Steve Reich Drumming - Portland Percussion Group

[polemicize]

You hear the tonal melodies of the drumming emerge with each player's entrance, and then linger in some skeletal form with each player's exit, reminding the listener that this most ancient craft - tribal percussion - lingers too in the minds of modern musicians, and perhaps always shall.

[GregJonson]

"Hey, you know how you guys have practiced hitting the percussions exactly on beat every time for years?

You can forget all that now."

[joshdilly]

At first I thought, "Wow, they really should've cleaned up that unison playing." Then I realized this was written by Steve Reich and dirtiness is written in.

[artofmusic]

A piece that needs to be seen as well as heard. Was amazed when I first saw it performed in the 80's and thanks to YouTube, a wider audience can appreciate the visual aspect as well.

[turnboom]

It's great how this most modern and mathematical of classical music manages to reach back to shamanic chants and stone age spirit incantations.

[jamminjuice]

Such a clean execution of one of my favorite pieces of music for percussion ever! The precision of syncopation between all four members that is required for the clean execution of this piece is so incredibly difficult, but it is so beautifully hypnotic when performed as well as this group does. Great job to all!!! Additionally, it warmed my heart to see one of my fellow percussionists from the U of O School of Music in the lineup and playing so very, very well: shout-out to Brian Gardiner!

[PugCuber]

my dad showed me this back in 2019, a couple weeks before him and I performed _Clapping Music_ on typewriters at NMASS; I didn’t think that much of _Drumming_ until recently when I really got into Reich.

knowing what I now know, this is such an incredible piece, and I’m super glad it’s had a nice long life so far

by the way, I feel like some people underestimate how difficult this piece actually is. it’s incredibly easy to lose focus and forget where you are, and it can cause things to train-wreck really quickly

[jonathanporter]

Holy, shit. That. Was. Insane. Like, what did I just stumbleupon? I was mesmerized and captivated, almost hypnotized even. Stellar performance. Bravo. BRAVO!

[percc_wave]

It's weird how you start to hear so much Melody from this much rhythm. Very cool.

[InfinityEnterprises]

I literally applauded out loud to myself at 9:35. Such control. My god. Good stuff!

[nerdadendem]

This is such a groove I love hearing how the parts interlace

[maryhales]

I love how Steve Reich takes one beat, turns it into a pattern, and phases that pattern through all the different percussionists. I'm not a percussionist myself, but I am a music major, and this is so cool.

[prahTV]

Second guy messed up on the 826th beat.

[ngn]

Great piece.... Amazing musicians. Bravo.

[christiankortmann]

this is also a personality test to the musicians. at about 7:55 the fourth one enters and kind of 'disturbs' the order and harmony they had build up. he leaves at 8:19 to come back in at 8:30 by constantly becoming louder climaxing at 8:40 with a more simple beat so the others might realize he wants to join their group. .. amazing.. reich uses the percussive mantra of this tune to symbolize mankind as a being that belongs to and interacts in groups since the prehistoric time where we used the percussions while gathering round fires and merely being cavemen. this is so subtile but you can feel it.. i love it!!

[johnwitter]

This is my favorite video on here right now.

[MaxDeVincenzo]

Anybody else hear how cool the reverb is?

[Scrapplefromtheapple]

I would like to believe that the paucity of comments stems from people being left speechless by this brilliant performance. Bravo!

[EvOorschot]

Amazing. Not only for the phase shifting, it's more like time shifting. I love it.

[WojciechSzaryComposer]

Thus far I have never known there is such relaxing genre of music :D just beautiful. Skills of these drummers are amazing.