Released in 1978, “Music for 18 Musicians” by post-modernist composer “Steve Reich” is one of few undisputed masterpieces in the 20th century music history. Many claims are made for its impact on classical music and popular music, especially on electronic and rock scenes. There are many high profiles, whose music styles are directly and indirectly influenced by Reich’s works, including Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, David Bowie, U2, Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Aphex Twin, and even Ryuichi Sakamoto; many of them have publicly acknowledged Reich as their major influence for their works.
Aesthetically speaking, complied with the idea proposed by “minimalism” movement in early 1960s that work of art be concerning only the essentials and not referring to anything besides itself, “Music for 18 Musicians” doesn’t convey and refer to any ideology and narrative, making itself highly abstract and somehow subjective to its audience. This characteristic kinda reminds me of the development of “impressionism” as a reaction to “realism”. When you look at an impressionist painting, it emphasizes on momentary sensory feelings of scenes, especially compared to realism. It doesn’t render much about the details, for it delivers the overall holistic impression of a scene. In the same breath, it puts you in the position of the first person experiencing, not from the third person observing. Because of these interesting parallels, in “Music for 18 Musicians”, you can notice the familiar harmony that you can find in the works of renowned “impressionist” composer Claude Debussy.
Although composed and played in a classical orchestra symphony setting, the repeated structures and melodic interlocking patterns with offbeat make “Music for 18 Musicians” hypnotically refreshing. It also has jazzy elements that have improvisation quality. Personally, I feel that, structurally, it is less like classical music but more like electronic music, specifically dance music such as IDM. However, this was in 1970s; even electronic music hadn’t matured enough to find its shape, realizing that minimal music descended from classical music is the precursor of electronic dance music. About overall harmony of the album, it is very lively and vivid, expressing bold contrast between light and dark spectrum. Moreover, the music has timeless quality, due to its classical music origin. Even listening to it after almost 40 years later its release, it never sounds outdated.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_jwv2QMtAo
“Music for 18 Musicians” is the most significant work of “Steve Reich” that made him one of the most important composer in the 20th century, leaving a legacy by which many great artists inspired to develop further in different directions. I think “Music for 18 Musicians” is the masterpiece of all minimalism. This is the sophisticated work of art for those who is serious about art and music. Describing it in three words: HYPNOTIC, TIMELESS, ABSTRACT.
