Steve Reichのディスク

承前*1

Double Sextet/2x5

スティーヴ・ライヒ*2のDouble Sextet/2 x 5を聴く。ライヒ*3のディスクを聴くのはかなり以前にDifferent Trainsを聴いて以来。収録されている” Double Sextet”はeighth blackbird*4が、” 2 x 5”はBang on a Can*5がそれぞれ演奏している。どちらも（タイトルからもわかるように）ライヒは〈倍〉ということに拘っており、ミュージシャンは自らが演奏したテープを聴きながら、それに応答するように演奏するようになっている*6。これは自己／鏡像関係ということでもあり、例えば「ミズラモグラ」氏*7ならどんなことを言うのだろうか。また、ライヒは速い／遅いにも拘っていて、どちらの曲もFast→Slow→Fastの三部構成になっている。Fastの部分の急き立てるようなリズムを聴きながら、唐突にデイヴ・ブルーベックの”Blue Rondo a la Turk”*8を思い出してしまった。

Electric Counterpoint / Different Trains, Electric

Time Out

さて、ライヒはライナーノーツのRonen Givonyとの対談で、” 2 x 5”ではエレクトリック･ベースに拘ったと述べている；

(…) What happened with 2 x 5 was, I wanted to write for rock instruments, and particularly for the electric bass, believe it or not. Why? Because you can have interlocking bass lines, which on an acoustic bass, played pizzicato would be mud. Play those same lines on electric bass, and they snap. You can hear every note. When you hear 2 x 5, the rhythm section, curiously, is the electric bass, Robert Black, and the piano, played by Evan Ziporyn. The drummer, David Cossin, who has done some amazing things on his own with my music, comes in from time to time as extra energy and new color. It's a different role for the drummer.(...)

最初に聴いたときは、ベースがそんなに目立っているかなと思ったのだが、２回３回と聴くと、たしかにベース･ラインが曲を支配している。
それから、クルト・ヴァイル*9について。Ronen Givonyの”What would Kurt Weill have made of 2 x 5?”という質問に答えて、

Well, we'll never know. But, my guess is he would have loved it. Or maybe I can't separate my guess from my hope [laughs]....I mean, if he were around to soak up the musical culture we're living in, as he soaked up the musical culture he was living in, he would certainly have been interested in this direction. Weill was a student of Busoni and obviously knew the cabaret scene as well. He had the whole picture. He was the first “serious” musician to really understand that deeply –and then George Gershwin*10 was a close contemporary. In a sense, both these pieces continue in that tradition. Another thing Weill confirmed for me (…) was the necessity of creating your own instrumental groups rather than ill-fitting pre-established ones. The Threepenny Opera is a masterpiece partly because Weill wisely avoided the orchestra and substituted his brand of cabaret band. Likewise with vocal style: no operatic voices but cabaret style singing as well. I discovered back in the 1980s that I really don't need to write for the orchestra, because it's not good orchestration for me, to have eighteen firsts and sixteen seconds, and so on. I really need one solo amplified violin, or perhaps three, but no more than that. And that's because my music is basically contrapuntal, it's basically more Baroque than Romantic. Having that large instrumental apparatus is just bad acoustical procedure and doesn't produce the right results. So I went back to what I had been doing, which was creating different chamber ensembles with each piece. My inspiration is my instrumentation. Double Sextet has strings, winds, percussion and piano, a kind of mini-orchestra, which I think really works. 2 x 5 takes a rock group, doubles it, and then has them play something very rhythmic they clearly can play, but haven't ever played before.

途中から、自分は大オーケストラが嫌いだという話になっている。

*1:http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20110516/1305566396

*2:http://www.stevereich.com/

*3:Reichは独逸語風にライヒと表記すべきなのか、それとも英語風にライクと表記すべきなのか。

*4:http://www.eighthblackbird.com/

*5:http://www.bangonacan.org/

*6:ライヴで演奏する際は倍の数のミュージシャン、” Double Sextet”の場合は12人、” 2 x 5”の場合は10人のミュージシャンが必要となる。

*7:http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Talpidae/

*8:See http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20101025/1287978668

*9:See also http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20080611/1213164336 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20090604/1244090099

*10:See also http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20070826/1188154111 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20071210/1197268763 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20090917/1253211853 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20101004/1286215386