestern music (at least since the time of the Romantic period); that is, harmonic movement, key modulation, thematic development, complex textures, or musical forms with well-designed structures. On the contrary, this music deliberately skirts around any sense or awareness of climax or development, and seems to ignore the dialectic of tension and release, at least as it isusually posited in the classical music tradition. In thewords of Roger Sutherland, "The listener is invited, not to follow a complex musical 'argument,' but to concentrate upon a slowly changing sound, and focus with microscopic awareness on different aspects of it." 1 It is probably Reich who most unhesitatingly repudiates theWestern classical tradition. Reich objects to both European serialism and American indeterminacy because in these traditions the processes by which themusic is constructed cannot be heard and discerned clearly by the listener. Before him, Pousseur and Xenakis had already pointed out that "where the most abstract constructions have been employed . . . one has the impression of finding oneself in the presence of the consequences of an aleatory free play."2 In his essay "Music as a Gradual Process," Reich states his principles as follows: "I am interested inperceptible processes. Iwant to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music."3 For such processes to be accessible to the listener, theymust flow in an extremely gradual manner. The process itself must be related to the idea of shifting Analysis of Emergent Beat-Class Sets I I 3 phases. First, a melody is played by two or more players, and after a while one of them gradually shifts phase. At the beginning of the phasing a kind or rippling broken chord is produced; later, as the process moves forward, the second melody is at a distance of an eighth note, and a new interlocking melody arises. The process continues until the twomelodies are inphase again. These ideas are fulfilled inmany of Reich's works composed between 1965 and 1973. The experimentation startedwith It's Gonna Rain and Come Out (both composed in 1966), where he applied the phasing process to tape recordings; it continued with Piano Phase (1967), and Violin Phase (1967), where he experimented within an instrumental context (no electrical devices); and finally, Reich reached the highest development in Drumming (1970-71), Clapping Music (1972), and Music forMallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973), where he incor porated gradual changes of timbre and rhythmic augmentation, among other musical resources. By the end of 1972, he abandoned the gradual phase shiftingprocesses, because...