Clapping Music (1972)

A composition scored for two clapping performers. One for the entire duration claps out a 12/8 rhythm (the so-called bell pattern used in playing the African metallic bells known as agogo); the second, every eight or twelve measures, shifts the meter by one eighth note, until the two meet again more or less in measure 144. A peculiar closure of the stage of work on the phase technique explored by Reich in his earlier works for tape (e.g. It's Gonna Rain from 1965) and instrumental compositions (among others, Piano Phase for two pianos from 1967).