Carnegie Hall - Steve Reich @ 70

“I didn’t [compose It’s Gonna Rain] for political reasons. I just did it because I was who I was and I lived when I lived and I lived where I lived.” — Steve Reich

Photo: Steve Reich and Musicians performing Music for 18 Musicians at Carnegie Hall, June 23, 1990

MUSIC OF CONSCIENCE

NEXT: Daniel Variations

Reich in His Own Words

On It’s Gonna Rain, Drumming, and the relationship between art and political statements. (4:44)

Background

Throughout his career, Steve Reich has been adamant that political meaning in music is pointless if the music itself is not compelling on its own artistic merits. Yet he has produced work with propulsive political force—from Come Out (1966), built on a snatch of recorded testimony from one of the Harlem Six murder suspects, to Daniel Variations, which was commissioned in memory of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Listen:

Come Out

It’s Gonna Rain
Part I

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