Steve Reich: Double Sextet; 2x5

"New York-based composer Steve Reich has won the Pulitzer Prize for music with his piece Double Sextet. Reich composed the work for two identical sextets of instruments, each made up of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano. 'I'm very glad that this particular piece got it, because I do think it's one of the better pieces I've done in the past few years,' Reich tells NPR's Tom Cole, who broke the news to the composer over the phone at his home in New York. 'The piece can be played in two ways,' Reich says. 'Either with 12 musicians or with six playing against a recording of themselves.' That's exactly how the Double Sextet was premiered, in May 2008, by the ensemble eighth blackbird. The concept of musicians playing against taped recordings of themselves is not a new idea for Reich. He used it in his 'Counterpoint' series and Different Trains in the 1980s, and as far back as 1967's Violin Phase. 'It's the idea of writing basically unison canons,' Reich says" (Tom Huizenga, "Steve Reich Wins Music Pulitzer," NPR, 4/20/09).
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