Three Movements

Program notes

About the Work

Three Movements is one of Reich’s most direct and exhilarating orchestral works, written in the years after The Desert Music (1984), when his style had absorbed a new harmonic richness and rhythmic drive. As the plain title suggests, it is cast in three movements, giving it an almost Classical sense of shape, but filled with Reich’s unmistakable pulsing energy. The LSO likens its gradually shifting harmonies to changing light as clouds move slowly across the sky.

What to Listen For

Listen for the clear three-part structure: two propulsive, driving fast movements framing a slower central one. In the outer movements, listen for the relentless rhythmic momentum, the interlocking patterns hammered out across the orchestra, and the bright, percussive use of pianos and mallets within the orchestral texture. The central slow movement offers contrast: broader, more sustained, harmonically richer. Throughout, notice the steady pulse that never stops driving the music forward. This is Reich at his most muscular and orchestrally brilliant, minimalism with the power of a full symphony orchestra behind it.