Drumming

Steve Reich  ·  1970–71

Drumming is the piece where Reich’s phasing idea stops being an experiment and becomes an hour of music — four sections, one gradual process, tuned drums into marimbas into glockenspiels, with voices doubling what the instruments are already doing.

I learned it from the people who made it. I played it for the first time at Banff in 2009, coached by Bob Becker. Later I played it alongside Russell Hartenberger. Both were founding members of Nexus, both were in Steve Reich and Musicians for the piece’s early years, and both spent decades in Toronto. That is about as short a line to the source as this piece has.

In performance

Where it has gone

2009

Banff

First time, coached by Bob Becker.

2013

Nief-Norf

Collaboration with Russell Hartenberger.

2014

Big Ears · Tennessee Theatre

With So Percussion, closing the festival.

2017

Nief-Norf Summer Festival

Hartenberger again, for the Sixth International Conference on Music and Minimalism, hosted by Nief-Norf.

2025

The Mill & Mine

Most recently.

The 2014 Big Ears performance closed the festival at the Tennessee Theatre, with So Percussion. Eleven years later it came back to Knoxville at the Mill & Mine — a very different room, and a piece that rewards the difference.

Drumming — Steve Reich
Coaching — Bob Becker · Russell Hartenberger
Performed with Nief-Norf and So Percussion