Four Organs
|
|
Four Organs is a work for four electric organs (hence the name) by Steve Reich.
The four organs, through the duration of the piece expound harmonically a dominant eleventh chord, dissecting the chord by playing parts of it sequentially, firstly taking one note or pitch out of the chord and playing it before the rest, then two, and so on, which emphasizes certain tones of the chord; at the climax of the work each tone sounds almost in sequence. The piece may be thought of as a giant V-I progression.
A continuous maraca beat serves to act as a rhythmic framework or reference for the chords to be placed upon.