Part Three had music performed by the RTE Concert Orchestra. Reich’s own ‘Duet’ from 1993 was like a redux version of nicey classic music. For some reason this called to mind some TV documentary I saw once about the Voyager probes, where they played back the random electromagnetic signals a probe was picking up as it sailed by Saturn’s rings. The sound was oddly like that of an orchestra tuning up, which maybe was what this sounded like too.
Arvo Pärt’s ‘Fratres’ for string orchestra and percussion (1977 “& 1991) provided us with an attractive piece of string-heavy music backed by unobtrusive percussion. That was followed by Igor Stravinsky’s 1938 ‘Concerto in E Flat (‘Dumbarton Oaks’)’, the ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)’ of the classical world. It was maybe a bit dull compared to all the other top stuff the day had seen, but much enjoyment was to be had from the conductor’s interpretative dance. John Adams’ 1979 piece ‘Common Tones In Simple Time’ boasted the kind of hypnotic quality I typically hope for from the classical music.
Going away to dinner meant we had to skip the live interview with Steve Reich by John Kelly of “The Mystery Train”. We also missed the concert in the Chapel wherein the RTE Vanburgh Quartet together with some Hugh Tinney guy on piano were going to play music by Keith Volans and Morton Feldman. But we were back in place for Part Five, which featured the Crash Ensemble doing a couple of Reich pieces. First up, though, Reich took the stage himself, and together with one of the Crashers performed ‘Clapping Music’ (1972). This features two people clapping, with the claps going in and out of phase with each other. It would be a great party trick to learn off, and hearing it performed by the man himself took me right back to the early days of the APA and what might have been the very first TOAD I ever received (the one from Robin apCynan). It was good fun, therefore, when some elements of the crowd gave the clap straight back to Reich when he had finished. I think it was around this point that we spotted the aforementioned John Kelly, a surprisingly handsome man in real life. I was going to go and give him an earful about something but thought better of it.
Anyway, next up was ‘Cello Counterpoint’ (2003), in which a cello was played over a recording of a cello playing, to make counterpoints and stuff. It certainly sounded very nice, but I was not quite sure what was accomplished by having a recording rather than a second cellist. Finishing the day was ‘City Life’ (1995), which saw the whole of the Crashers playing over street samples collected by Reich himself – car noises, sirens, the general aural backcloth of city life. It was a great piece of music, but sadly by now I was a bit puppy tired and neglecting my notes, meaning that I can tell you little about it bar it having noises in it. I gather some complained that it featured both violins and too many musicians, but I certainly liked it, and judge that it made for an excellent end to a day of most fine music.
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