Steve Reich: Phase to Face

This profile of avant-garde musician/composer Steve Reich begins in 2009 with the news that he's won the Pulitzer Prize, which leads him to quip, “Wonders never cease.” Between rehearsals and performances, then 72-year-old Reich talks about his background, starting with piano lessons, earning a philosophy degree from Cornell, and studying music composition at Julliard, where he took inspiration from Bach, Stravinsky, and John Coltrane. Reich then proceeds to discuss his work with tonalities and phases (short, repeated patterns), as in 1965's It's Gonna Rain, noting that an early goal was to duplicate the sound of a tape loop (he also cites 1967's Piano Phase as an example). Reich travels to Tokyo, Rome, Le Havre, and Manchester, collaborating with musical acts such as Bang on a Can, Quartetto Prometeo, Kraftwerk, and guitarist Bryce Dessner of The National. Directors Eric Darmon and Franck Mallet focus more on Reich's work than his personal life, although he does talk briefly about his parents, who lived on opposite coasts post-divorce, and his relationship with Judaism, which appears in compositions such as The Cave and Different Trains, the latter referring both to the bi-coastal trips of his youth and the Holocaust death trains. DVD extras include an extended interview. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)