Six Things, Volume 38
Reich | Migration | Strandbeest | Tap | Cats | Hummingbirds
Thing 1 – Reich
Steve Reich turned 87 on Tuesday.
To which news your reaction might be any one (or a mixture) of the following:
oh god I LOVE Steve Reich
oh god I HATE Steve Reich
who is Steve Reich?
who is St— wait is he the clapping guy?
If you’re in Group 1, hello. We will be friends.
If you’re in Group 2, hello. We can still be friends, because musical taste is individual and I’m aware Reich’s sound world isn’t for everyone. You can safely skip to Thing 2 without further ado and there will be no recriminations (unless you choose, as someone once did, to tell me that Reich is the biggest charlatan of the 20th or any other century, in which case I shall come after you and jab at you with small and very slightly painful pointy things in a relentlessly repetitive rhythm which I shall gradually alter over the course of 20 minutes, this being the only appropriate punishment for people who make such suggestions about Steve Reich).
If you’re in Group 3, hello. This is Steve Reich.
If you’re in Group 4, hello. Yes, he’s the clapping guy. It’s a strange thing to be remembered for, and there’s much more to his music than that, and while it is a bit like introducing Mozart by playing a D minor scale, Clapping Music can be a useful entry point for his music. So here’s the man himself explaining it.
If you fancy having a go at Clapping Music and are a fan of addictive games, the Clapping Music app (Apple only, unfortunately) is a good way to explore the concept while also becoming progressively more frustrated.
And after that brief introduction, here’s the joke I post every year on Twitter.
Happy birthday Steve Reich
appy birthday Steve Reich H
ppy birthday Steve Reich Ha
py birthday Steve Reich Hap
y birthday Steve Reich Happ
birthday Steve Reich Happy
birthday Steve Reich Happy
irthday Steve Reich Happy b
rthday Steve Reich Happy bi
thday Steve Reich Happy bir
hday Steve Reich Happy birt
day Steve Reich Happy birth
While I’m pleased with the joke in a kind of smug ‘yes aren’t I oh so clever-clever’ kind of way, I’m also a bit sheepish about it. Because it’s unfairly reductive – it implies that the only defining feature of Reich’s music is this straightforward, albeit ingenious, rhythmic device. And it really isn’t (see the above note about Mozart and a D minor scale).
I’m not the only one to have been inspired to find the humour in Reich’s music. Take Neil Hannon, for example.
And Seth Kranzler took the idea behind Reich’s Piano Phase and applied it to everyone’s favourite ringtone.
Reich’s music has given me great pleasure over the years. I could use any number of performances to illustrate the range of his brilliance and to introduce you to his music, but the first one I choose will always be this performance of his Sextet by the Yale Percussion Group, which is so close to perfect as makes no difference.
Thing 2 – Migration
It’s autumn, so bird migration is well upon us. Millions upon millions of birds making unimaginable journeys out of our sight.
Not all of them make it to their destination.
A great deal has been learned about bird migration in the last few decades, but as so often this gathering of knowledge has merely exposed how much we still don’t know. It’s a massive and mysterious subject.
One aspect of it that I yearn to know more about, prompted by this excellent piece, is the occasional role of ships in assisting birds with their journeys.
This nine-minute film is basically delightful. However, my personal recommendation (and it is really a very strong one) is that you listen to it with the sound turned down. Here’s a challenge to all makers of nature-related films: please choose your music (if music you must have) with great care.
Thing 3 – Strandbeest
I’ve long been a fan of the strange and beguiling work of Theo Jansen, who creates extraordinary things he calls ‘Strandbeest’ (‘beach animals’).
Every year, a new one hobbles and creaks and judders its dogged way across the Dutch sand, like the by-product of a collaboration between Leonardo da Vinci, Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson.
Jansen has been making these things for more than thirty-five years, and has traced their evolution, from the ‘Pregluton’ period to the present day. You can explore the evolution here.
He’s even constructed a family tree.
The latest iteration is called Animaris rex. It is simply magnificent.
Thing 4 – Tap
Season 3 of Only Murders In The Building was as delightful as the first two. Watching it was in some ways a bit of a challenge, because instead of dumping all the episodes in a steaming streaming heap, to enable and encourage the all-night binge (“just one more”), they did it all old-school, releasing just one episode per week. Some of us struggled to remember what had happened in the previous episode. Was it like that in the before times?
Anyway, it served as a reminder of Steve Martin’s brilliance (all the others were superb, too). So here, courtesy of Chris Coates, (purveyor of the excellent Odd This Day on both Twitter and Medium, is a short dose of joy featuring Martin and Gregory Hines moving entirely unlike a pair of Strandbeest. OLD SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT.
Thing 5 – Cats
“Cats are perfect,” explained evolutionary biologist Professor Moggy O’Tabbypuss, while pushing a coffee mug towards the edge of the table. “Feed me,” she continued. “FEED ME I’M STARVING.”
The article is in fact more interesting than that.
Thing 6 – Hummingbirds
I really want this. It’s by Nicholas Rougeux.
Here, if you’re interested, is how he did it.
If, like me, you really want it, the good news is that you can buy it. You can buy it in the UK, and you can buy it in the USA.
A couple of forthcoming events.
I’m [synonym for ‘delighted’] to be joining the excellent Festival of the Spoken Nerd for their Evening of Unnecessary Detail at the Royal Institution on Sunday 15th October. If this proves geographically inconvenient for you, the good news is that it’s being streamed. So you have no excuse.
The following week, Saturday 21st October, I take myself to Ilkley for a bird walk and a book event.
And finally, the excellent Jonn Elledge has allowed me to invade his space with an extract from Taking Flight. Do subscribe to his Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything. It’s excellent.
Also. Is it ok to say I find shades of Steve Reich in George Ezra’s music. Not so intense but similarly hypnotic.
Oh! Oh! Steve Reich’s (Sextet) AND Steve Martin (OMITB). Utter joy. And Armenia is so beautiful! Thank you.