The Desert Music

The Desert Music is a work of music for voices and orchestra composed by the minimalist composer Steve Reich. It is based on texts by William Carlos Williams and takes its title from his poetry anthology The Desert Music and Other Poems. The composition consists of five movements, and in both its tempi and arrangement of thematic material, the piece is in a characteristic arch form (ABCBA). It was composed in 1983.

Orchestration

The piece is scored for a chorus of 27 voices: nine sopranos, and six each of altos, tenors and basses.

The orchestra calls for:

• 4 flutes (doubling on 3 piccolos), 4 oboes (doubling on 3 cor anglais), 4 B♭ clarinets (doubling on 3 B♭ bass clarinets), 4 bassoons (doubling on 1 contrabassoon)
• 4 horns, 4 trumpets (doubling on 1 optional piccolo trumpet), 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba.
• 2 timpani players, both doubling on rototoms, 7 percussionists (playing 2 marimbas, 2 vibraphones, 2 xylophones, 2 glockenspiels, maracas, sticks, 2 bass drums, medium gong).
• 2 pianos, played by four musicians
• The strings (12-12-9-9-6) are broken into three sections of (4-4-3-3-2) seated by their section with the first set of 16 players stage right, the next 16 center stage, and the last 16 stage left.

Form

I

Fast Tempo (quarter = 192 in 4/4 time)

II

Moderate Tempo

IIIA

Slow Tempo

IIIB

Moderate Tempo

IIIC

Slow Tempo

IV

Moderate Tempo

V

Fast Tempo

The tempi between two sections are related by a ratio of 3:2, introduced at the end of each section by either tuplet or dotted rhythms, respectively. So, I and V have 192 bpm; II, IIIB, and IV have 128 bpm; IIIA and C have 85 bpm.

Sections I and V have the same harmonic structure, sections II and IV have both the same harmonic structure and the same words. Sections IIIA and IIIC have the same words.

Relation to other Reich pieces

The piece opens similarly to many of Reich's other works: a piano or mallet instrument pulsing on the beat, with another piano or marimba soon fading in on the offbeats (Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Three Movements for Orchestra). Also characteristic of several of Reich's pieces, such as New York Counterpoint, Electric Counterpoint, Sextet, Music for 18 Musicians, Three Movements for Orchestra, the exposition of the pulse is followed by pulsed notes in the choir and orchestra fading in and out over the course of a chord progression. Also, the first movement prominently features a repeated rhythm found in several of the aforementioned works (In The Desert Music, however, the fourth and fifth note are tied together):

Twice in Section IIIC, the strings begin playing a slightly modified section from Reich's New York Counterpoint.