He also wrote pieces that used what is called a phasing technique. With phasing technique, two parts might be playing the same part but at slightly different speeds. It is almost like a canon, or round. He wrote pieces like these for piano, violin, and, again, for tape recordings.
He also composed such pieces like In C and Different Trains, some of his most popular works. Others include, Drumming, City Life and The Cave.
The critic Kyle Gann has said Reich "may...be considered...America's greatest living composer."
On January 25, 2007, Reich was named the 2007 recipient of the Polar Music Prize, together with jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins. On April 20, 2009, Reich was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his "Double Sextet".
Girl group
A girl group is a music group with a group of female singers who normally harmonise together.
The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in English-speaking countries. It suggests the American female pop singing groups of the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were hugely successful for a time, between the decline of early rock and roll and the British Invasion. Many of them were influenced by doo-wop style.
In the 1950s and 60s, the groups were mostly self-organised, girls who knew each other and often grew up together. The Chantels, for example, were four girl choristers from a Catholic high school in the Bronx, 1957. The Ronettes were two sisters and a cousin. The Supremes were girls from a public housing estate in Detroit, Michigan. They were, and still are, America's most successful vocal group of all time. These groups had managers, of course, because they needed someone to deal with the music industry. But the managers did not set up the groups; they came after the groups were formed.
Later, almost all groups were created by public relations professionals to meet a market need. The Spice Girls were a good example of this. They were put together in the mid-1990s by a family management team. Their managers' idea was to create a girl group to compete with popular boy bands that dominated the pop music scene in the mid- to late-1990s. The Spice Girls sold most albums, and had the best-selling album of all time.
One obvious difference between the earlier groups and the later ones was in their social backgrounds. Earlier American groups, having grown up together, were all of the same social origin and colour. What is more, they had usually sung together, and socialised together, before they formed up as a group. This is also true of most of the earlier British boy groups. The later groups, on the other hand, were deliberately chosen for variety. This was done so that all sections of the audience would have at least one member they could identify with. They had not sung together, or maybe met each other, until their PR manager introduced them.
With the changing times, the marketing of popular music changed greatly, so that direct comparison of sales is not simple. but in many parts of the world digital sales are now the most important.
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award-winning Australian actor. After appearing on television during the 1990s, Ledger began working in Hollywood movies. He starred in many movies, including "The Patriot", "Monster's Ball", and "Brokeback Mountain". He played The Joker in "The Dark Knight". Ledger died in New York City on January 22, 2008. However, the final movie he was in, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, came out in 2009.
Heath Ledger was born in Perth, Western Australia. Ledger's mother is descended from the Clan Campbell of Scotland. Heath (Heathcliff) and his sister Katherine were named after the two main characters in Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights". Ledger attended Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences. He starred in a school production as Peter Pan at age 10.
At sixteen, Ledger graduated school early to become an actor with girlfriend Jenna Sorrell. With his best friend, Trevor DiCarlo, Ledger drove across Australia to Sydney. He returned to Perth for the television series "Sweat" (1996). In this series, he played a gay cyclist.
In 1996, Ledger was involved in the short lived Fox Broadcasting Company fantasy-drama "Roar". In 1999, Ledger starred in the teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You". He also had the lead role in the Australian movie "Two Hands", directed by Gregor Jordan.
From 2000 to 2005 he starred in "The Patriot", "Monster's Ball", "A Knight's Tale", "The Four Feathers", "Ned Kelly", "The Order", and "The Brothers Grimm". In 2001, he won a ShoWest Award for the "Male Star of Tomorrow" for on his work in "The Patriot" and "A Knight's Tale". In 2003, he was named one of Australian GQ's "Men of the Year" for acting.
Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his acting in "Brokeback Mountain". In this movie he plays Wyoming ranchhand Ennis Del Mar, who is in love with rodeorider Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He also received a nomination for Golden Globe "Best Actor in a Drama" and a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for this acting.
Also in 2005, Ledger played a version of Giacomo Casanova in "Casanova". The movie was a romantic comedy. It co-starred Sienna Miller.
In 2006, Ledger was asked to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2007, he was one of six actors to play different sides of singer Bob Dylan in the movie "I'm Not There".
Ledger played comic book villain The Joker in "The Dark Knight". This is the sequel to the 2005 movie "Batman Begins". The movie was released on July 18, 2008.
Ledger started a record company with singer Ben Harper. In 2006, Ledger directed three music videos: "Cause an Effect" and "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)" for Australian hip-hop artist N'fa, as well as "Morning Yearning" for Ben Harper.
Ledger had problems with paparazzi photographers. It is said that he spat at and assaulted a photographer in Sydney in 2004. A relative of his also is said to have spat on a photographer in 2005. Ledger said this was not true.
Ledger caused problems after he was quoted in January 2006 in Australia's "Herald Sun" as saying that West Virginia had banned "Brokeback Mountain" (which it had not). He also said the state had lynchings as recently as the 1980s. These statements have been said to not be true by historians, who said that the last non-legal public hanging in West Virginia happened in 1931.
From August 2002 to April 2004, Ledger had a relationship with actress Naomi Watts. They met during the filming of "Ned Kelly". Before that, he had dated actresses and Heather Graham.
Ledger was engaged to actress Michelle Williams, whom he met while filming "Brokeback Mountain". Their daughter, Matilda Rose, was born on October 28, 2005 in New York City.
In August 2007, "Us Weekly" said that Ledger and Williams ended their relationship. Neither Ledger nor Williams said the rumor was true at that time. In September 2007, Williams' father, Larry, told the "Sydney Daily Telegraph" that Ledger and Williams had separated.
Ledger was found dead in his apartment in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City on January 22, 2008. Ledger's body was found by a housekeeper and a massage therapist, who entered the bedroom to find him face down on the floor with sleeping pills on a nearby table. Police said that there were "no obvious signs" of suicide. They also did not think his death was caused by someone else.
On January 23, 2008, Ledger's parents and sister appeared outside Ledger's mother's house in Applecross, a Perth suburb, and read a short statement to the media:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd released a statement saying, "It was with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Heath Ledger... It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation's finest actors in the prime of his life."
Exposure