Radio Rewrite

Background#

Reich is one of the founders of the minimalist movement in music. While his work takes inspiration from Baroque music, Igor Stravinsky, jazz, Hebrew cantillation and West African and Balinese music, the composer states that he has composed only two earlier pieces that directly reference material from existing music. Reich does not describe himself as a fan of rock music, and had never previously investigated the potential of western pop/rock music for such treatment. Reich says he is happy for disc jockeys to remix his work.

Reich and Radiohead#

Radiohead is a British rock band formed in the mid-1980s, whose style was described in 2012 as “jazz-tinged electronic rock”. Reich first encountered the lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, in September 2011 at the Sacrum Profanum festival in Kraków, Poland, where Greenwood was playing Reich’s Electric Counterpoint with Ensemble Modern. Reich was impressed by Greenwood’s performance and his varied interests as a composer and viola player. Of Greenwood’s score for the film There Will Be Blood, Reich said: “Here’s a guy into Messiaen. I’d never have known it was written by a rocker.” After the festival, Reich explored Radiohead’s music for the first time. He described them as “an important and innovative rock group” and “definitely one of the best bands around” with “beautiful” melodic elements. He found two songs particularly memorable: “Everything in Its Right Place”, from the 2000 album Kid A, and “Jigsaw Falling into Place”, from the 2007 album In Rainbows. Reich described “Jigsaw” as “a beautiful song” with “elaborate harmonic movement”. He described “Everything in Its Right Place” as “very rich … very simple and very complex at the same time”. “It’s three-chord rock but it’s not, it’s very unusual.” He explained that although the song is in the key F minor, the F minor chord never appears. Reich observed that the word “everything” is sung to tonic–dominant–tonic, echoing, probably unconsciously, the dominant–tonic chords that form the end of everything in classical music … it’s perfect, it is everything."

Composition#

In 2011, Reich was already working on a joint ensemble commission from Alarm Will Sound and London Sinfonietta, which he had originally conceived as “a giant counterpoint piece” for 15 musicians doubled against an equal number of recordings. The piece failed to come together, and Reich decided to use material in the two Radiohead songs that he found “exhilarating, energizing” to reinvigorate the project. He neither sampled the Radiohead tracks nor wrote variations on them; rather, working entirely from the sheet music, he based his composition on their underlying harmonies and incorporated short fragments of the melody. He composed the rock-inspired work for an ensemble playing almost entirely classical instruments. Reich stated that the strongest ties to the original songs are in the first two movements, especially the fast first movement which echoes the harmonic structure of “Jigsaw” and also borrows a brief melodic element. In the slow second movement, Reich deliberately shuffled the chord progression from “Everything in Its Right Place”, which he describes as “powerful,” in addition to transposing it in key, to avoid drawing too heavily on the song. This section also borrows the tonic–dominant–tonic setting of the word “everything,” which is additionally used in the other slow section. In the final three movements, especially the two fast ones, Reich moved further from the source material. Reich completed the piece in August 2012.

Description#

Radio Rewrite is scored for clarinet, flute, two violins, viola, cello, two vibraphones, two pianos and electric bass guitar. The piece lasts around 19 minutes and has five movements, which alternate fast and slow tempi and are played continuously. The three fast movements (first, third and fifth) draw from “Jigsaw Falling into Place,” and the two slow from “Everything in Its Right Place”. According to Reich, “As to actually hearing the original songs, the truth is – sometimes you hear them and sometimes you don’t;” “…those with sharper ears may catch harmonic similarities.” Reviewers noted that a brief melody from “Jigsaw” appears repeatedly in the fast movements, especially in a clarinet phrase in the final one, while the clearest influence of “Everything” is a repeated three-chord progression. According to Seth Colter Walls, writing in Slate, Reich’s work has a “rhythmic complexity” that goes beyond the songs.

Early performances#

Radio Rewrite received its world premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in London, UK on March 5, 2013, performed by the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Brad Lubman. Cleveland State University, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Reception#

Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood said in interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: The premiere gained substantial media attention in the UK.

Recording#

In 2014, a recording of Radio Rewrite by the ensemble Alarm Will Sound was released by Nonesuch Records. It also features a performance of Electric Counterpoint by Jonny Greenwood and Piano Counterpoint by Vicky Chow.

Sources#

• Clarke, Martin. Radiohead: Hysterical and Useless (4th edn) (Plexus; 2010) ()
• Ross, Alex. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (Fourth Estate; 2008) ()
• Schwarz, K Robert. Minimalists (Phaidon; 1996) ()