Look up phase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Phase or phases may refer to:

In science[link]

In physics[link]

• Phase (matter), a physically distinctive form of a substance, such as the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of ordinary matter
  • Phase transition is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase to another
• Phase (separation science)
  • Mobile phase and Stationary phase in chromatography
  • Aqueous phase and organic phase in liquid-liquid extraction
• Phase (waves), the initial angle of a sinusoidal function at its origin
• Polyphase system, a means of distributing alternating current electric power in multiple conducting wires with definite phase offsets
  • Single-phase electric power
  • Three-phase electric power
    • Three-phase, the mathematics of three-phase electric power
• Phase problem, the loss of information (the phase) from a physical measurement
• Phase factor, a complex scalar used in quantum mechanics
• Continuous Fourier transform, the angle of a complex coefficient representing the phase of one sinusoidal component
• Instantaneous phase, generalization for both cyclic and non-cyclic phenomena

In other sciences[link]

• Archaeological phase, a discrete period of occupation at an archaeological site
• Lunar phase, the appearance of the Moon as viewed from the Earth
• Planetary phase, the appearance of the illuminated section of a planet
• In biology, a part of the cell cycle in which cells divide and reproduce
• Color phase, in biology, a group of individuals within a species with a particular coloration
• Phase (syntax), in linguistics, a cyclic domain (proposed by Noam Chomsky)

In entertainment[link]

• Phase (band), an alternative rock band
• "Phases", a box set of albums by The Who
• "Phases" (Buffy episode), an episode of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Phases (.hack), fictional monsters in the .hack franchise
• Phase IV, a 1974 science fiction movie directed by Saul Bass
• Phase, an incarnation of the DC Comics character usually known as Phantom Girl
• Phaze, an alternate world in Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series

Other uses[link]

• Phase 10, a card game created by Fundex Games
• Phase (video game), a music game for the iPod developed by Harmonix Music Systems
• Phase (combat) usually a period of combat within a larger military operation
• A musical composition using Steve Reich's phasing technique

See also[link]

• Phasing (disambiguation)
• Faze (disambiguation)
• Phaser (disambiguation)
• Phasor (disambiguation)
• FASOR (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Steve Reich in 2006

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich ( /ˈraɪʃ/;^[1] born October 3, 1936) is an American composer who is one of the pioneering composers of minimal music along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass.^[2][3][4]

His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (examples are 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 the Grammy Award-winning Different Trains.

Reich's style of composition influenced many other composers and musical groups. Reich has been described, in The Guardian by music critic Andrew Clements, as one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history",^[5] and the critic Kyle Gann has said Reich "may...be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer."^[6]

On January 25, 2007, Reich was named the 2007 recipient of the Polar Music Prize, together with jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins. On April 20, 2009, Reich was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Double Sextet.^[7]

Career[link]

Early life[link]

Reich was born in New York City to the Broadway lyricist June Sillman. When he was one year old, his parents divorced, and Reich divided his time between New York and California. He was given piano lessons as a child and describes growing up with the "middle-class favorites", having no exposure to music written before 1750 or after 1900. At the age of 14 he began to study music in earnest, after hearing music from the Baroque period and earlier, as well as music of the 20th century. Reich studied drums with Roland Kohloff in order to play jazz. While attending Cornell University, he took some music courses, but he graduated in 1957 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Reich's B.A. thesis was on Ludwig Wittgenstein; later he would set texts by that philosopher to music in Proverb (1995) and You Are (variations) (2006).

For a year following graduation, Reich studied composition privately with Hall Overton before he enrolled at Juilliard to work with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti (1958–1961). Subsequently he attended Mills College in Oakland, California, where he studied with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud (1961–1963) and earned a master's degree in composition. At Mills, Reich composed Melodica for melodica and tape, which appeared in 1986 on the three-LP release Music from Mills.^[8]

Reich worked with the San Francisco Tape Music Center along with Pauline Oliveros, Ramon Sender, Morton Subotnick, and Terry Riley.^[9] He was involved with the premiere of Riley's In C and suggested the use of the eighth note pulse, which is now standard in performance of the piece.

1960s[link]

Reich's early forays into composition involved experimentation with twelve-tone composition, but he found the rhythmic aspects of the twelve-tone series more interesting than the melodic aspects.^[10] Reich also composed film soundtracks for Plastic Haircut, Oh Dem Watermelons, and Thick Pucker, three films by Robert Nelson. The soundtrack of Plastic Haircut, composed in 1963, was a short tape collage, possibly Reich's first. The Watermelons soundtrack used two old Stephen Foster minstrel tunes as its basis, and used repeated phrasing together in a large five-part canon. The music for Thick Pucker arose from street recordings Reich made walking around San Francisco with Nelson, who filmed in black and white 16mm. This film no longer survives. A fourth film from 1965, about 25 minutes long and tentatively entitled "Thick Pucker II", was assembled by Nelson from outtakes of that shoot and more of the raw audio Reich had recorded. Nelson was not happy with the resulting film and never showed it.

Reich was influenced by fellow minimalist Terry Riley, whose work In C combines simple musical patterns, offset in time, to create a slowly shifting, cohesive whole. Reich adopted this approach to compose his first major work, It's Gonna Rain. Composed in 1965, the piece used a fragment of a sermon about the end of the world given by a black Pentecostal street-preacher known as Brother Walter. Reich built on his early tape work, transferring the last three words of the fragment, "it's gonna rain!", to multiple tape loops which gradually move out of phase with one another.

The 13-minute "Come Out" (1966) uses similarly manipulated recordings of a single spoken line given by Daniel Hamm, one of the falsely accused Harlem Six, who was severely injured by police. The survivor, who had been beaten, punctured a bruise on his own body to convince police about his beating. The spoken line includes the phrase "to let the bruise’s blood come out to show them." Reich rerecorded the fragment "come out to show them" on two channels, which are initially played in unison. They quickly slip out of sync; gradually the discrepancy widens and becomes a reverberation. The two voices then split into four, looped continuously, then eight, and continues splitting until the actual words are unintelligible, leaving the listener with only the speech's rhythmic and tonal patterns.

A similar, lesser known example of process music is "Pendulum Music" (1968), which consists of the sound of several microphones swinging over the loudspeakers to which they are attached, producing feedback as they do so. "Pendulum Music" has never been recorded by Reich himself, but was introduced to rock audiences by Sonic Youth in the late 1990s.

Reich's first attempt at translating this phasing technique from recorded tape to live performance was the 1967 Piano Phase, for two pianos. In Piano Phase the performers repeat a rapid twelve-note melodic figure, initially in unison. As one player keeps tempo with robotic precision, the other speeds up very slightly until the two parts line up again, but one sixteenth note apart. The second player then resumes the previous tempo. This cycle of speeding up and then locking in continues throughout the piece; the cycle comes full circle three times, the second and third cycles using shorter versions of the initial figure. Violin Phase, also written in 1967, is built on these same lines. Piano Phase and Violin Phase both premiered in a series of concerts given in New York art galleries.

Reich also tried to create the phasing effect in a piece "that would need no instrument beyond the human body". He found that the idea of phasing was inappropriate for the simple ways he was experimenting to make sound. Instead, he composed Clapping Music (1972), in which the players do not phase in and out with each other, but instead one performer keeps one line of a 12-quaver-long (12-eighth-note-long) phrase and the other performer shifts by one quaver beat every 12 bars, until both performers are back in unison 144 bars later.

The 1967 prototype piece Slow Motion Sound was not performed although Chris Hughes performed it 27 years later as "Slow Motion Blackbird" on his Reich-influenced 1994 album Shift. It introduced the idea of slowing down a recorded sound until many times its original length without changing pitch or timbre, which Reich applied to Four Organs (1970), which deals specifically with augmentation. The piece has maracas playing a fast eighth note pulse, while the four organs stress certain eighth notes using an 11th chord. This work therefore dealt with repetition and subtle rhythmic change. It is unique in the context of Reich's other pieces in being linear as opposed to cyclic like his earlier works— the superficially similar Phase Patterns, also for four organs but without maracas, is (as the name suggests) a phase piece similar to others composed during the period. Four Organs was performed as part of a Boston Symphony Orchestra program, and was Reich's first composition to be performed in a large traditional setting.

1970s[link]

In 1971, Reich embarked on a five-week trip to study music in Ghana, during which he learned from the master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie. Reich also studied Balinese gamelan in Seattle. From his African experience, as well as A. M. Jones's Studies in African Music about the music of the Ewe people, Reich drew inspiration for his 90-minute piece Drumming, which he composed shortly after his return. Composed for a nine-piece percussion ensemble with female voices and piccolo, Drumming marked the beginning of a new stage in his career, for around this time he formed his ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, and increasingly concentrated on composition and performance with them. Steve Reich and Musicians, which was to be the sole ensemble to interpret his works for many years, still remains active with many of its original members.

After Drumming, Reich moved on from the "phase shifting" technique that he had pioneered, and began writing more elaborate pieces. He investigated other musical processes such as augmentation (the temporal lengthening of phrases and melodic fragments). It was during this period that he wrote works such as Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973) and Six Pianos (1973).

In 1974, Reich began writing what many would call his seminal work, Music for 18 Musicians. This piece involved many new ideas, although it also hearkened back to earlier pieces. It is based on a cycle of eleven chords introduced at the beginning (called "Pulses"), followed by a small section of music based on each chord ("Sections I-XI"), and finally a return to the original cycle ("Pulses"). This was Reich's first attempt at writing for larger ensembles. The increased number of performers resulted in more scope for psychoacoustic effects, which fascinated Reich, and he noted that he would like to "explore this idea further". Reich remarked that this one work contained more harmonic movement in the first five minutes than any other work he had written. Steve Reich and Musicians made the premier recording of this work on ECM Records.

Reich explored these ideas further in his frequently recorded pieces Music for a Large Ensemble (1978) and Octet (1979). In these two works, Reich experimented with "the human breath as the measure of musical duration … the chords played by the trumpets are written to take one comfortable breath to perform".^[11] Human voices are part of the musical palette in Music for a Large Ensemble but the wordless vocal parts simply form part of the texture (as they do in Drumming). With Octet and his first orchestral piece Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards (also 1979), Reich's music showed the influence of Biblical cantillation, which he had studied in Israel since the summer of 1977. After this, the human voice singing a text would play an increasingly important role in Reich's music.

In 1974 Reich published a book, Writings About Music (ISBN 0814773583), containing essays on his philosophy, aesthetics, and musical projects written between 1963 and 1974. An updated and much more extensive collection, Writings On Music (1965–2000) (ISBN 0195111710), was published in 2002.

1980s[link]

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. Tehillim (1981), Hebrew for psalms, is the first of Reich's works to draw explicitly on his Jewish background. The work is in four parts, and is scored for an ensemble of four women's voices (one high soprano, two lyric sopranos and one alto), piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, six percussion (playing small tuned tambourines without jingles, clapping, maracas, marimba, vibraphone and crotales), two electronic organs, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, with amplified voices, strings, and winds. A setting of texts from psalms 19:2–5 (19:1–4 in Christian translations), 34:13–15 (34:12–14), 18:26–27 (18:25–26), and 150:4–6, Tehillim is a departure from Reich's other work in its formal structure; the setting of texts several lines long rather than the fragments used in previous works makes melody a substantive element. Use of formal counterpoint and functional harmony also contrasts with the loosely structured minimalist works written previously.

	Pat Metheny "Electric Counterpoint III Fast" (1989) noicon 25 seconds of "Electric Counterpoint III Fast" performed by Pat Metheny. Composed by Steve Reich. From "Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint" album.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Different Trains (1988), for string quartet and tape, uses recorded speech, as in his earlier works, but this time as a melodic rather than a rhythmic element. In Different Trains Reich compares and contrasts his childhood memories of his train journeys between New York and California in 1939–1941 with the very different trains being used to transport contemporaneous European children to their deaths under Nazi rule. The Kronos Quartet recording of Different Trains was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in 1990. The composition was described by Richard Taruskin as "the only adequate musical response—one of the few adequate artistic responses in any medium—to the Holocaust", and he credited the piece with earning Reich a place among the great composers of the 20th century.^[13]

1990s to present[link]

In 1993, Reich collaborated with his wife, the video artist Beryl Korot, on an opera, The Cave, which explores the roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam through the words of Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans, echoed musically by the ensemble. The work, for percussion, voices, and strings, is a musical documentary, named for the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron, where a mosque now stands and Abraham is said to have been buried. The two collaborated again on the opera Three Tales, which concerns the Hindenburg disaster, the testing of nuclear weapons on Bikini Atoll, and other more modern concerns, specifically Dolly the sheep, cloning, and the technological singularity.

As well as pieces using sampling techniques, like Three Tales and City Life (1994), Reich also returned to composing purely instrumental works for the concert hall, starting with Triple Quartet (1998) written for the Kronos Quartet that can either be performed by string quartet and tape, three string quartets or 36-piece string orchestra. According to Reich, the piece is influenced by Bartók's and Alfred Schnittke's string quartets, and Michael Gordon's Yo Shakespeare.^[14] This series continued with Dance Patterns (2002), Cello Counterpoint (2003), and sequence of works centered around Variations: You Are (Variations) (2004) (a work which looks back to the vocal writing of works like Tehillim or The Desert Music), Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings (2005, for the London Sinfonietta) and Daniel Variations (2006).

Invited by Walter Fink, he was the 12th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2002.

In an interview with The Guardian, Reich stated that he continues to follow this direction with his piece Double Sextet (2007) commissioned by eighth blackbird, an American ensemble consisting of the instrumental quintet (flute, clarinet, violin or viola, cello and piano) of Schoenberg's piece Pierrot Lunaire (1912) plus percussion. Reich states that he was thinking about Stravinsky's Agon (1957) as a model for the instrumental writing.

Reich was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music, on April 20, 2009, for Double Sextet.^[15]

December 2010 NoneSuch and Indaba Music held a community remix contest where over 250 submissions were received, and Steve Reich and Christian Carey judged the finals. Reich spoke in a related BBC interview that once he composed a piece he would not alter it again himself; "when it's done, it's done". On the other hand he acknowledged that "remixes" have an old tradition e.g. famous religious music pieces where melodies were further developed into new songs.^[16]

In May 2011, Steve Reich received an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory of Music.^[17]

Influence[link]

Reich's style of composition has influenced many other composers and musical groups, including John Adams, the progressive rock band King Crimson, the new-age guitarist Michael Hedges, the art-pop and electronic musician Brian Eno, the experimental art/music group The Residents, the composers associated with the Bang on a Can festival (including David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe), and numerous indie rock musicians including songwriter Sufjan Stevens^[18][19] and instrumental ensembles Tortoise,^[20][21][22] The Mercury Program (themselves influenced by Tortoise),^[23] So Many Dynamos, Do Make Say Think and A Silver Mt. Zion.^{[citation needed]} Godspeed You! Black Emperor composed a song, unreleased, entitled "Steve Reich".^[24]

John Adams commented, "He didn't reinvent the wheel so much as he showed us a new way to ride."^[25] He has also influenced visual artists such as Bruce Nauman, and many notable choreographers have made dances to his music, Eliot Feld, Jiří Kylián, Douglas Lee and Jerome Robbins among others; he has expressed particular admiration of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's work set to his pieces.

In featuring a sample of Reich's Electric Counterpoint (1987) the British ambient techno act the Orb exposed a new generation of listeners to the composer's music with its 1990 production “Little Fluffy Clouds.”^[26] Further acknowledgment of Reich's influence on various electronic dance music producers came with the release in 1999 of the Reich Remixed^[27] tribute album which featured reinterpretations by artists such as DJ Spooky, Kurtis Mantronik, Ken Ishii, and Coldcut, among others.^[26]

Reich often cites Pérotin, J.S. Bach, Debussy, Bartók, and Stravinsky as composers he admires, whose tradition he wished as a young composer to become part of.^[28] Jazz is a major part of the formation of Reich's musical style, and two of the earliest influences on his work were vocalists Ella Fitzgerald and Alfred Deller, whose emphasis on the artistic capabilities of the voice alone with little vibrato or other alteration was an inspiration to his earliest works. John Coltrane's style, which Reich has described as "playing a lot of notes to very few harmonies", also had an impact; of particular interest was the album Africa/Brass, which "was basically a half-an-hour in F."^[29] Reich's influence from jazz includes its roots, also, from the West African music he studied in his readings and visit to Ghana. Other important influences are Kenny Clarke and Miles Davis, and visual artist friends such as Sol LeWitt and Richard Serra. Reich recently contributed the introduction to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky.

Recent projects[link]

Reich has the world premiere of a piece, WTC 9/11, written for String Quartet and Tape, a similar instrumentation to that of Different Trains. It premiered in March 2011 by the Kronos Quartet, at Duke University, North Carolina, USA.^{[citation needed]}

Quotations[link]

[...] I drove a cab in San Francisco, and in New York I worked as a part-time social worker. Phil Glass and I had a moving company for a short period of time. I did all kinds of odd jobs [...] I started making a living as a performer in my own ensemble. I would never have thought that it was how I was going to survive financially. It was a complete wonder.
—From an interview with Richard Kessler, 1998^[30]

The point is, if you went to Paris and dug up Debussy and said, 'Excusez-moi Monsieur…are you an impressionist?' he'd probably say 'Merde!' and go back to sleep. That is a legitimate concern of musicologists, music historians, and journalists, and it's a convenient way of referring to me, Riley, Glass, La Monte Young [...] it's become the dominant style. But, anybody who's interested in French Impressionism is interested in how different Debussy and Ravel and Satie are—and ditto for what's called minimalism. [...] Basically, those kind of words are taken from painting and sculpture, and applied to musicians who composed at the same period as that painting and sculpture was made [...].
—From an Interview with Rebecca Y. Kim, 2000^[31]

All musicians in the past, starting with the middle ages were interested in popular music. (...) Béla Bartók's music is made entirely of sources from Hungarian folk music. And Igor Stravinsky, although he lied about it, used all kinds of Russian sources for his early ballets. Kurt Weill's great masterpiece Dreigroschenoper is using the cabaret-style of the Weimar Republic and that's why it is such a masterpiece. Only artificial division between popular and classical music happened unfortunately through the blindness of Arnold Schoenberg and his followers to create an artificial wall, which never existed before him. In my generation we tore the wall down and now we are back to the normal situation, for example if Brian Eno or David Bowie come to me, and if popular musicians remix my music like The Orb or DJ Spooky it is a good thing. This is a natural normal regular historical way.
—From an Interview with Jakob Buhre^[32]

Works[link]

• Soundtrack for The Plastic Haircut, tape (1963)
• Music for two or more pianos (1964)
• Livelihood (1964)
• It's Gonna Rain, tape (1965)
• Soundtrack for Oh Dem Watermelons, tape (1965)
• Come Out, tape (1966)
• Melodica, for melodica and tape (1966)
• Reed Phase, for soprano saxophone and tape (1966)
• Piano Phase for two pianos, or two marimbas (1967)
• Slow Motion Sound concept piece (1967)
• Violin Phase for violin and tape or four violins (1967)
• My Name Is for three tape recorders and performers (1967)
• Pendulum Music for 3 or 4 microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers (1968) (revised 1973)^[33]
• Four Organs for four electric organs and maracas (1970)
• Phase Patterns for four electric organs (1970)
• Drumming for 4 pairs of tuned bongo drums, 3 marimbas, 3 glockenspiels, 2 female voices, whistling and piccolo (1970/1971)
• Clapping Music for two musicians clapping (1972)
• Music for Pieces of Wood for five pairs of tuned claves (1973)
• Six Pianos (1973) – transcribed as Six Marimbas (1986)
• Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973)
• Music for 18 Musicians (1974–76)
• Music for a Large Ensemble (1978)
• Octet (1979) – withdrawn in favor of the 1983 revision for slightly larger ensemble, Eight Lines
• Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards for orchestra (1979)
• Tehillim for voices and ensemble (1981)
• Vermont Counterpoint for amplified flute and tape (1982)
• The Desert Music for chorus and orchestra or voices and ensemble (1983, text by William Carlos Williams)
• Sextet for percussion and keyboards (1984)
• New York Counterpoint for amplified clarinet and tape, or 11 clarinets and bass clarinet (1985)
• Three Movements for orchestra (1986)
• Electric Counterpoint for electric guitar or amplified acoustic guitar and tape (1987, for Pat Metheny)
• The Four Sections for orchestra (1987)
• Different Trains for string quartet and tape (1988)
• The Cave for four voices, ensemble and video (1993, with Beryl Korot)
• Duet for two violins and string ensemble (1993)
• Nagoya Marimbas for two marimbas (1994)
• City Life for amplified ensemble (1995)
• Proverb for voices and ensemble (1995, text by Ludwig Wittgenstein)
• Triple Quartet for amplified string quartet (with prerecorded tape), or three string quartets, or string orchestra (1998)
• Know What Is Above You for four women’s voices and 2 tamborims (1999)
• Three Tales for video projection, five voices and ensemble (1998–2002, with Beryl Korot)
• Dance Patterns for 2 xylophones, 2 vibraphones and 2 pianos (2002)
• Cello Counterpoint for amplified cello and multichannel tape (2003)
• You Are (Variations) for voices and ensemble (2004)
• For Strings (with Winds and Brass) for orchestra (1987/2004)
• Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings dance piece for three string quartets, four vibraphones, and two pianos (2005)
• Daniel Variations for four voices and ensemble (2006)
• Double Sextet for 2 violins, 2 cellos, 2 pianos, 2 vibraphones, 2 clarinets, 2 flutes or ensemble and pre-recorded tape (2007)
• 2x5 for 2 drum sets, 2 pianos, 4 electric guitars and 2 bass guitars (2008)
• Mallet Quartet for 2 marimbas and 2 vibraphones or 4 marimbas (or solo percussion and tape) (2009)
• WTC 9/11 for String Quartet and Tape (2010)

Selected discography[link]

• Drumming. Steve Reich and Musicians (Two recordings: Deutsche Grammophon and Nonesuch) So Percussion (Cantaloupe)
• Music for 18 Musicians. Steve Reich and Musicians (Two recordings: ECM and Nonesuch), Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble (Innova), Ensemble Modern (RCA).
• Octet/Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase. Steve Reich and Musicians (ECM)
• Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards/Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ/ Six Pianos. San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Edo de Waart, Steve Reich & Musicians (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Tehillim/The Desert Music. Alarm Will Sound and OSSIA, Alan Pierson (Cantaloupe)
• Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint. Kronos Quartet, Pat Metheny (Nonesuch)
• You Are (Variations)/Cello Counterpoint. Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gershon, Maya Beiser (Nonesuch)
• Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995. Various performers (Nonesuch).
• Daniel Variations, with Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings. London Sinfonietta, Grant Gershon, Alan Pierson (Nonesuch)
• Double Sextet/2x5, Eighth Blackbird and Bang on a Can (Nonesuch)
• Piano Phase, transcribed for guitar, Alexandre Gérard (Catapult)
• Phase to Face, a film documentary about Steve Reich by Eric Darmon & Franck Mallet (EuroArts) DVD

Further reading[link]

• D.J. Hoek. Steve Reich: A Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 2002.
• Steve Reich. Writings about Music. Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1974.
• K. Robert Schwarz. Minimalists. Phaidon Press, 1996.

See also[link]

• Minimalist music
• Steve Reich and Musicians

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Potter, Keith (2000). Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Music in the Twentieth Century series. Cambridge, UK; New York, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Reich, Steve; Hillier, Paul (Editor) (April 1, 2002). Writings on Music, 1965–2000. USA: Oxford University Press. p. 272. ISBN 0-19-511171-0. 
• Reich, Steve (1974). Writings About Music. Halifax: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. p. 78. ISBN 0-919616-02-X. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Steve Reich

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Danity Kane was an American female music group signed to Bad Boy Records, first established in 2005. Formed on the third installment of MTV's Making the Band reality television series, the quintet comprised members Aubrey O'Day, Wanita "D. Woods" Woodgett, Shannon Bex, Dawn Richard, and Aundrea Fimbres. On the October 2008 finale episode of Making the Band 4, O'Day and Woodgett were confirmed as no longer a part of the group. On January 27, 2009, Richard confirmed to MTV.com in an interview that Danity Kane was no longer a group.^[1] The final line-up of the group, featured in the 2009 season of Making the Band, consisted of Richard and Fimbres; all group members were ultimately released from their contracts with Bad Boy Records later within the year.

Danity Kane's self-titled debut studio album was released in 2006 and achieved success in the United States, shipping a million copies domestically,^[2] while spawning two singles with top 10 hit "Show Stopper" and the ballad "Ride for You". Their second studio album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, was released on March 18, 2008, following the release of their second top 10 hit single "Damaged".^[3] The band became the first female group in Billboard history to debut their first two albums at the top of the charts.^[4]

History[link]

[edit] 2004–2005: Making the Band 3

In 2004, producer Sean "Diddy" Combs returned with Making the Band 3, this time searching for the next female supergroup.^[4] With the help of choreographer Laurie Ann Gibson, vocal trainer Doc Holiday and talent manager Johnny Wright, he set out on a multi-city search and chose 20 young singers out of almost 10,000 young women.^[4][5] While seven women remained, Combs became discontent with the level of talent remaining in the competition, and eventually decided not to form a band.^[4] He did, however, give a reprieve to three contestants he felt deserved another chance, including then-best friends Aubrey O'Day and Aundrea Fimbres, whose close bond originally formed early in the season.^[4] The three contestants became the first to appear in Season 2 of the show.^[4]

Afterwards, Combs once again pressed his team to audition new young women for the group.^[4] Finally, 20 young women were chosen and moved into a loft in New York City.^[4] Viewers had become invested in O'Day and Fimbres's friendship, naming them "the AUs" and "Aubrea" (portmanteux of their first names put together), as they watched the two compete all over again for positions in the group.^[4][6] As the competition's challenges increased, their friendship seemed to become the foundation upon which the group was being built.^[4] In addition, O'Day emerged as the show's breakout star.^[4][5]

After weeks of dance and singing lessons, promotional appearances, and a performance in front of 10,000 at a Backstreet Boys concert at Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA, 11 contestants remained, including O'Day and Fimbres.^[4] The finalists were sent home for three months, told to polish up, and return for the final stretch in November 2005.^[4]

On the second season's finale, on Monday, November 15, 2005, the show's ratings broke MTV records as millions of viewers watched to see the group officially formed.^[4] Five of the 11 remaining contestants were chosen: O'Day first, Wanita "D. Woods" Woodgett second, Shannon Bex third, Dawn Angeliqué Richard fourth, and Fimbres last.^[4] The final five members of the group in place, the third season of Making the Band 3 tracked the development and struggles of the new band — from then on known as "Danity Kane" (a name taken from a female anime superhero created and drawn by Richard).^[7] The group would later be featured on the second and third seasons of Making the Band 4 with new male R&B group Day26, as well as new solo artist Donnie Klang.

[edit] 2006–2007: Danity Kane

After months of recording, the band's debut album Danity Kane was released to mixed reviews on August 22, 2006 in the United States. Produced by Timbaland, Scott Storch, Rodney Jerkins, Mario Winans and Ryan Leslie among others, the album sold over 90,000 copies in the first day of release, and over 234,000 in the first week of release.^[8] It eventually debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart, knocking veteran Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics from the top spot and out-selling hip-hop duo OutKast.^[8] The album received a platinum certification from the RIAA in November 2006.^[9] The album's lead single "Show Stopper", produced by Jim Jonsin, was serviced to radio on August 4, 2006, and subsequently debuted at number 17 on Billboard's Hot 100; it however peaked at number 8 on that particular chart.^[10] Outside the United States, the song became a top-30 success in Germany and Lithuania. The selection for the album's second single, Bryan Michael Cox produced "Ride for You", was influenced by a fan poll that went around through e-mails, MySpace, and the group's official web site. The music video for the song premiered on MTV's Total Request Live on December 5, 2006, the same day the band released a holiday song called "Home for Christmas" which was written by group member Dawn Richard.^[11]

Between February 2007 to May 2007 Danity Kane performed as an opening act, along with the Pussycat Dolls, on Christina Aguilera's Back To Basics Tour. In the meantime the band intensified work on their second album, which was initially scheduled for a late 2007 release but was eventually pushed back to 2008.^[12]

Rumors of disbandment[link]

Ever since the creation of the group in 2005, Danity Kane was plagued by rumors of the group's demise.^[4] Such speculation existed due to the group's origin of being built from a reality show, their management, record label, and mentor.^[4]

In summer 2007, during a hiatus between their first and second albums, speculation by fans and the media circled the Internet and entertainment news outlets concerning the possibility of Danity Kane splitting up. The rumors were fueled by quotes taken out of context (most notably when Aubrey O'Day was questioned by TMZ^[13] about her relationship to the successful pop girl group the Pussycat Dolls and their television show Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll^[14]) and by work the group members had done outside of Danity Kane since the release of their debut album. D. Woods's association with another girl group, The Girl's Club, was specifically cited as adding credibility to breakup rumors.^[4] Additionally, reports of solo careers and of new groups forming from various combinations of members of the group were rampant.^[4]

Over the course of these rumors, the members of Danity Kane often published personal online responses to the breakup speculation.^[15] It was not until July 25, 2007 that Danity Kane released an official statement on their group MySpace page stating that they were still together and working on their second album

[edit] 2007–2008: Welcome to the Dollhouse

While making several solo appearances on other artists' albums during fall 2007, Danity Kane was featured on the second season of the fourth iteration of Making the Band which debuted January 28, 2008 on MTV, where solo singer Donnie Klang, Day26, and the girls, lived and recorded their albums together.

"Damaged", the band's poll-voted lead single from their second album Welcome to the Dollhouse, was officially released as a digital single on January 29, 2008, and became the band's second top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Its music video had been nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for "Best Pop Video" and "Best Dancing in a Video" but lost to "Piece of Me" by Britney Spears and "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls respectively. Welcome to the Dollhouse, was eventually released on March 18, 2008 in the United States, where it debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 236,000 copies (2,000 units more than their self-titled debut album).^[16] The album eventually received a gold certification from the RIAA in April 2008. On September 28, 2008, the album had sold a total of 546,790 copies. In a May 2008 interview with Kiwibox.com, Danity Kane revealed that the follow-up single to "Damaged" would be "Bad Girl".^[17]

On the second season finale of Making the Band 4, it was announced that Danity Kane would be headlining a tour in 2008 and be featured on the next season of Making the Band, as Diddy stated himself. The third season of Making the Band 4 premiered on MTV August 19, 2008. Around a week later, the girls were featured in an interview with Z100 at the Beatstock Dance Festival. They said they were planning to release another single after "Bad Girl".^[18] This was before the departure of O'Day and Woods.

Departures of Aubrey O'Day and D. Woods[link]

After Making the Band 4 - The Tour and the release of the first single "Damaged", Danity Kane once again encountered rumors of a breakup. Largely spurred by scenes from the Making the Band series featuring their mentor Sean Combs sparring with O'Day over her dance performance and desire to create her own image separate from the group.^[19] On the August 28, 2008 episode of Making the Band, because of being consistently frustrated with the "oversexed" image he felt O'Day now showcased, Combs called O'Day "one of the worst dancers" in Danity Kane, when she used to be "one of the best".^[20] He told O'Day that she no longer looked like the girl he signed.^[20] Combs bluntly accused O'Day of trying to expand her fame at the expense of the entire group, and that she liked flaunting her breasts and wearing big hair.^[20] O'Day had boasted about her cleavage to former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) guru and current SunSport broadband television producer/host Paul Heyman of The Heyman Hustle in order to validate her breasts as natural. In a controversial act, she rubbed her cleavage on Heyman's arm.^[21] Furious, Combs asked himself on television why he was keeping O'Day in the group.^[20][19] With O'Day forgoing promotional appearances with the group to appear as Amber Von Tussle on Broadway's Hairspray, speculation arose that O'Day's role in the group had been marginalized. On September 7, 2008, however, the group appeared together at the MTV Video Music Awards to help present the Best New Artist Award.^[22]

Separately, tension also seemed to be developing within the group because of rumors that Richard would perhaps be groomed to launch her own solo career with Bad Boy Records.^[23] Rumors had been circulating that Richard was flown from Baltimore to New York for private meetings with Combs to launch her own solo career, especially after recording three tracks for Combs, which were purported to be Danity Kane tracks but only featured Richard's vocals; these vocals were leaked on the Internet. Combs went as far as to introduce Richard in a solo performance in early September.^[24] An Atlantic Records spokesperson responded, "At no point was [Richard] flown anywhere to record solo or meet alone with [Combs]. The girls are still very much together. They're going out to the Video Music Awards together ... and they're promoting their album ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse' and working on their third."^[25]

On the October 7, 2008 episode of Making the Band, Combs stated that he did have Richard on three demos for his new album.^[23] On the same episode of the show, after continued debate with O'Day about the well-being of Danity Kane, he stated that O'Day was no longer in the group,^[23] as had been foreshadowed in an earlier episode within the season after a TRL (Total Request Live) appearance. Combs was unaware of the specific problems within the group, but sensed that O'Day and Aundrea Fimbres, who were originally close friends, had drastically drifted apart.^[23] O'Day and Richard informed Combs that the entire group had trust issues with management and ultimately each other.^[23] The season finale, which took place Tuesday, October 14, 2008, confirmed the departure of O'Day and Woods.^[26][27] Combs removed Woods due to feeling that she was unhappy with the group and that she had gotten "caught up in the wrath" of close friend O'Day.^[26][27] In the live section of the episode, Combs explained that the reason he let O'Day go was that she was not the same person he signed, that the fame had changed her (as had been expressed on the August 28, 2008 episode).^[26] "I got love for Aubrey," he said. "I don't have any beef with her. I just want to work with the young lady that I signed, not the person that fame has made her."^[27] He later stated that he would be open to working with Woods again.^[26] When O'Day came on to reply, just moments after deciding not to leave the studio, she first addressed the perception some people, especially bloggers, have of her. "I would rather be hated every damn day of my life for being real than loved for being something I'm not," she stated.^[27] Combs, who spoke to the group and the audience via satellite, relayed to O'Day, "Check this out, baby girl... See, your attitude is gonna have you in a dark and lonely place. ... What you need to do, at the end of the day, is humble yourself."^[27] Woods did not appear on the live episode due to prior obligations.^[26]

In a backstage interview before the finale, O'Day said, "Tonight is a representation of the end of a chapter in my life; it's not the end of the book."^[27] She added, "I will do everything possible to make my mark on this industry, and Danity Kane and [Combs] provided me with this amazing opportunity to go out and really touch people's hearts. I think the way that we were able to inspire people was something that I will never be able to achieve in that way again in my life."^[27]

MTV News reached out to a rep for Danity Kane to see where the future of the band stood now that [O'Day and Woods] were no longer in the group.^[27] It was reported that Woods planned to work with another group, the Girls Club,^[27] and that O'Day was working on a solo album.

In an October 15, 2008 interview with Us Weekly, Richard gave further insight into O'Day's dismissal from Danity Kane. "[Combs] did not like [O'Day's] image...where her image was going for the group," she said. "It wasn't a personal thing."^[28] Richard explained that O'Day's increasingly "sexy look" was alienating young fans. Referring specifically to O'Day's topless pictures for Complex magazine just a month before, Richard stated, "We had just did a signing with Dollhouse Teen, which is for 13, 14-year-old young girls... So we can't do that one day and then the next day do an obnoxious cover.... [Combs] wants the fans, and he says he can't do that if we can continue to go in the direction that we were going."^[28] Richard further relayed, "[Combs] told me specifically that [O'Day] is no longer in Danity Kane and Danity Kane will move forward without her."^[28] When asked if Combs would seek "replacements" for O'Day and Woods, Richard stated, "He has not said anything per that. But I think in my heart that he is gonna do another show."^[28]

MTV News gauged fan reactions to the dismissals of O'Day and Woods. Fans left impassioned, long and detailed comments on the MTV News site about their discontent regarding the decision to remove the two singers, and relayed that the remaining members were using the breakup to "score" publicity.^[29] Richard, in particular, received resentment from fans.^[29] Other fans were more upset about the breakup in general, with the sentiment that Danity Kane would lack the individuality (je ne sais quoi) and excitement that O'Day and Woods brought to the group.^[29] Despite, however, the dismissals of O'Day and Woods, other sections of the fandom were willing to give the "new Danity Kane" a chance and believed that the group would be as strong as they were before.^[29]

2008–2009: Disbandment[link]

In mid 2008, before the departure of O'Day and Woods, Danity Kane planned to start pre-production for their third studio album, which would have begun January 2009.^[30] In the meantime, Danity Kane released a line of denim jeans through Dollhouse. Under Russell Simmons Plastic Cash International, the decision was made to feature Danity Kane's image on Visa debit cards. The group had also been a part of a new ad campaign for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Collectively, as a group, there were plans for a fragrance, clothing and makeup line.^[30] Richard had developed a comic book based on the superhero the group based its name on, which was intended for release sometime in 2009.^[31][32]

However, in a January 28, 2009 interview with MTV News, Richard announced that the group had split up.^[1] Richard explained that Combs had invited all the women to come back on the 2009 season of Making the Band and that only two of them showed up. "It changes [our situation] completely," she said.^[1] "We have fans out there who love Danity Kane. We love Danity Kane. It's hard. We're sitting here trying to make sense of it now. It's hard. We're put in this position that we didn't ask to be in and we're being told to fix it."^[1]

The two members willing to continue within the group were Richard and Fimbres. Shannon Bex did not show up. On the series and in an earlier interview, she had explicitly stated her discontent about Danity Kane being divided.^[33][23] "I don't know why [Bex left]," said Richard.^[1] "I think she's just happy. I don't want to even try to answer it 'cause that's not fair to her. I haven't [spoken to her] but I heard she's doing well with her husband and she got a house. I love her, but I don't know."^[1] Richard was surprised that only two members showed up for another season. "The thing about it ... I thought we were all going to come back and talk, or maybe if [O'Day] didn't come back, 'cause I don't know how [Combs] was feeling about that, if the four of us got together. I didn't know what to expect. I just know I got off the plane and found out I was the only one there and [Fimbres] came the next day."^[1]

Still in disbelief over the departures of O'Day and Woods, as well as the speculation about O'Day's sexuality and her forthcoming Playboy spread, Richard stated, "I'm still surprised at it all. I'm still trying to recover from the first fire. So I'm still confused. I still don't know. I'm just being so honest. I have no idea."^[1]

On February 25, 2009, O'Day told MTV News that she was not sure if Woods had been asked back for the new season of Making the Band, as far as she knew, but that she herself was not asked to return. "Well, I was fired and we all saw that," she said.^[34] "I'm not sure about the other girls — who was invited back or what they were asked to do — but I obviously wouldn't be invited back if I was fired."^[34]

O'Day conveyed her hope that fans continue to honor the group that "made her a star".^[34] "Danity Kane was a wonderful group, and like all things, nothing is forever," she said.^[34] "We had a great run and we were very successful. We may not have that answer for our fans, which is disappointing, but we did try, and that's more than a lot of people."^[34] O'Day said that though she is pursuing her own career as a solo artist, she would never turn down the chance to get onstage with her former bandmates. "I have so much respect for that situation, if there was ever interest in me coming back ... and making music with the girls, I would never say no to something like that," she said.^[34] "In regards to the other negativity, I really just chose not to comment," said O'Day.^[34] "I wrote a blog on my MySpace page, and if anyone wants to know how I feel, they can go there."^[34] O'Day later seemed to have more of a positive feeling about the whole situation. She stated, "After being kicked out, I learned you have to fight to stay happy, and that takes forgiveness of yourself."^[35]

Viewers were able to see the band's continued demise on the third season of Making the Band 4, which premiered on February 12, 2009.^[1] During the February 26, 2009 episode, as well as the continued season, viewers saw Richard and Fimbres eager to continue being a group together and hoping to work with Bex again.^[36] This eagerness eventually ended in the April 16, 2009 airing. Within the first five minutes of the episode, Combs told Richard and Fimbres during a meeting that he released O'Day and Woods, along with Bex, from their contracts, and would be releasing Fimbres as well. He told Richard that she will remain on the label and that if there are any future plans for a new Danity Kane, she would be the only returning member.^[37][38][39]

On April 23, 2009, viewers were expecting to see all five members of Danity Kane for the second part of the finale to find out if Danity Kane would without a doubt be removed from the Bad Boy label or if they would have a "fresh start" as Combs stated in the first part of the finale.^[37] During the finale, Fimbres did not show up.^[40] Bex explained that Fimbres did not show up because Fimbres "had been through enough" emotional turmoil with the group and wanted to stay home with family.^[40] As for herself not showing up for the 2009 season of Making the Band, Bex said that it was a "personal choice" and was nothing against the fans.^[40] Woods said that part of the reason for the group's demise was due to not having a "sound foundation" when it began (five strangers being put together and expected to be emotionally close) and that eventually led to professional and personal problems with the group.^[40] O'Day said she has forgiven being released from the group, and people who blamed her for the group's breakup.^[40] When asked if Danity Kane could be a group again, O'Day said yes.^[40] Woods and Bex said not at this time.^[40] Combs said that they need a "time out" for now, particularly to work on their solo or alternative careers, and that he will not reunite Danity Kane unless the group consists of all five original members.^[40]

On April 30, 2009, a special titled "The Rise and Fall of Danity Kane" aired on MTV. The special was an in-depth story showcasing how the group came together and broke apart.^[4] It reasoned that the breakup of friendships and new friendships built in place of old friendships (O'Day and Fimbres becoming distant; O'Day bonding more with Woods and Fimbres bonding more with Bex), as well as insecurity issues of each member, were contributing factors for the group's demise. In addition, everyone except for Bex was speculated as having been part of the blame.^[4]

Tours[link]

Headlining[link]

• 2006: Jingle Ball Tour
• 2008: Making the Band 4 - The Tour

Supporting act[link]

• 2005: The Never Gone Tour
• 2006: Monkey Business Tour
• 2006-2007: Back to Basics Tour

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• 2006: Danity Kane
• 2008: Welcome to the Dollhouse

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Danity Kane

• Official website
• Aubrey O'Day website