Listening b(log): Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood

I listened to a piece entitled Music for Pieces of Wood by minimalist composer Steve Reich. The piece is scored for five sets of tuned claves. It was written in 1973.

This piece begins simply--a single set of claves lays down a quarter note beat that continues throughout the piece. The second person to enter plays a repeating twelve-note pattern. In typical Steve Reich style, the other three members of the group play the same pattern as the second player, either in unison or offset by a beat, requiring several repetitions of the twelve-note pattern for the players to "line up" with each other. Because the claves are tuned differently, and there are constantly changing rhythms, there is a surprisingly complex web of sound that develops fairly quickly.

I thought of this piece in relation to the reading on Deep Listening because I think that minimalist music is, initially, easy to understand. The repetitive nature of minimalist pieces can be a fantastic tool to help teach students how to listen deeply. If something is repeated over and over, as in this work and the work of many minimalist composers, students can latch onto and feel the "groove" of the music. This is even more powerful when one is participating in the music. Using this piece as a point of departure, I could very easily access the ears of my students to help them tune into deep listening, helping them to realize that music does not have to be Western Classical Art music to be both rewarding and appealing.