Composer

:

Steve Reich

Genre

:

Electronic/Computer

Style

:

Electronic Music

Compose Date

:

1966

Average_duration

:

12:56

Come Out is a minimalist composition by Steve Reich, composed in 1966. It was premiered on May 9, 1966, at the Park Place Gallery in New York City. The piece is a tape loop composition, which means that a short segment of sound is recorded on a tape and then played back repeatedly. The tape loop is then manipulated by changing the speed, direction, or other parameters of the playback. The composition consists of a single spoken phrase, "come out to show them," which is repeated and gradually manipulated over the course of the piece. The phrase was taken from an interview with a young black man named Daniel Hamm, who was one of the Harlem Six, a group of young men who were arrested and falsely accused of murder in 1964. Hamm had been beaten by the police and had a bruise on his leg, which he had to "come out to show them" in order to prove that he had been mistreated. The piece is divided into two movements, each of which lasts approximately 13 minutes. The first movement consists of the unaltered recording of Hamm's voice saying the phrase, which is repeated over and over again. The repetition creates a hypnotic effect, and the listener becomes aware of the subtle variations in Hamm's tone and inflection. The second movement begins with the same recording, but gradually the speed of the playback is increased, causing the pitch of Hamm's voice to rise. As the pitch rises, the words become increasingly difficult to understand, and the listener is left with a sense of disorientation and confusion. Come Out is characteristic of Reich's early minimalist style, which was influenced by the repetitive structures of African drumming and Balinese gamelan music. The piece is notable for its use of tape loops, which would become a hallmark of Reich's work, and for its political content, which was unusual for minimalist music at the time. The piece has been widely influential and has been cited as an inspiration by many composers and musicians.

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