COMPOSER

Steve Reich

1936 - Today

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Stephen Michael Reich ( RYSHE; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay, "Music as a Gradual Process", by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Steve Reich is the 274th most popular composer (down from 207th in 2019), the 1,460th most popular biography from United States (down from 960th in 2019) and the 13th most popular American Composer.

Steve Reich is most famous for his minimalist pieces, which are characterized by their repetitive rhythms and melodies.

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Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Steve Reich ranks 274 out of 1,451. Before him are Saverio Mercadante, Turlough O'Carolan, Joseph Lanner, Howard Shore, Johann Christoph Bach, and Friedrich Kuhlau. After him are Miklós Rózsa, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Henryk Górecki, Anton Reicha, Uzeyir Hajibeyov, and György Kurtág.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1936, Steve Reich ranks 64. Before him are Hideki Shirakawa, Ghassan Kanafani, Costas Simitis, Don Cherry, Eva Hesse, and Denny Hulme. After him are Abdul Qadeer Khan, Jack Lousma, Iolanda Balaș, Samuel C. C. Ting, Petar Mladenov, and Richard Wilson.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Steve Reich ranks 1,460 out of 20,380. Before him are Mary Ainsworth (1913), Stan Smith (1946), The Ultimate Warrior (1959), Harrison Schmitt (1935), Harry Markowitz (1927), and Martin Balsam (1919). After him are Jack Elam (1920), BD Wong (1960), Idina Menzel (1971), Courteney Cox (1964), Harry Daghlian (1921), and George C. Scott (1927).

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Among COMPOSERS In United States

Among composers born in United States, Steve Reich ranks 13. Before him are Samuel Barber (1910), Henry Mancini (1924), Scott Joplin (1868), Angelo Badalamenti (1937), Jerry Goldsmith (1929), and James Horner (1953). After him are Stephen Schwartz (1948), Charles Ives (1874), Alan Silvestri (1950), Aaron Copland (1900), Bernard Herrmann (1911), and Cole Porter (1891).

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