Clapping Music is performed by two people, clapping their hands in a set rhythm. No other instruments or voices are involved. I think the instrument of clapping hands is perfectly valid; it is after all amongst the very earliest instruments in human existence.
The piece gets interesting I think when the two identical rhythms go out of phase by a beat. One performer remains stationary for the duration of the piece, while the other performer moves by a quaver beat. This then locks in creating a brand new texture. The new rhythm is then repeated several times, before shifting and locking in again. Eventually the piece comes full circle with the players playing back in unison.
The rhythm can obviously be heard very clearly in the first bar, however once the piece shifts out of phase, it is much more difficult to follow, even when reading the score. It is fairly straight-forward to keep track of the stationary rhythm, but much more challenging, although good fun, to try to follow the other performer.
The overall effect of the phasing is that of a journey through a multitude of rhythms, creating a polyphonic texture which reminded me of a rhythmical Bach two-part invention. I find this extraordinary given that is it all created from a single rhythm which never actually changes; the note values stay the same, but it just moves out of sync with itself.
Out of curiosity I have listened to several different arrangements of this piece. These include Steve Reich’s original piece, Simon Rackham’s arrangement for solo piano, and various arrangements for solo players of different percussion instruments including woodblocks and snare drum.
In 2009, Reich published a handwritten score of Clapping Music on his Twitter feed. You can find this at the end of this blog post. In March 2013 I have the opportunity to see this piece performed live by Reich himself, as it is on the programme of the concert I have tickets for at Birmingham Town Hall.
Score url: http://oi29.tinypic.com/4kv5lu.jpg
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