REICHOLOGY

Highlights of Steve Reich's career, listed chronologically:

"It's Gonna Rain" (1965): Long before sampling and rap becamefixtures on the pop music scene, Reich was experimenting with tapedsnippets of everyday speech. Often chopping words into disconnectedsyllables, he strung them together in mesmerizing repetition drivenby a relentless pulse. A Pentecostal preacher taped in SanFrancisco's Union Square provides the raw material in "It's GonnaRain," a compelling work of pure rhythm and sound.

"Music for 18 Musicians" (1976): More than an hour long, thishighly energetic yet lyrical piece brought Reich's music to theattention of a mass audience. In the late 1970s and early '80s, itwas impossible to attend a modern dance concert, whether a studentrecital or professional performance, without hearing "Music for 18Musicians." Reich won a Grammy this year for a reissue of the piece."Tehillim" (1981) and "The Desert Music" (1984): Reich expandedhis range in both works. Using a Hebrew text in "Tehillim," hetapped into the ancient traditions of his Jewish heritage, to whichhe would return several times in his music. "The Desert Music," witha text from poems by William Carlos Williams, calls for chorus andorchestra."Different Trains" (1988): A theatrical piece combining tapedspeech and music commissioned for the Kronos Quartet. It contrastedthe romance and excitement of a cross-country train trip in theUnited States during the 1940s with the recollections of Jews whosurvived horrific train rides to concentration camps. Theconductors' exuberant calls of "New York" and "Chicago" are inchilling counterpoint to a survivor's memories of going "into thosecattle wagons"/"for four days and four nights."