The Rise and Fall of Steve Reich
  • Adam
    April 24, 2009

    Wait…are those CLAPs placed tonally?

    This is brilliant!

    Can we have a Phillip Glass one too :)

  • gokali
    April 24, 2009

    and I thought it had something to do with cleaning erasers…

  • Double W
    April 24, 2009

    But what’s with Boy thanking them? Is this thanking Reich for his influence in music?
    At first I thought it had to do with how fans of an artist adore and thank them, while the artist adores and appreciates the audience for taking the time to see their work (I saw the Clapping song as the artists applauding the audience).

  • Wackadoodle
    April 24, 2009

    I thought it was that Girl and Grrl(? forgot her name), came up with a minimalist music set. No one showed up except Boy, they feel really embarrassed and awkward about it, but Boy thinks they’re clapping for him. His self-esteem goes gangbusters.

  • Remy Overkempe
    April 24, 2009

    @Wackadoodle: I thought that as well, but Boy would be sitting down then. He is standing, right?

  • H
    April 24, 2009

    I bought the “Early Works” CD years ago. I find “Clapping Music” played in a constant loop helps me focus when I’m writing emails (otherwise I’m easily distracted/distractable).

    I got on a train (and booked a hotel room for afterwards) to go to his 70th birthday concert at Carnegie Hall by myself. I was late, but did get to see “Music for 18 Musicians” performed live, and felt it was even better than I expected.

    Am I Boy yet?

  • Aaron(swifteye)
    April 24, 2009

    I’m sorry for being so uneducated but who is Steve Reich?

  • michael
    April 24, 2009

    Aaron, Steve Reich is an American composer, as H above mentions he did a piece called “Clapping Music”, which is just clapping… He’s usually called a minimalist for fairly good reason. :)

    Most of his most famous work is based on people playing repeated phrases off different lengths at the same time – a very simple example would be one person plays something that last 4 seconds and another plays something that lasts 5. As they repeat the relationship between the two phrases changes and you hear different harmonies, rhythms, etc.

  • KTurtle
    April 24, 2009

    Double W: That part’s easy. He thinks they’re applauding him. :}

  • eric hs
    April 25, 2009

    aww! I love this comic.

    H- I was at that concert too! kronos quartet played different trains, and pat metheny played electric counterpoint, and it was all amazing.

  • David Matthew
    April 25, 2009

    Hey, be nice; he just won a Pulitzer!

  • Double W
    April 25, 2009

    @Kturtle – I can see it now. I think Wackadoodle got it dead on.

    It’s weird how the panels with Girl and Grrl form a T that my eyes follow and now I can’t read the strip in the correct sequence. But it still makes sense because I’m seeing all of the clapping, and then Boy looking around and thanking them, instead of the panels alternating. Am I the only one who got that effect?

  • H
    April 27, 2009

    Jeez. It never occurred to me that he would think they were applauding him. I just assumed he was thanking them for performing a decades-old music experiment even though nobody else cared enough to show up.

    http://www.last.fm/music/Steve+Reich/_/Clapping+Music

  • Lexo
    April 27, 2009

    Aaron, Steve Reich is the most overrated underachiever in all of American music, with the possible exception of Lou Reed.

  • Tom
    April 28, 2009

    Lexo,

    That would actually be Philip Glass you’re thinking of.

  • YGT
    April 28, 2009

    Ooh, now out come the minimalist haters.

    Reich’s and Glass’ early works are difficult and unlikeable, I’ll admit, but I hardly think that validates discrediting their entire oeuvres.

  • Jon Ray
    April 28, 2009

    This made me really happy. Thank you.

  • Tom
    April 28, 2009

    YGT I like Reich’s music. Glass on the other hand is for the most part vapid and totally uninteresting.

  • QRDeNameland
    April 28, 2009

    come out to show ’em
    come out to show ’em
    come out to show ’em
    come out to show ’em
    come out to show ’em

  • C. (Still in Tucson)
    April 28, 2009

    When drawing the characters in a two-shot, the artist appears to be drawing on her earlier design for the characters.

  • Nny
    April 28, 2009

    i youtubed some clapping work of Reich and wikipedia-d him to. i am now an expert. im off to wikipedia to become an expert on phillip glass now…

  • YGT
    April 30, 2009

    I used to really hate Glass too, but he won my heart with the Mishima soundtrack

  • Arnold Schoenberg
    May 1, 2009

    all of you are the worst people i swear to god

    claps cant be placed tonally
    wikipedia explains music using arbitrary runes
    all of you are hatin on quality music because for once this comic didnt have a punchline of some contrived social commentary and was genuinely brilliant

    god bless im gonna write a chamber symphony @ twitter

  • wow
    July 2, 2009

    i thought he got them to clap for them and he was thanking them for appreciating him

  • wow
    July 2, 2009

    clap for him*

  • Like open it up and let the blues blood
    July 18, 2009

    Come out to show them
    Come out to show them
    Come out to show them
    show them
    show them
    show them
    show them

  • Anthony
    July 20, 2009

    I was very confused until I read the title. Then it all hit me at once. The clapping music, the empty hall, the single, confused audience member.

    I do love me some Reich… From chicago… from chicago to newyork… from chicago…

  • X
    December 27, 2009

    bwahahaa! I’ve been in identical situation with “the clapping music” myself!

  • Atropos
    January 14, 2011

    Reich’s music may not have been the most complicated, but at least it’s interesting to listen to. The same goes for Glass; some of his minimalist piano pieces are unbelievably beautiful. Go listen to his Metamorphoses, and I think that you’ll agree.

    If you really want to find a composer to rail on, listen to Webern. He took atonality a step farther than Schoenberg, and (in my opinion) it’s pretty terrible sounding.

  • The other Jack
    February 19, 2011

    I thought they were clapping for me too :(

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