The Desert Music

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The Desert Music is a work of music for voices and orchestra composed by Steve Reich based on texts by William Carlos Williams. It consists of five movements, and in both its tempi and arrangement of thematic material, the piece is in a characteristic arch form (ABCBA).

1 Orchestration
2 Form
- 2.1 Lyrics
3 Relation to other Reich pieces

[edit] Orchestration

The piece is scored for a chorus of 27 voices: nine sopranos, and six each of altos, tenors and basses. It calls for a woodwind section comprising four flutes with three doubling on piccolo, four oboes with three doubling on cor anglais, four Bb clarinets with three doubling on Bb bass clarinet and four bassoons with one doubling on contrabassoon.

The brass section comprises four horns, four trumpets with one doubling on optional piccolo trumpet, two trombones, a bass trombone, and one tuba. The percussion section is characteristically extensive, comprising two timpani, both doubling on rototoms, two marimbas, two vibraphones, two xylophones, two glockenspiels, maracas, sticks, a pair of bass drums, and a medium gong.

Two pianos, played by four musicians, comprise the keyboard section, and the strings, (12-12-9-9-6) are broken into three sections of (4-4-3-3-2) seated by their section with the first set of 16 players stage right, the next 16 center stage, and the last 16 stage left.

[edit] Form

I- Fast Tempo (quarter = 192 in 4/4 time) II- Moderate Tempo IIIA- Slow Tempo IIIB- Moderate Tempo IIIC- Slow Tempo IV- Moderate Tempo V- Fast Tempo

The tempi between two sections are related by a ratio of 3:2, introduced at the end of each section by either triplet or dotted rhythms, respectively. So, I and V have 192 bpm; II, IIIB, and IV have 128 bpm; IIIA and C have 85 bpm.

Sections I and V have the same harmonic structure, sections II and IV have both the same harmonic structure and the same words. Sections IIIA and IIIC have the same words.

[edit] Lyrics

I-fast: 7 minutes and 30 second
"Begin, my friend
for you cannot,
you may be sure,
take your song,
which drives all things out of mind,
with you to the other world." (from Theocritus: Idyl I- A version from the Greek)

II- Moderate: 7 minutes
"Well, shall we
think or listen? Is there a sound addressed
not wholly to the ear?
We half close
our eyes. We do not
hear it through our eyes.
It is not
a flute note either, it is the relation
of a flute note
to a drum. I am wide
awake. The mind
is listening." (from The Orchestra)

IIIA- Slow: 6 minutes
"Say to them:
Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant
to know how to realize his wishes. Now that he can realize
them, he must either change or perish." (from The Orchestra)

IIIB- Moderate: 6 minutes
"It is a principle of music
to repeat the theme. Repeat
and repeat again,
as the pace mounts. The
theme is difficult
but no more difficult
than the facts to be
resolved." (from The Orchestra)

IIIC- Slow: 6 minutes
Same text as section IIIA

IV- Moderate: 3 minute 30 seconds
Same text as section II

V- Fast: 11 minutes
"Inseparable from the fire
its light
takes precedence over it.
who most shall advance the light-
call it what you may!"
(from Asphodel, The Greeny Flower)

[edit] Relation to other Reich pieces

The piece opens similarly to many other Reich's own works: a piano and/or mallet instrument pulsing on the beat, with another piano/marimba soon fading in on the offbeats (Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Three Movements for Orchestra). Also characteristic of several of Reich's pieces, such as New York Counterpoint, Electric Counterpoint, Sextet, Music for 18 Musicians, Three Movements for Orchestra, the exposition of the pulse is followed by pulsed notes in the choir and orchestra fading in and out over the course of a chord progression. Also, the first movement prominently features a repeated rhythm found in several of the aforementioned works: