Art Review on Music for 18 Musicians

Art Review on Music for 18 Musicians from Steve Reich in 1978

Medium of work: Sound
Format/Genre of work: A 20th century music composition
It is medium specific

A little program note on Music for 18 Musician 

Music for 18 Musician is a 55 minutes long composition which composed by Steve Reich and premiere on April 24, 1976 at The Town Hall in New York City. As what he stated in the topic of the composition, it was a piece that composed for 18 musicians only which includes the follows:

1. violin
2. cello
3. female voice
4. female voice
5. female voice
6. piano
7. piano
8. piano and maracas
9. marimba and maracas
10. marimba and xylophone
11. marimba and xylophone
12. marimba and xylophone
13. metallophone and piano
14. piano and marimba
15. marimba, xylophone, and piano
16. clarinet and bass clarinet
17. clarinet and bass clarinet
18. female voice and piano

This piece of music is continued to stay in A Major and repeated to played all the seven chords. It basically separated into 2 parties. One of them sustain the "pulse" of the piece throughout the pieces while the another part played by the human breaths and the wind instrument measures the duration of the pulses and doing interference with the first part as they could do how long they could. There is also a issue about the melody fight with the harmony and how they developed in the piece. The piece begins and the develops in the whole piece. However, there is no resolve of the piece. 

Personal impression on the piece

The first time I heard this song is through the drawing lesson. While the tutor requested us to draw an abstract painting based on the music he gave, and  Music for 18 Musician is exactly what he played to us. The first thing I was noticed on the harmony of the piece. As it seems it never had a theme melody of the song, it made me felt like I was falling into abyss or surround by a lots of movement notes. I felt restless by listening to this piece. Moreover, after finishing the painting I felt totally exhausted as I had used out too much energy to complete the work. 

While doing this art review, I listen to the whole piece for an hour and get a different point of view. I felt peace after listen to the pulse of the song which is similar to I watch the waves forms and vanishes in the beach.