Clapping Music by Steve Reich for Two Snare Drums and Two Hi-Hats

Audio recorded and mixed by Nick Samarin at Orange Studios, Moscow: Video recorded and edited by Oleg Kharchenko and Konstantin Sychev. Clapping Music was written for two performers by Steve Reich in 1972. The piece originally was to be played with hand clapping. The first performer should keep the constant rhythm. The second begins by playing in unison with the first and then moves the rhythm back by one 8th note every 12 bars. The key idea was to create the “in phase/out of phase” effect which Reich implemented in earlier works (in fact, Clapping Music was the last of those pieces). That was achieved partly by not accentuating the beginning of each bar, thus making it possible for the listener to choose either the first or the second player as the “main” throughout the piece. My interpretation is inspired by Glen Kotche’s idea of the two parts being played by one person simultaneously, as well as by the beautiful performances by Evan Chapman: https: