Clapping

I heard the Colin Currie Group perform Steve Reich's piece, "Drumming" at the Colston Hall earlier this week and was not disappointed.  It was thunderously great. However, the show began with a little piece by Reich, also worthy of comment, called, "Clapping Music": two performers simply clap away, one repeating the same pattern throughout, the other, under the direction of Reich's gradually shifting phases, moving the pattern along so that complex compelling rhythms are produced. One effect is to make you aware of the lunacy of clapping. At the end, I wanted the audience to stand and take a bow.