Steve Reich, “Electric Guitar Phase,” arranged and performed by Dominic Frasca, Triple Quartet (Nonesuch 2001)
Guitarist Dominic Frasca reimagined Reich’s early Violin Phase (1967) for guitar, with four guitars overdubbed, and the piece transposed from its original F-sharp minor to D minor. Reich writes that it “begins with the basic repeating pattern played by one electric guitar. A second guitar enters in unison and then very gradually gets slightly faster so as to slowly move one eighth note ahead of the first. This gradual change of rhythmic canonic position, or change of phase, can be heard very clearly because of the sharp rhythmic attack of the guitars. These attacks give this new version a very different character than the original for violin.
“As the piece progresses one may become aware of the many melodic patterns that develop from the combination of two or three electric guitars playing the same repeating pattern one or more eighth notes out of phase with one another. Some of the more melodically interesting results are played at first slowly and then gradually louder so that they rise to the surface of the music; they are then slowly faded out, leaving the listener aware of that pattern and perhaps many others sounding simultaneously in the ongoing, overall texture.”
Frasca is also known for his customized ten-string guitar and his combination of classical and rock technique.
