Summary 2 Notes on Music and Dance by Steve Reich
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Reich's article is located in the Genre and Style section of the text and this is the main focus in his article. His focal point is the necessity of rhythmic structure in both dance and music.
Reich commences by discussing the dance concerts where people did not dance until after the show and how this needs to be corrected. He believes that the solution to the problem is to create a dance that is based on "the human desire for regular rhythmic movement, usually done to dance," (336). Reich then goes into the idea that any type of movement is dance, which was created and enacted by the Judson group and Simone Forti. He compares this to the composer John Cage who believed that any type of sound is music.
Again, Reich emphasizes that a return to the roots of dance as it is done worldwide, rhythmic movement generally done to music is essential to society. In the past, movements in dance have preceded the developments in music, but recently music has taken over the leading role. He hopes that sometime in the future, they will start to occur concurrently. Reich observes that the rhythmic structure that has been occurring in other cultures for thousands of years has finally begun to appear in American dance...