The score of Steve Reich'sViolin Phasespecifies that the performer is to recapitulate aspects of the composer's creative process in the studio. Working with a four-channel tape recorder, the violinist and a sound engineer are given detailed directions for creating the basic tape loop that generates the performance tape used in live performance. And yet – no doubt due to the scarcity of appropriate tape recorders – most present-day performers ofViolin Phaseuse looping hardware or software that make it possible to dispense with many of the instructions in the score, including the necessity of having the engineer on stage. That this significant change in performance practice seemingly passes for the most part without notice demonstrates how the decades-long ubiquity of tape has been replaced by a kind of invisibility, through which the particularities of the medium have been subsumed into more generalized notions of fixed media. I argue that the specific materialities of tape and tape machines are not incidental toViolin Phase, but are central to its composition, performance, and reception. A focus on the role of tape, and indeed on the roll of tape itself, can illuminate this and other pieces as well as Reich's deep involvement with music technologies throughout his career.

中文翻译：

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磁带上的帝国：小提琴阶段的表演

史蒂夫·赖希的得分小提琴阶段指定表演者将在工作室中重述作曲家创作过程的各个方面。在使用四通道录音机时，小提琴家和音响工程师将获得详细的指导，以创建基本的磁带循环，从而生成现场表演中使用的表演磁带。然而——毫无疑问是由于缺乏合适的录音机——当今的大多数表演者小提琴阶段使用循环硬件或软件，可以省去乐谱中的许多指令，包括让工程师上台的必要性。这种表演实践的重大变化似乎在很大程度上没有引起注意，这表明长达数十年的磁带无处不在已被一种不可见性所取代，通过这种不可见性，媒体的特殊性已被纳入更普遍的固定媒体概念. 我认为磁带和磁带机的具体重要性并不是偶然的小提琴阶段，但对其构成、性能和接收至关重要。关注磁带的作用，实际上是磁带本身，可以说明这件作品和其他作品，以及 Reich 在其整个职业生涯中对音乐技术的深入参与。