4. Music as Language

RK: Would you describe music as a language that requires study or experience in order to decode, in order to enjoy? One person sits down and listens to a slow movement of Bach and finds it to be extraordinarily beautiful and another person sits down and listens to it and hears nothing! Is it a language issue? Is it just a matter of what strikes you?

SR: Well, you're asking a question that I don't think anyone has answered satisfactorily since the dawn of...

RK: So then it's a good question?

SR: It's a good question. But you know that I'm not going to have an answer. When I was first giving concerts in Germany in the early to middle seventies, people attacked music as mechanical and said it didn't have a language, in a sense of a discursive language. I remember a letter I wrote to this guy in Stuttgart about it. I said that I don't think that (Beethoven's 5th motive) "da da da daaa" is fate knocking at the door, I think that it's an incredible four-note motive, that what's remarkable is that it continues through the scherzo and into the last movement. It's the motive; it's not really a melody, it's a beginning of motivic organization, as opposed to introducing an imaginary text into music, and saying "Well, what does it mean?" The opening motive in the Fifth Symphony is four notes followed by four more. That's what it means. It doesn't have a verbal translation. Some people would say that it had a philosophical idea which he then translated into music. I think that's absurd.

There's language of music in terms of "Do you have perfect pitch? Can you write down what you hear?" Those are very real skills. You have different degrees of it. I'm very moderately skilled in that direction. I don't have perfect pitch, and I can write down slowly if it's easy. That's why I've worked all my life as a composer with real sound. I work with the instrument, and once I knew that Stravinsky composed at the piano I said "Okay, whatever my limits, I don't have to be completely ashamed!" And therefore orchestration and composition are one and the same thing for me because I'll just try it on this, try it on that. But certainly someone who has perfect pitch like Arthur Murphy -- he literally could go to hear Bill Evans and immediately write what he heard down on the napkin. He had an enormous talent, and some people have this.

Vincent Persichetti, whom I studied with, was one of those musicians who you just felt could do anything. He'd look at your piece and immediately improvise in its style. One would like to think that the greatest composers will always have this. And I think in a sense that's true. I imagine that Bach must've been this way and Beethoven must've been this way. But I don't think Eric Satie was that way, and he made a real contribution. I know I'm not that way and I hope I make some small contribution. At the highest level that's absolutely true that in terms of people perceiving music, well, musicians do hear more than non-musicians. There's no question about it. And we know exactly what they hear and some people hear more and some people hear less.

RK: Does it lead to feeling?

SR: Well, we go back to Bach again. I have one book of Bach's letters, "The Bach Reader," which is probably one of the most boring books ever compiled on Earth. I love it! "This trumpet player is insufferable. I need more firewood. Can we get a new choir? I need more firewood. We need some more money. That trumpet player..." I enjoy this! This feels autobiographical; I can relate to this! And he said "What's most important? "Das Effekt," the effect. Now, if Bach can say that, then we can do no better. I think the effect of music on the human being is the most important thing about music, and the thing that is the most difficult to discuss. I think that at a certain point, while they're mapping the genome, scientists may very well be able to play a piece of music and find out exactly what's happening in various people's hearts or minds. Also, there are people who are more sensitive to music and there are people who are less sensitive to music -- sometimes it goes with their musicality and sometimes, in a funny way, it doesn't. So, you're either musically talented or you're not. Arthur [Murphy] was very talented in certain ways and then he had certain personal problems which made it impossible for him to function as a musician. Other people, like me, have very minimal talents really, but somehow have an incredible ability to just burn-in, concentration-wise, and do the best with what little they have. It also depends on what you're doing: I'm not that great a player, so there was no future for me as a performer in music, and some composers I admire are like that. And there are others who are really great musicians -- again, people who have been a member of the "style of the month club" -- who conduct orchestras and I think have perfect pitch and certainly can write things down rapidly. But they seem like a waste of time.

RK: Another take on the question: can you teach someone to like something?

SR: I don't think so, no. I think you can teach people in general to understand music better. Copland's book was a very good book in terms of how to listen to music, how to follow a sonata allegro form. That accomplishes something, but it doesn't make someone who didn't like the slow movement in the Bach that you mentioned like it.

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Reich Interview

1.	Starting Out
2.	Audiences
3.	Orchestras and Acoustics
4.	Music as Language
5.	Music and Technology
6.	New Works

Supporting Materials
Biography
List of Works
List of Recordings
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Steve Reich (photo: John Halpern)

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