Klang Systematiek presents: Glass—Reich

26 Sep 2025, 8:00 PM

Let’s get straight to it, before we divert you

How much is the ticket?

  • Early Bird until 1 September 2025 400 CZK basic | 250 CZK students, seniors
  • from 1 September 2025 550 CZK basic | 300 CZK students, seniors

  • on the spot 650 CZK basic | 350 CZK students, seniors

Multifunctional hall DOX+
Poupětova 3, Praha 7
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Klang Systematiek, international ensemble for exploratory music, launches its first concert series in Prague with an evening dedicated to the music of the most famous American minimalists Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

The evening will open with Reich's process installation Pendulum Music. A series of microphones is suspended from the ceiling above speakers into which its output is connected. The piece begins when the microphones are set into motion, swinging in pendulum arcs above the speakers. Each oscillation produces a loud feedback sound for a short while before the pendulum-microphone swings past the speaker to the other side. The process seems regular at first, but it is gradually disrupted when originally imperceptible differences in the oscillation length of individual pendulums begin to unfold and a chaotic system is born out of a simple process. The piece ends when all microphones lose most of their kinetic energy, movement
practically stops and interrupted tones turn into continuous humming.

Philip Glass's Music with Changing Parts follows immediately after. This 1970 composition, written for eight voices with open instrumentation, is one of the pillars of minimalism. Repetitive figures develop over seventeen pages filled with eighth notes without rests, in two to eight parallel voices. The number of repetitions of individual figures is not determined by the composer and in some places it is possible to play additional long tones. Just as with Pendulum Music - what may seem austere and predictable at first offers a wide range of sonic possibilities.

Cast
Gareth Davis – contrabass clarinet
Rada Hadjikostova – violin
Pau Sola Masafrets – cello
Michael Nejtek – keys
Miroslav Beinhauer – keys
Daniel Havel – flute
Martin Švec – percussion
Mikuláš Mrva – live processing
Jan Středa – sound engineering