Week 13 Steve Reichs Come Out

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Uncivil Conditions, Civil Discourse The 1964 Harlem Riots and Steve Reich’s Come Out

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Week 13 Steve Reichs Come Out

Transcript of Week 13 Steve Reichs Come Out

  • Uncivil Conditions, Civil DiscourseThe 1964 Harlem Riots and Steve Reichs Come Out

  • Civil Rights Movement Timeline1954 Brown vs. Board of EducationOverturned Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896 separate but equal segregation1955-6 Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus BoycottDr. Martin Luther King 1957 Desegregating Little Rock Arkansas Gov. calls in in National Guard to prevent the entry of the Little Rock 9 into Little Rock Central High School1960 Sit-ins: Greensboro, NC - Nashville, TN Atlanta, GA Richmond, VA 1961 Freedom Riders travel the SouthRiders attacked by angry mobs1962 James Meredith enrolls at the University of Mississippi. Gov. Ross Barnett: "No school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your Governor."US troops sent to quell rioting

    1963 Birmingham and WashingtonMLK jailed in BirminghamAug - March on WashingtonKing delivers I Have a Dream Speech Sept KKK bombs Birmingham church

    1964 Freedom Summer in MississippiDrew over 1,000 activists, 3 murdered July 1964 Civil Rights Act passedJuly 1964 Harlem Riot Dec 1964 King awarded Nobel Peace Prize

    Feb 1965 Malcolm X assassinated Aug 1965 Voting Rights Act passed

    April 1968 King assassinated in MemphisRioting in over 100 cities

  • Little Rock Nine (1957)Several segregationist councils threatened to hold protests at Central High and physically block the black students from entering the school. Governor Orval Fabus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists on September 4, 1957.

    group of nine African-American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School (Arkansas) in 1957the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by the Governor of Arkansas

  • Harlem Riot, 1964Extreme racial tension in the USCivil Rights Act passed June 19, 1964 to end major forms of racial discrimination and segregation of schoolsThree civil rights activists were lynched in Mississippi June 21, 1964Growing tension between the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the African-American communityJuly 16, 1964 African American James Powell, 15, was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman after an altercation with an apartment building superintendent

  • Riot July 18th 4000 people gathered in Harlem and Brooklyn to protest police brutality and the killing of PowellRioting lasted over 5 days with violent incidents between protesters and police occurring throughout the city Cars and buildings burned, stores lootedOne death, an estimated 500 injuries, 465 arrests and nearly $1 million worth of damage

  • Harlem SixSix young African-American and Latino men were arrested for the murder of a white women that occurred during the riotsAll but one were later acquitted

  • Los Angeles Riots, 19921991 Rodney King was severely beaten by LAPD officers The incident was captured on video tape April 26, 1992 the four officers were acquitted of assault by a nearly all white juryMajor rioting ensued for 6 days 53 deaths; 2,000 injuries Nearly $1 billion in damages White truck driver Reginald Deny, whose vehicle happened to get stuck at an intersection during the rioting, was beaten by an African-American mob

  • Cincinnati Riots, 2001Between 1995 and 2001 40 African American men were killed by Cincinnati police or died in custody No police were ever found guilty April 7, 2001 Timothy Thomas , 19,was killed by police after fleeing through Over-The-Rhine

    April 9-11 crowds rioted in Over-the-Rhine and downtown. Violence and looting spread to Avondale and MadisonvilleStores were damaged and looted, fires set across the city$3.6 million of damageParts of OTR, Avondale, and Madisonville have yet to recover

  • Ferguson Riots, 2014August 9, 2014: Michael Brown, Jr., 18, African-American, unarmed, is shot by a white Ferguson, MO police officerBrowns body was left unattended in the street for several hours The identity of the officer involved in the shooting was not released for several daysFerguson Police withhold other information from the publicPeaceful public memorial demonstrations were interrupted by inflammatory behavior by police officersOther demonstrations became unruly; police escalated tension by arriving in riot gearRiots break out: At least 12 businesses were looted or vandalized and a convenience store/gas station was set on fire, leading to over 30 arrests. Many windows were broken and several nearby businesses closed on Monday.March 3, 2015: US Department of Justice investigation revealed that Ferguson police department routinely stereotyped and discriminated against African American residents in violation of the Constitution.

  • Steve Reich b. 1936One of the premiere American composers of the second half of the 20th century to the presentAssociated with the minimalist movement that emerged in New York in the 1960s Minimalism in artMinimalism in musicStudied and was influenced by West African drumming and Balinese Gamelan

  • Minimalism Reaction to Modernism:Simplification, accessibility Clarity of formReductionPatterns, obvious intentIn Music:Reaction to total serialism Return to tonal centers, process driven music Major Composers:Le Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, John Adams, Philip Glass, Arvo Prt Sol Le Witt, Color Bands

  • Frank Stella, Tomlinson Court Park, 1959

  • Reichs Come Out, 19661965 Steve Reich composes Its Gonna RainMusique concrte: music created by manipulating sound recorded on reel-to-reel tapeA pre-digital age form of samplingIts Gonna Rain: manipulates a phrase from a speech delivered by African American Pentecostal preacher Brother Walter1966 Civil Rights activist Truman Nelson asks Reich to compose a similar piece to be performed at a benefit for the Harlem 6

  • Reichs Come Out, 1966Early example of process music Music in which the compositional process is audible Reich: The distinctive thing about musical processes is that they determine all the note-to-note (sound-to-sound) details and the over all form simultaneously. (Think of a round or infinite canon.)Two reel-to-reel tape recorders are deliberately allowed to shift out of phase (out of synch) and then reordered and looped to create a chaotic soundscape

  • Come OutHamm had been injured during the riots, and was later held in police custody. However, only those in police custody with open wounds were allowed medical attention.Hamm had to puncture the bruise himself, creating a bleeding wound, in order to be taken to the hospital.

    I had to, like, open the bruise up and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them.--Daniel Hamm, one of the Harlem six who was falsely accused of murder during the riot.

  • DiscussionPhasing, the compositional process of Come Out, breaks down rational thought. What is the relationship between the compositional process and the subject matter of Come Out? Is Reich making a political statement in this composition? If so, what is it and how is it achieved? If not, why do you think this is so? Does the phasing process draw attention to or away from the meaning of Hamms words ?From Steve Reichs point of view, would you consider this composition sympathetic?

    What relation, if any, do you think the process of composition has to the subject matter?Do theses elements (process of composition and content/subject matter) complement or contradict the other?

    Is Steve Reich's Come Out music? Why or why not? Why does it matter whether or not a composition of as sound is termed "music?

    Consider our recent discussions of the varying viewpoints and controversies regarding the role of the artist and the arts in society, such as "access vs. elitism," "art for art's sake," and that "art is inherently political." How does Steve Reich's Come Out fit in?