GO
Advanced Search

shine | Steve Reich 70th Birthday Tribute

Sunday, January 28 at 7 pm

Daniel Variations

Text

“I saw a dream. Images upon my bed and visions in my head frightened me.” (Daniel 4:2 or 4:5 in Christian translations)

“My name is Daniel Pearl.” (I’m a Jewish American from Encino, California.)

“Let the dream fall back on the dreaded.” (Daniel 4:16 or 4:19)

“I sure hope Gabriel likes my music, when the day is done.”

Steve Reich's notes on the text

The first text, from the book of Daniel, is spoken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (modern day Iraq). He is asking Daniel to interpret his dream of terror. Right now it is unfortunately possible to feel a chill of identification with these words.

The second text was spoken by Daniel Pearl while his captors video taped him. I use only the first five words in the music itself since “My name is Daniel Pearl” is so emblematic of this remarkable person. In Jewish tradition, and in many others, names are indicative of character.

The third text is the Biblical Daniel’s response to Nebuchadnezzar.

The last text is a bit of a surprise and is explained by a friend of Daniel Pearl as follows: Once, during a two-day bike trip up the Potomac River, his friend Tom Jennings asked about his belief in an afterlife. “I don’t know,” Danny replied. “I don’t have answers, mainly just questions.” Then he added: “But I sure hope Gabriel likes my music.”

After Danny died, Tom was going through his friend’s vinyl collection (Dvorak, Liszt, Miles Davis, REM) and stumbled across this album: Stuff Smith and the Onyx Club Orchestra. “Danny loved Stuff Smith — a great jazz violinist,” Tom says. “Here on side A, track 3, I found this: Stuff Smith playing ‘I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music.’”

— Steve Reich

Download a guide to the season: chorale-seasonguide0607.pdf, 1.1MB