Conversations - by Steve Reich (Paperback)

About the Book

"Steve Reich is a living legend in the world of contemporary classical music. As a leader of the minimalist movement in the 1960s, his works have become central to the musical landscape worldwide, influencing generations of younger musicians, choreographers and visual artists. He has explored non-Western music and American vernacular music from jazz to rock, as well as groundbreaking music and video pieces. He toured the world with his own ensemble and his compositions are performed internationally by major orchestras and ensembles. Now Reich sits down with past collaborators, fellow composers and musicians as well as visual artists influenced by his work to reflect on his prolific career as a composer as well as the music that inspired him and that has been inspired by him."--

Book Synopsis

"The joy of the book is to hear artists from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds...rhapsodizing about their relationship to Reich's music and how it influenced their own creative processes." --New York Times Book Review

Steve Reich is a living legend in the world of contemporary classical music. He is one of the pioneers of the minimalist movement in the 1960s, and his works have become central to the musical landscape worldwide, influencing generations of younger artists and musicians. Now Reich sits down with past collaborators, fellow composers and musicians influenced by his work to reflect on his prolific career as a composer as well as the music that inspired him and that has been inspired by him. Through this series of insightful, wide-ranging conversations about the highlights, successes and creative influences of Reich's work, we gain a compelling glimpse into the career of "the most original musical thinker of our time" (New Yorker).

"[Conversations] articulately and bracingly shows Reich engaging in engrossing dialogues with a variety of interviewers.... It's a kaleidoscopic portrait of Reich from 19 different angles, all illuminating and all very much him." --Los Angeles Times

Review Quotes

"There are only a handful of living composers who can legitimately say that they have changed the course of music history and Steve Reich is one of them."--The Guardian

"Reich is our best living composer."--The New York Times

"The most original musical thinker of our time."--The New Yorker

"Intriguing lore and insights."--Publishers Weekly

"An enjoyable series of insights into an artist's creative process... a delight to read."--Library Journal

"A rewarding journey through the career of one of the pioneers of minimalist music."--Kirkus Reviews

"Iconoclastic American composer Steve Reich is singular in his own right, and when he is in conversation with other equally iconoclastic composers, conductors, sculptors, musicians, percussionists, and video artists, sparks not only fly, they sparkle.... Reich and his colleagues conduct lovely give-and-takes during which they share stories, creative approaches, and viewpoints.... Reich's Conversations is the best kind of eavesdropping."--Booklist

"Reich discovery stories pop up everywhere in the book... we learn a lot about Reich the working composer -- his methods, his influences, ...his perfectionism, some of his experiences in getting certain pieces off the ground.... [a] series of thought-provoking conversations."--Journal of the Music Critics Association of North America

"In Conversations Steve Reich preserves his shared reflections with collaborators past and present....conversation is natural, personal and, because it is a composer talking to fellow artists, elicits interesting analysis."--BBC Music Magazine

"Packed with musical history and creative philosophy, Conversations manages the rare feat of being snackable, yet richly satisfying. For anyone with even a passing interest in the man, his music, or the artistic scene in which he's played such an important role for almost six decades, this is mandatory reading."--Musical America

"A lively new book from Reich that has the composer romping through his career by way of casual Q. and A.s with various contemporaries, acolytes, friends and colleagues..... The joy of the book is to hear artists from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds -- including the guitarist Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and Richard Serra, the sculptor -- rhapsodizing about their relationship to Reich's music and how it influenced their own creative processes."--New York Times Book Review

"Endlessly illuminating and surprisingly humorous. ... [An] indispensable book."--Limelight

"Illuminating and engaging... An honest discussion of the creative process by one of the major composers of our time."--The Arts Fuse

"[A] fascinating account of Reich's music as seen through his own eyes and the eyes and ears of those who have worked closely with him."--Gramophone (UK)

"[Conversations] articulately and bracingly shows Reich engaging in engrossing dialogues with a variety of interviewers, including conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, Broadway icon Stephen Sondheim, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. It's a kaleidoscopic portrait of Reich from 19 different angles, all illuminating and all very much him.--Los Angeles Times