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According to the 'Directions for Performance' included in the score of Steve Reich's Violin Phase (composed in 1967 and published in 1979), the first thing an audience member is likely to see on stage is a reel-to-reel tape recorder.1The diagram Reich provides also calls for a microphone, loudspeakers, amplifier, mixing board, and assistant, whose place on stage is carefully specified (Figure 1).Figure 1
Steve Reich, Violin Phase, Directions for Performance. Violin Phase by Steve Reich © Copyright 1979 by Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company. Reprinted by permission. Steve Reich, Violin Phase für Violine und Tonband oder für 4 Violinen. © Copyright 1979 by Universal Edition (London) Ltd., London/UE 16185 except for the territory of the USA. www.universaledition.com
After the violinist makes an entrance, the performance begins with the technician pressing play on the tape recorder. The first sound that both an audience member and the performer hears - after the audible click or thunk of the tape machine's controls, and possibly some tape hiss - is the pre-recorded tape loop of the twelve-beat pattern that provides the basic musical material of the piece (given in the bottom staff of Example 1).Example 1
Concluding bars of the score of Steve Reich, Violin Phase. Violin Phase by Steve Reich © Copyright 1979 by Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company. Reprinted by permission. Steve Reich, Violin Phase für Violine und Tonband oder für 4 Violinen. © Copyright 1979 by Universal Edition (London) Ltd., London/UE 16185 except for the territory of the USA. www.universaledition.com
Following two to four repetitions of the recorded loop, the live violinist gradually starts to play along, fading in from inaudibility and merging with the tape. Reich specifies that the violin should be amplified and mixed so that it matches 'the timbre as well as the volume of the tape'. The course of the 14-16 minute-long piece is choreographed by the interaction of the violinist - who executes the phase shifting process, gradually moving first four and then eight beats ahead - and the technician, who at the appropriate points in the score fades in two other pre-recorded tracks of the out-of-phase loops. Depending on the placement of the tape machine, the speed of...