About: Writings

Donald Martin Jenni (1937-2006): A Remembrance
By David Lang
July 28, 2006

Two weeks ago I received a sad email, telling me that the composer Donald Martin Jenni had died, from a long and painful cancer. My first thought was that I was sorry I had not kept in closer contact, my second was that I was surprised to read in his obituary that he had ended up in New Orleans, with a new life and an adopted family. His life had changed so much since I had known him. (...)

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Steve Reich MacDowell Colony Medal Day Speech
By David Lang
August 14, 2005

I want to begin this speech with a little aphorism translated from the Hebrew: ''Say little, and do much.'' This is from an early book of the Talmud called Sayings of the Fathers. I wish I could say that I learned it from my own Hebrew studies, but I
can’t. I learned it from Steve Reich. This little phrase — say little and do much — is the entire text of the last movement of Steve’s most recent and remarkable piece, You Are Variations. (...)

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