The Reichtrack

As he approaches 90, the US composer Steve Reich tells Tom Service about his pride in playing an important part in bringing tonality and pulse back to music

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‘We’re going to have a tonal centre and tap our feet, and that’s the way it is.’ Steve Reich is in full flow, talking to me from his home in New York. ‘The big break, the knife down the line, was between Stockhausen, Berio and Boulez on one hand – and Reich, Glass, Adams and Riley on the other. And our use of regular pulse and a tonal centre was an opening of the floodgates, particularly in the English-speaking world, to the basic blocks of music. I feel proud of that restoration.’ He checks himself: ‘That’s a funny word to use’ – he’s talking about something much more important than mere monarchies or institutions – ‘but this was a restoration of tonality and pulsation in the 1960s.’

If anyone has earnt the right to look back in pride and celebration, it’s Steve Reich. He will turn 90 in October, and he’s looking forward to the premiere of the piece he’s writing for the Colin Currie Group, In All Your Ways, an instrumental setting of a text from Proverbs. ‘There’s no singing in it, it’s just in my head,’ he says. ‘Colin wanted a piece without voices, so I said, “Aye sir, you got it.” But I like working with text, so I’m doing it silently.’ The day I talk to him, Reich is wrestling with the architectural problems he’s set himself. ‘I’ve got basically three rhythmic centres and four different harmonic structures, so three against four is the organisation of the piece. I set it up to be a bit of a challenge – and sure enough, it is.’