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Geoffery Munger
5/18/2012

An Analysis of Steve Reichs Double Sextet and the Reasons for Its Popularity
Steve Reich has long been known as one of the godfathers of Minimalism. Rooting as
far back as 1964, Reich has been astonishing musicians, composers and music advocates with his
work in Minimalism and similar processes. In 2009, Reich was awarded the coveted Pulitzer
Prize in Music for his work Double Sextet. Written in 2007, Double Sextet is an 1108 measure
work for flute, Bb clarinet, vibraphone, piano, violin and cello. The piece was commissioned by
the President of the publishing company Boosey and Hawkes, Jenny Bilfield, for the new music
group, Eighth Blackbird.
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The Double Sextet is in three movements (Fast/Slow/Fast) and runs
roughly 22 minutes in length. The piece is intended to be performed by either 12 individual
musicians or a sextet playing against an earlier recording of themselves, a process very similar to
other Reich works (i.e. Violin Phase (1967) and Different Trains (1988)). So then the question
must be stated: What qualities does Double Sextet possess that Reichs earlier works didnt? And
also: Why is this piece, out of all American music written, deserving of the Pulitzer Prize? To
understand why this piece is so acclaimed, it is worth looking into the background of the
composer and the processes in life that created the foundation for Double Sextet.
Biography
Before delving into Double Sextet it is important to understand who Steve Reich is as a
composer and how the development of his compositional processes eventually led to the Pulitzer
Prize winning composition. Reich was born in 1936 in New York. Reichs mother was a

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Reich, April 2010
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Broadway lyricist and created an early interest in music for Reich. Although passionate about
music and composing, Reich graduated from Cornell University in 1957 with a degree in
Philosophy instead of Music. He later attended Julliard to study with William Bersma and
Vincent Persichetti before moving to California to study at Mills College with Luciano Berio and
Darius Milhaud. While attending Mills, he received his M.M. in Composition.
After receiving his masters degree, Reich moved to San Francisco and began to work
with composers such as; Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick and Terry Riley.
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At this time,
Reich was also involved with the first performance of the Terry Rileys In C which is one of the
most important pieces of minimalism to this day. It was Reich who recommended to Riley to
keep a constant eighth note pulse in order to keep the ensemble more intact within a
performance.
Throughout the rest of the 60s, 70s and 80s, Reich explored his minimalism
compositional technique and began to add as much as he could to the processes that were already
laid down. Reich experimented heavily with phasing (the process of one instrument getting
out of synch with another and going back into synch) and began to use recording techniques
within his works (ie. Violin Phase (1967). These recording and phasing techniques that Reich
focused primarily on would become the basis for most of his compositions.
In 2006, Reich was contacted by the then president of the publishing company Boosey
and Hawkes to write a piece for the new music ensemble, Eighth Blackbird. At first, Reich
declined this request due to the restraints that would be put on him because of the
instrumentation of Eighth Blackbird.
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Reich agreed to write a work and began the processes that

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Bernstein, 2008
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Reich, April 2010
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would become his Pulitzer Prize winning piece, Double Sextet. Reich worked for a year on the
piece and finished composition of the piece in 2007.
The work was premiered by Eighth Blackbird in 2008 at the University of Richmond,
Virginia. The piece was received very well and buzz began about the new Reich work. The
Pulitzer Committee reviewed Reichs work for the 2009 year and decided in 2009 that Double
Sextet would receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music for the year.
A Brief Overall Analysis of Double Sextet
The techniques used in Double Sextet are no more adventurous than many other pieces
that Reich has composed. The compositional technique of a musician, or group of musicians,
playing against a recording of themselves can be traced back as far as 1967 in Reichs writing
(Violin Phase). It is also a common occurrence in Reichs writing to encounter a piece in three
movements, which is a typical arch form (Different Trains (1988)). Although he shifts tonal
centers regularly, Reich remains for the entirety of the piece in the realm of D.
The piece begins with a Fast section. The use of ever-changing metric patterns is what
gives this movement the momentum needed. The movement begins on G but quickly cycles
through different keys. Reich keeps a constant pulse of eighth notes throughout this opening
section and flows from on meter to the next. He approaches and leaves new tonal centers using
mainly chromaticism to accomplish this. The Fast section is divided into three sections, which
can be explained as Fast/Slow/Fast (see appendix A & B). In the B or Slow section of the
first movement, Reich removes the constant eight notes and makes the majority of the
instruments sustain long tones, with little movement happening at all. The third section Fast is
a complete repeat of the first section, leading directly in to the second movement.
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The second movement contrasts heavily with the first movement due to the fact that it is
in only in one meter the whole movement (see appendix C). This is important to note because
the use of Reichs metrically changing to create stability and drive for the piece is suspended for
this section, creating a slow environment even before slowing the tempo. There is nothing subtle
about Reichs transitions within this piece. The first movement feeds directly into the second
movement, creating a swift change in mood almost instantly. This movement, Reich begins in
the key of D and stays within these boundaries for almost the entirety of the movement.
Interestingly enough, Reich includes snippets of melodies throughout the second movement to
create his counterpoint. The melodic content itself becomes part of the contrast within this
movement. Reich writes flowing, long note melodies that are accompanied by a syncopated
eighth note ostinato pattern that repeats for the entirety of the movement. Reich ends this
movement on the dominant, leading directly into the final movement (Fast).
Reichs final movement of Double Sextet is actually a complete repeat of the first
movement. Reich recycles almost all of his materials, shortening only a few phrases. The third
movement unfolds in the exact same manner as the first with each contrasting section being
exactly what we encountered in the first movement. The difference comes at the ending of the
piece when Reich creates a huge tutti rhythmic pattern. This is the only time in the piece that
both sextets are playing in unison (see Appendix D). Because of this, we feel finality to the
piece. Reich ends the piece on a D major chord in first inversion. This makes the piece feel as if
it is going to go on forever, or the piece has the great potential to continue forward even after its
done.
There is an overabundance of qualities in Double Sextet that are strikingly similar to
many other pieces that Reich has composed in the over 40 years he has been writing. The
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differences, then, come in the expansive detail that was put into Double Sextet. When looking at
the piece on a grand scale, one might overlook every detail that makes this piece move and
speak. The piece needs to be carefully listened to and the score examined to fully appreciate
what Reich has done with this work.
Analysis of Movement One (Fast) from Double Sextet
The first movement of Double Sextet is entitle Fast and begins with one piano playing
an ostinato pattern that will become the basis of the entire piece. A few measures later, the
second piano chimes in using the hocket technique to disburse the sound between two
instruments and create counterpoint. Reich continues to do this with every instrument within the
sextet until each are playing their individual lines, creating a mass of counterpoint. In many of
Reichs works, we find this use of additive minimalism. The instrumentation throughout this
piece stays quite constant and predictable. When an instrument from sextet drops out, the
listener is able to predict that the subsequent instrument from the other sextet will do the same.
Reich does this on purpose, to create an active listening experience and one that requires your
full attention.
The harmonic structure of the first movement is one of the driving forces for the
momentum of the piece. Reich (as in many of his other pieces as well) uses many cluster chords
to create a percussive environment with the instrumentation the he is dealing with. The piece
begins with octave Gs in the left hand of the first sounding piano. The piece stays in this G
realm until Reich introduces the Bb into the mix. At the beginning of the piece, Reich only hints
at the Bb by only touching the sonority before going back to the G. He then begins to hasten the
speed at which the Bb is encountered until we reach the Bb sonority at roughly measure 57.
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From here, Reich switches from Bb to E creating an unstable environment and shoving the
tritone relationship of the two keys down the listeners throat. He escapes this and creates a
more stable environment at around measure 99, by introducing the C major sonority. This
creates a cadence point for the piece and leads us directly into the B section of the piece which is
in the starting the key of G.
The harmonic structure of the B section is very similar to the A section. Reich makes this
more interesting by creating rhythmic contrast within the B section and when we encounter the
eighth note ostinato after the B section, we encounter in a different key. At measure 134, the
ostinato is reencountered, but this time focuses around the key of F. Reich focuses on the minor
third relationship between F and D within this section. The material that he uses is recycled from
the beginning of the piece, but this time is in the realm of F. Once again, Reich moves towards
the key of C right before he shifts back into the B section at measure 203. This time however, he
creates a longer B section flowing between different keys until we get back to the main ostinato
which is now in the realm of C. At measure 231 we find the same recycled material that is
encountered at the beginning of the piece, but now is in the realm of C. This ostinato
continues until measure 270, where we find the final statement of the B section.
The final B section statement at measure 270 is this time in the dominant key of A. This
is the first time in the piece that we find a pull to the tonic key of D. This dominant relationship
is short lived, however. When Reich approaches the end of his final B section statement, we
move back to the starting key of G and begin the ostinato pattern again just as the beginning of
the piece. The ostinato quickly changes to the key of D. For the rest of the piece, Reich focuses
more and more on the key of D and by measure 313 we are in the key. At measure 347, Reich
makes a surprising harmonic move to the key of B and stays in this key until measure 381, where
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the key signature changes and Reich exploits the minor third relationship between D and F all
over again. When Reich returns to the original key signature in measure 428 he is back in the
key of G. Reich stays in this key until measure 485, where he returns for the final time to the
key of D. Reich bounces from D to E in the bass notes, creating a pull downwards to the tonic
key. This is important due to the fact that the second movement is in the key of D and Reich is
constantly pulling us towards that point of arrival. Reich continues this bass switch (D to E)
until the final measures of the first movement are sounded and Reich brings us to the second
movement.
The main driving force of the first movement is found in its constant meter changes. The
changes make the piece have momentum and keep the piece feeling fresh. There is a driving
force that is created by the constant meter changes. Reich is very mathematical with these meter
changes and he creates a strong, predictable pattern through them. The main metric-change
pattern in the first movement is: 6/8, 2/4, 5/8 and 7/8. This pattern that is paired with an ostinato
eighth note pattern creates the backbone of the first movement. Reich uses this pattern to not
only create cohesiveness within the piece, but also to create contrast. The listener begins to
expect the same rhythmic patterns and when Reich changes this pattern in measure 41, the
listener is drawn back in to the piece and is required to actively listen again.
The new metric-change pattern in measure 41 is an elongated version of the original.
Reich begins to stretch out the 5/8 and 7/8 time signatures to create displacement within the
counterpoint. This displacement leads us into the first B section where again, Reich changes the
metric-change pattern using only 2/4 and 3/4 time signatures. This leads back into the original
pattern. The movement is continued in this manner for the entirety of the movement, creating a
strong cohesiveness throughout the entirety of the work.
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Hocket, a medieval made type of counterpoint, is the driving basis of Reichs
counterpoint in Double Sextet. In hocket, a composer uses the same materials in voice as he does
in another, to create counterpoint that is based solely on mimicking. What this creates is a
counterpoint that erases any silence within a piece, filling in the spaces that were once rests. We
find in the first movement, that Reich uses this technique throughout almost the entirety of the
movement. Reich takes the first ostinato pattern and uses the pattern in retrograde in order to
create counterpoint with the other instruments. He does this with almost every instrument. He
will introduce a motive or ostinato and then he will take the retrograde of the pattern and
introduce it using the same instrument in the other sextet. This technique creates an ongoing
mass of sound. Reich, from start to finish, uses absolutely no silence in his first movement of
Double Sextet. This driving sound mass creates the tone for the rest of the piece and starts the
piece off dramatically and strong.
Reich mimics the overall structure of his work Double Sextet within this first movement.
Reich creates three distinct sections within the movement. Within these sections, we find a
division of metric-changing patterns. It seems that every part of this piece is divided into three
sections. Reich is able to create traditional arch forms while still holding true to the minimalist
processes and traditional minimalist events. This technique creates a sonic environment that is
not only great to listen to, but envelops the listener and forces the listener to listen actively.
In conclusion, Double Sextet by Steve Reich shows an all-encompassing mastery of the
art of the minimalism and the great detail the Reich puts into each of his scores. This piece
shows sensitivity to music that only a trained master would be able to work with and mold into
something as grandiose as Double Sextet. So the question is asked again: Is Double Sextet by
Steve Reich worth a Pulitzer Prize? Yes. The overall statement of this work is why it deserves
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one of the highest honors a piece of music can receive. It is advanced enough that it cannot be
written off as a mere minimalism piece, but is approachable enough that many people will be
able to enjoy performing such a great piece of music. It is one of the most technically
challenging pieces that Reich has ever written and if based solely on the achievement of the
composer based on everything else he has written in his life, it as a masterpiece of achievement.
But I believe that the main reason for why this piece received the Pulitzer Prize and why it is
considered to be one of the best pieces that Steve Reich has ever written and one of the best
minimalistic pieces ever recorded is simple. It is easy and fun to listen to. The listener is taken
on a journey and they are forced to be as active as they can as listeners. The motion of this piece
requires your full attention and although we do not expect it, we are giving more to this piece
than we do to many other pieces that we listen to. Reich was able to captivate his listeners and
manipulate them into believing that an intensive listening session was nothing more than a
leisure pass-by. Reichs Double Sextet shows the immense power of minimalistic work and also
the dedication of a man that was obsessed with his craft and his passions.







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Appendix A


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Appendix B


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Appendix C



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Appendix D


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