The influence of Hebrew cantillation, the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services, can be traced in Steve Reich’s music from the mid-1970s to the early-1990s. After Reich studied cantillation, the sound aspects of spoken language, such as intonation, timbre, melodic cadences, and metric accentuation, became the defining elements of musical structure in many of his compositions. In Eight Lines (1979), there are long melodic lines which were constructed according to a procedure of “motivic addition” similar to that of Hebrew cantillation. In Tehillim (1981), Reich uses Psalms in Hebrew as the poetic source for his musical settings. Furthermore, the rhythmic structure of the work is based on the structure of the words: a pattern of two and three beats, which Reich preserved metrically and in the vocal line of this work. Different Trains incorporates taped speech fragments of Holocaust survivors. The intonation and pitch level of the original speech fragments determine the harmonic framework of the composition, including its tonal shifts to different harmonic planes. The Cave incorporates techniques of the previous three compositions. Speech samples become the basis of this composition, and its music reflects these samples’ melodic and rhythmic profiles. These text-setting techniques restore the union between the “sound” aspect of speech and the semantic meaning of the words, a direct result of the influence of Hebrew cantillation.

Works: Steve Reich: Eight Lines (543-45), Tehillim (545-48), Different Trains (548-50), The Cave (550-51).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Chelsea Hamm