STEVE REICH: Tehillim (1981), performed by the Schönberg Ensemble.
Tehillim is a work for voices and ensemble.
Part I: Fast
Part I is nice contrapuntal music for mainly female voices. The backing ensemble is sparse; there are percussion parts played throughout much of it and other very brief sections where instruments emphasize the chord changes. While the vocal parts are reminiscent of medieval church music or maybe Bach, the instrumental ensemble’s backing is much more like that of popular music than it is of classical music. It starts and ends with a single female voice singing a nice extended melody. In the middle, many parts sing contrapuntally with the repetition characteristic of Reich’s earlier work.