Drumming (1970) by Steve Reich
Drumming is a percussion band piece written by Steve Reich in 1970. Reich
created this piece after a trip to Ghana, where he was influenced by different
rhythmic patterns used there. The piece starts on tuned bongos and
progresses up the pitch spectrum from drums, to marimbas, to glockenspiels
ending with all of the instruments playing together. This piece involved a
technique called “Phasing” where performers speed up gradually to
change the rhythmic feel of the piece while technically staying within the tempo.
Annotated by Lindsay Vasko