Steve Reich - Clapping Music

We have been learning about arrays and sound file playback. A perfect example of array manipulation in a composed piece of music is Steve Reich's Clapping Music. The piece consists of a simple rhythm:

[[Media:ClappingImage.pdf]]

This piece has two groups of performers. Both groups start with the rhythm. After 3-6 repetitions, group one continues with the first rhythm, while group two rotates the rhythm to the left or right one eighth note. This subsequently happens every 3-6 repetitions until the second group has rotated their rhythm back to be in synch with group one.

After learning the piece and trying to perform it (this piece is actually very difficult), we checked out this Processing program:

Clapping Music Applet

Clapping Music Source Code

With this example, we noticed that the piece could be represented with a simple array that is rotated 12 times.

This project culminated with students coding up their own versions of clapping music. Notice the two completely different solutions to this simple musical problem.

Joe - Algorithmic Clapping Music

Jenny