New York Counterpoint

Biography

• Steve Reich born in 1936.
• American composer - pioneer of minimalism. 
• Contemporaries: Philip Glass and Terry Riley - became known as 'The New York Hypnotic School'.

New York Counterpoint

• Written in 1985 as part of a series of works exploring counterpoint.
• In each piece, one player is responsible for playing all contrapuntal strands of music but is precorded so the final performance is a backing track with live solo performance. 
• Commissioned by Fromm Music Foundation.
• First performance took place in Avery Music Hall, New York in 1986 by Richard Stoltzmann. 
• 3 movement work.
• Intention was to capture the throbbing vibrancy of Manhattan. 

• Isolated to 1 instruments: Bb clarinet and bass clarinet. 
• One performer who prerecords 10 parts and performs live part over prerecorded backing track. 
• Music sounds a note lower than notated.
• Clarinets 1-3 use same melodic material within a range of C#-C#. 
• Clarinets 4-6 work in a similar way but A-A.
• Clarinets 7-10 cover a wide range and generally play persistent repeating notes.
• Exception: bars 1-12 - clarinets are grouped in pairs. 
• Extremes of register are avoided except part 10 to play the lowest available note (bar 33 onwards).
• Live clarinet has most active part: low A - high C#. 
• Timbre limited to clarinet tone but still some variety due to contrasting sound created by the clarinets 3 different registers - chalumeu, clarino and altissimo. 
• Complete homogeneity of tone due to solo player performance. 

• Counterpoint plays a key role.
• Texture is an important feature.
• Persistent use of staggered repetition of melodic material at the heart of construction.
• Not an example of phasing.
• Movement gradually grows in instrumental density from 2 instruments playing homorhythmically at start; bar 3 - entry of 2 further parts; bar 9 onwards - 6-11 parts playing.
• All instruments play 2 bar units which repeat constantly in ostinati manner. 
• Bar 3: initial 2 part counterpoint consists of imitation at 1 quaver distance. 
• Bar 13: music divides into 3 undouble homorhythmic pairings and a 3 part canonic texture with each entry at 1 quaver emerges. 
• Bar 21: Clarinet 3 enters with identical line to live Clarinet.
• Bar 25: Live Clarinet begins solo passagework, Clarinet 3 left to maintain individual line within canonic texture.
• Live Clarinet and Clarinets 7-10 add other material, texture remains unaltered. 
• Opening bars consist of clarinets playing in homorhythm at interval of compound 3rd apart.
• Final bar returns to homorhythmic with Clarinets 1 - 4. 
• Bar 27: Clarinets 7 - 10 enter with repetitive semiquavers creating feeling of pulsating chordal homophony.
• Live Clarinet plays more intricate, soloistic melodic line which gives feeling of textural independence. 

• Dynamics play vital role in chordal homophony. 
• Four lower parts fade in and out of overall texture with carefully graduated crescendoes and diminuendoes. 
• Clarinets 1 - 6 never rise above mf and mp throughout.
• Live Clarinet and Clarinets 7 - 10 instructed to reach f at peak of 'fade in' and 'fade out' patterns - given brief textural dominance before fading back into the background.

• No definite structural label.
• Evolves as a product of textural and melodic elements. 
• Bars 1 - 12: Introduction of melodic/canonic material as the number of instruments playing increases.
• Bars 13 - 71: Unchanging 3 part canon using 2 bar ostinato patterns. 
• Bars 25 - 66: Live Clarinet fades in and out with solo line. 
• Bars 27 - 65: Parts 7 - 10 fade in and out with 4-part chords in semiquavers. 

• Diatonic throughout.
• 6-note scale is basis of all melodic material throughout - hexatonic scale.
• E - F# - G# - A# - B - C#.
• Use of A# is noteworthy - without it pattern could be described as hexachord but with it the scale becomes Lydian in character. 
• Melodic pattern consists mainly of leaps but there is some stepwise pattern.
• Leaps usually outline broken chords or arppeggio pattern.
• Each recorded Clarinet melodies stays within limited range of an octave.
• Bars 25 - 66: Live Clarinet extends it range to over 2 octaves. 
• Live Clarinet more extreme in disjuct melodic shapes. 
• Bar 35: 2 ascending minor 6th leaps followed by minor 7th descent, after which the line continues to head lower when an ascent might have seemed natural. 

• Influences come from Indian and Balinese music as well as some contemporary Jazz. 
• Essentially diatonic.
• Alternation of chords IV (EM) and V (F#M) forms main harmonic movement. 
• Alternation is not totally straightforward. 
• Because of staggered entries there is harmonic blurring where one chord merges with the next before becoming fully independent. 
• Overlap of chords results in brief but audible dissonance each time.
• Entry of parts 7 - 10 on chordal semiquavers introduces a non-functional element. 
• 3 different chords used in the textural layer. 
• Bar 27: BM chord over a C# in the bass.
• Bar 33: E - G# - D# - A# (3 upper parts a 5th apart).
• Bar 39: F#M chord over G# in the bass. 

• Tonality is never clearly established due to harmonic stasis and avoidance of D#s.
• Key signature suggests B Major. 
• Lack of key defining cadence due to reliance on chords IV and V.

• Simple triple throughout.
• Listener would find it hard to discern time signature. 
• Mainly built on short rhythmic units featuring grouped semiquavers interspersed with longer notes and separated by rests. 
• After homorhythmic start, counterpoint gradually builds in rhythmic complexity.
• When Clarinets 7 - 10 enter there is a perpetual semiquaver impetus. 
• Begins as fragmented rhythmic feel evolves into complex tapestry of rhythms .
• Bar 3: Should be syncopation but syncopation is only effective when working against an audibly defined metre  - this doesn't happen.