Ned Rorem - 27 January, 1990

from Lies: A Diary 1986-1999, page 188:

Listened anew to The Desert Music. I'd forgotten - among its other attributes (so few) - how nicely vulgar Steve Reich's music is. Philip Glass is pristine by virtue of using mainly triads. But Reich, with his female chorus cooing, evokes the 13th-chord harmonies of 1940s dance bands filtered through Debussy's Sirènes.

cite as

Ned Rorem, Lies: A Diary 1986-1999 (New York, 2002), p. 188. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1437562009143 accessed: 14 October, 2024

Listeners

Ned Rorem
Critic, essayist, Composer, Diarist […]
1923-

Listening to

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The Desert Music
written by Steve Reich

Experience Information

Date/Time 27 January, 1990
Medium playback
Listening Environment in private, indoors, solitary

Originally submitted by pashworth on Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:46:49 +0100
Approved on Tue, 02 Feb 2016 14:29:16 +0000