Steve Reich
Born: 3rd October 1936, New York, U.S.A
Nationality: American
Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay "Music as a Gradual Process" by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow.
His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns, as on the early compositions It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966), and the use of simple, audible processes, as on Pendulum Music (1968) and Four Organs (1970).
Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Reich
Browse: Reich
Further Reading: Reich
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(Half of) Quatuor Zaïde on Reich and Dessner
25th Jun 2026
The quartet's two violinists discuss their new EP of contemporary compositions for string quartet, by Minimalist titan Steve Reich and his sometime pupil Bryce Dessner (perhaps better-known for his work with rock band the National).
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Steve Reich, Big and Small
25th Jul 2025
An EP of two new works by Steve Reich, a new live recording of Reich and Hisaishi, and a huge, delicious box-set of Reich on Nonesuch.
Popular Genres: Reich
All Works: Reich
- 2x5 (4)
- 3 Movements (2)
- Cello Counterpoint (9)
- City Life (9)
- Clapping Music (21)
- Come Out (6)
- Dance Patterns (4)
- Daniel Variations (4)
- Different Trains (16)
- Double Sextet (10)
- Drumming (15)
- Drumming: Part I (2)
- Drumming: Part III (1971) for four percussionists, piccolo and ‘whistler' (1)
- Drumming: Part IV (1)
- Duet (10)
- Eight Lines (10)
- Electric Counterpoint (30)
- Electric Counterpoint: 3rd movement (1)
- Electric Guitar Phase (5)
- Escortic Joynt (remix: Trio Escort) (1)
- Four Organs (9)
- Gra - for solo clarinet (1)
- It's Gonna Rain (2)
- Jacob's Ladder (1)
- Mallet Quartet (6)
- Marimba Phase (5)
- Music for 18 Musicians (23)
- Music for 2 or More Pianos (1)
- Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (3)
- Music for Large Ensemble (9)
- Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (13)
- Music for Pieces of Wood (18)
- My Name Is (1)
- Nagoya Guitars (4)
- Nagoya Marimbas (20)
- New York Counterpoint (36)
- Octet (4)
- Pendulum Music (4)
- Phase Patterns (3)
- Piano Counterpoint (3)
- Piano Phase (15)
- Proverb (8)
- Pulse (4)
- Quartet (5)
- Radio Rewrite (6)
- Rain (2)
- Reich/Richter (4)
- Runner (4)
- Sextet (14)
- Six Marimbas (8)
- Six Pianos (9)
- Tehillim (9)
- The Cave (3)
- The Desert Music (13)
- The four sections (6)
- Three Movements for Orchestra (2)
- Three Tales (1)
- Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint (2)
- Traveler's Prayer (3)
- Triple Quartet (12)
- Variations For Vibes Pianos And Strings (4)
- Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards (9)
- Vermont Counterpoint (14)
- Violin Phase (7)
- WTC 9/11 (6)
- You Are (Variations) (6)
Recent Best Sellers: Reich
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Reich: Clapping Music & other works | Recorded live, in DSD 128fs, at LSO St Luke’s, London 30th October 2015
Neil Percy LSO Percussion Ensemble
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
SACD: $11.00Download from $10.25 -
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Special offer. Steve Reich - The ECM Recordings
Steve Reich Ensemble
3 CDs: Original price $30.25 Reduced $24.20Download from $12.50 -
Special offer. New York
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Matthias Pintscher
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The Times Records of the Year, 2017
2 CDs: Original price $35.25 Reduced $26.43Download from $9.25 -
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Reich: Drumming
Colin Currie, Synergy Vocals
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2018, Editor's Choice
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Diapason d’Or, April 2018, Nouveauté
CD: $12.75Download from $10.25 -
New Releases: Reich
View all new releases-
New. Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
Steve Reich (piano), Shem Guibbory (violin), Ken Ishii (cello), Elizabeth Arnold (vocalist), Rebecca Armstrong (vocalist), Nurit Tilles (piano), Larry Karush (piano), Gary Schall (marimba), Bob Becker (marimba), Russ Hartenberger (marimba), James Preiss (piano), Steve Chambers (piano), David Van Tieghem (piano), Glen Velez (xylophone), Virgil Blackwell (clarinet), Richard Cohen (clarinet), Jay Clayton (piano), Pamela Fraley (vocalist), Steve Reich Ensemble
Download from $9.25 -
New. Steve Reich: Music For 18 Musicians, Double Sextet & Radio Rewrite
Ensemble Signal, Brad Lubman
2 CDs: $18.25 -
New. Reich: Drumming; Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ; Six Pianos (Original Source Series)
Steve Reich & Musicians
3 Vinyl Records: $127.75 -
New. Reich: Octet - Music for a Large Ensemble - Violin Phase
Richard Schwarz (marimba), David Van Tieghem (xylophone), James Preiss (vibraphone), Larry Karush (piano), Jay Clayton (vocalist), Elizabeth Arnold (vocalist), Shem Guibbory (violin), Claire Bergman (viola), Michael Finckel (cello), Judith Sugarman (uprightbass), Richard Cohen (clarinet), Mort Silver (flute, piccoloflute), Vincent Gnojek (sopranosaxophone), James Hamlin (trumpet), Edmund Niemann (piano), Robert Chausow (violin), Ruth Siegler (viola), Chris Finckel (cello), Steve Reich Ensemble
Download from $10.00
