The Steve Reich Clapping Music app turns a minimalist classical work into a rhythm game. This is a cool idea, but even better, the app is also fun, addictive and SUPER HARD. When’s the last time you heard something related to classical music described as “fun” and “addicting”?
The game mechanics are simple. You are shown a series of rhythm necklaces, and you tap along to it. If you tap wrong too many times, the game is over. It’s not a perfect user experience; for example, the graphics don’t give you the playback position within the pattern. But in general, it’s a perfect marriage of musical content and game mechanics.
“Clapping Music” is performed by two people. One performer claps the easy part, a repeated figure reminiscent of Afro-Cuban bell patterns:
The other performer starts out clapping this same rhythm. But after twelve cycles, the second part shifts a beat later. It continues to shift over a beat every eight or twelve bars. When it rotates all the way back to its original position, the piece ends. This part is much harder, and it’s the one you tap along to in the game. I can hang in there for one or two shifts before I lose the thread himself. Even Steve Reich himself finds it tough; he does the easy part when he performs the piece.
Before this app came out, I had a conversation with Alex Ruthmann about ways to make classical music into an interactive, game-like experience. The idea that I had was to take a Philip Glass piece, divide it into loops, and have the player perform them in an Ableton session view kind of way, with tempo-locked loop triggering. I like the idea of treating the modular loops as raw material for remixing. They could even be the basis of a kind of musical Minecraft. What do you say, composers? Want to team up?