"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!": Minimalism Special

Tuesday night I attended a free concert at Birmingham Symphony Hall dedicated to minimalism, as a celebration of the music of Steve Reich which was performed at Birmingham Town Hall last night at which the composer himself performed. Although I have attended performances at the Symphony Hall several times, this was the first one I had attended at the café bar; a small informal space where free concerts are regularly held.

This was also my first experience of live minimalist music. I was looking forward to this a great deal as minimalism is one of the styles I have concentrated a lot on so far in the course, and one that I now thoroughly enjoy, after initial difficulty understanding it.

The first piece on the programme was Reich's Different Trains. I have listened to this piece several times at home, but seeing it live I was able to learn new things about the music, in particular which parts exactly are played by the tape, and by the quartet. I was intrigued to notice that near the beginning of the first movement, the train whistle sounds you can hear in the piece are actually played by the strings and not the tape like I originally thought.

We then had an exciting version of Reich's Pendulum Music which instead of being played by suspended microphones over amplified speakers, was actually played by suspended torches over optical theremin's. The sound was incredible, and was an interesting twist on Reich's concept.

Next was Philip Glass's 1+1 performed by Joby Burgess not on an amplified table-top, but on a cajon - a Peruvian box-shaped percussion instrument.

After a twenty-minute interval we were introduced to a new piece inspired by Steve Reich's music, formed by a collaboration between Joby Burgess and some local school children. I particularly enjoyed the percussion here, and the references to The Daniel Variations - 'My Name Is...'

A man then sat at a table on-stage with some sand-filled egg timers to begin our performance of John Cage's 4'33". Four and a half minutes seems a long time when you are sat there just listening to the environment, but I enjoyed doing it none the less. Although most people were being silent, several environmental sounds could be heard, such as hushed whispers, people shuffling in their seats and glasses tinkling at the bar.

We then had another performance from Joby Burgess, this time playing Reich's Electric Counterpoint, but in another unique twist he played this not on electric guitar, but on a xylosynth - a digital xylophone played in the traditional way, but where the individual sounds can be manipulated by computer. I thoroughly enjoyed this fresh take on the work.

To finish the evening, we were treated to György Ligeti's Poème Symphonique scored for 100 metronomes. I'm also pleased to say that I 'performed' in this piece, as the concert organisers had previously asked for people to donate and operate metronomes for the performance. The piece lasted approximately 10 minutes, as everyone had started with one full turn of the metronome key. Hearing 100 metronomes ticking simultaneously at different speeds is not something you get to hear every day, and was quite an experience. The metronomes were spread evenly throughout the concert space and also on the balcony above, giving a 'surround sound' effect.

Last night I visited Birmingham Town hall, for the performance of Steve Reich's music. I also got there early for Steve Reich's pre-concert talk. I will detail this event in my next post.