New York Counterpoint

Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint is one of four “counterpoint” pieces he has written for a solo instrumentalist playing “against a pre-recorded tape of him or her self”. Composed in 1985 for the American clarinettist Richard Stoltzman, New York Counterpoint requires the soloist to record in advance eight parts for B-flat clarinet and three for bass clarinet, then play an additional part live with the recording. Stylistically, New York Counterpoint combines the age-old technique of counterpoint—the interleaving of one distinctive line of musical material with another—with minimalist methods of rhythmic and melodic repetition familiar from Reich’s earlier music. Cast in three movements performed without a pause, New York Counterpoint lasts 11 minutes in total. The pulsing figurations it begins with echo the opening of Reich’s seminal Music for 18 Musicians (1976), apparently mimicking the heartbeat of a city in perpetual motion. A squawking theme emerges on solo clarinet, spawning contrapuntal commentary from the other instruments, overlaid by pulse-harmonies from the introduction. A new theme, played by two clarinets and lighter in mood, announces movement two, where buzzing pulses again punctuate the textures. A jaunty, jazz-like lick launches the third movement, underpinned by droll interjections from the bass clarinets. The basses eventually withdraw, leaving the final word to a gaggle of chirruping voices in the clarinet’s upper register.