Steve Reich
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"Stephen Michael Reich" is an American composer who, along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, pioneered minimal music in the mid to late 1960s.Michael Nyman, writing in the preface of Mertens' book refers to the style as "so called minimal music" (Mertens p.8).

His innovations include using tape loops to create Phasing (music)/phasing patterns (for example, his early compositions It's Gonna Rain and Come Out (Reich)/Come Out), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, Pendulum Music and Four Organs). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition/Grammy Award-winning Different Trains.

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He was very good. He could sit at a desk and write this music and, unlike a lot of them who faked it, he could really hear it in his head.

I'm going for the brevity award this year, ... To receive this award among so many great artists is in deed an honor.

In serial music, the series itself is seldom audible... What I'm interested in is a compositional process and a sounding music that are one in the same thing.