Steve Reich

In developing a unique soundworld as he tackles fraught subjects, the American has proved hugely influential, says Claire Jackson

- Claire Jackson

A way from the kettled crowd, a group awaiting evacuation began tapping a beat on one side of the shipping containers. The rhythm was picked up by others, who mimicked the motif through claps and stamps, creating a surprisingly musical expression of discontent. The outburst took inspiration from Steve Reich's Clapping Music, the piece that had been performed by the composer and David Cossin at Bloc Festival in London Pleasure Gardens just hours before the ill-fated 2012 event was curtailed due to overcrowding.

Initially written by Reich when on tour with his band in Belgium in 1972 -marvelling over the amount of kit they travelled with, he decided to compose a work that could be played independently, any time, any place - that same percussive piece had been performed shortly before Bloc Festival at a late-night Prom held to mark the composer's 75th birthday. Last summer, Clapping Music featured in a piano recital at Aldeburgh Festival. Reich's music is as likely to be heard at an open-air gig with dubious health and safety precautions as in Snape Maltings's Britten Studio or the Royal Albert Hall. As Radio 3's Tom Service put it, the 86-yearold American is 'the most influential composer on the planet'.