The piece employs Reich's trademark technique of phasing. Phasing is achieved when two players, or one player and a recording, are playing a single repeated pattern in unison, usually on the same kind of instrument. One player changes tempo slightly, while the other remains constant, and eventually the two players are one or several beats out of sync with each other. They may either stay there, or phase further, depending on the piece.
Other techniques
K. Robert Schwarz characterized Drumming as a "transitional" piece between Reich's early, more austere compositions and his later works that use less strict forms and structure. Schwarz has also noted that Reich made use of three new techniques, for him, in this work:
"the process of gradually substituting beats for rests within a constantly repeating rhythmic cycle", or "rhythmic construction" and "rhythmic reduction"
combination of instruments of different timbres at the same time
In total, the work requires 9 percussionists. With the additional players, the piece can be performed by 12 or 13 players. The work falls into four parts, with the following instrumentation used in each:
Part One: 4 pairs of tuned bongo drums, played with double-ended wooden sticks
Part Two: 3 marimbas, 2 or 3 female voices
Part Three: 3 glockenspiels, whistler, and piccolo
Part Four: complete ensemble
The length of the piece can vary widely, as the number of repeats taken on any given measure is up to the performers. Recordings of the piece span between 55 and 84 minutes. The entire piece is structured around a single repeated rhythm, one measure of 12/8 long. This rhythm is built up note by note, in the "substitution of beats for rests" technique found in other of Reich's works such as Music for Pieces of Wood, Octet, Music for 18 Musicians, and others. After the rhythm is completely built up, two of the players phase to where they are playing the same pattern one quarter-note apart from each other, and the other bongo players play resulting patterns that can be heard as a result of the combination of the phased patterns. The rest of the piece continues to use the techniques of beat/rest substitution, phasing, and resultant patterns through its four movements. The transitions consist as follows:
Movement 2 begins by three marimba players playing exactly the same repeated pattern as the bongo players, fading in while the bongo players fade out.
Movement 3 begins similarly; three glockenspiel players begin doubling the marimbas, fading in while the marimbas fade out.
Movement 4 begins after movement 3 reduces its texture to one glockenspiel player, playing a single repeated note from the original pattern. Marimba and bongo players join, and build the pattern up again, note by note, until all nine percussionists are playing. The piece ends abruptly, on cue.
1974 – Bob Becker, Cornelius Cardew, Steve Chambers, Tim Ferchen, Ben Harms, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Glen Velez ; Steve Reich ; Leslie Scott ; Jay Clayton, Joan LaBarbara Duration 1:24:29.
