STEVE Reich is a living legend in the world of music. For decades, the renowned American composer, now in his late-70s, has captivated listeners and critics around the globe with his evocative pieces and ground-breaking techniques.

Widely credited as a pioneer in the field of minimalist music, as well as “the father of sampling,” Reich’s celebrated pieces have inspired generations of artists. Today his influence can be found in genres as diverse as progressive rock, hip-hop and classical music.

But after 40 years of touring with his own ensemble, Reich went solo in 2006. Since then, he has worked with ensembles and orchestras around the world. Last week, the acclaimed maestro made his first trip to China, where he collaborated with musicians and students at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on a performance conducted by Brad Lubman.

During the show, local audiences were treated to several of Reich’s signature pieces, including “Clapping Music,” variations of “You Are” and “Tehillim.”

But while these and works are often described as quintessential examples of minimalism, Reich himself rejects this label.

“I never used the word myself. It is for journalists and academics,” Reich tells Shanghai Daily. “For a composer, he should wash his mouth out with soap. Because when composing music, he always wants to be surprised by the next piece he does.”

According to Reich, “interesting” is the word he uses most frequently to describe his work.

It was the piece “It’s Gonna Rain” (1965) that marked Reich’s first foray into the minimally arranged, spoken-word looping genre which made him famous. The piece uses looped tape recordings of a preacher telling the biblical story of Noah and the flood. Reich came across the preacher in San Francisco and used two tape recorders to tape his sermon.

“The preacher said, ‘it’s gonna rain.’ When he said that, a pigeon took off, creating a repeating sound of its wings flapping. It’s very interesting because it sounds like a pigeon drumming for the preacher,” recalls Reich, who considered this a fantastic piece of source material for a song.

But “it’s gonna rain” is not just a phrase. This evocation of the end of the world was created shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, an event which frightened many Americans, including Reich.

Originally, Reich attempted to align the two recordings at the piece’s half-way point. Due to imperfections in his equipment though, the two recordings fell out of synch, with one gradually falling ahead or behind the other. He eventually managed to get the tapes in unison, but he found himself enjoying the process of getting them back together more than hearing them play in as he first intended.

“It felt like the sound was in the middle of my head, going down my arm, across the floor and then began to reverberate,” says Reich. “This journey is far more interesting than the particular destination.”

Reich used the same technique — known as phase shifting — in another famous pieces, “Come Out,” created the following year. Before long though, he decided to attempt something a bit more challenging, by incorporating phase shifting into live performance.

“I was fully aware that it would be very difficult to make such experiments on live instruments. I heard two voices in my head fighting each other — ‘It’s impossible!’ ‘But it’s wonderful’!” says Reich.

Caught between these two voices, he compromised by playing a piano together with a tape recording — rather than another piano. In the end, he managed to create similar effects similar to those produced with looped tapes. This opened the door to live performances and tours with his ensemble.

And it was on a tour in Europe in the 1970s that Reich came up with the idea of making music without any equipment at all.

After finishing a concert in Belgium with 2,000 pounds of equipment, Reich went to a bar playing flamenco music. He was fascinated by the clapping of the performers.

“An idea occurred to me, what if the 2,000 pounds of equipment didn’t come, or the electricity went out? Aha, we can clap!” says Reich. This moment of inspiration lead Reich to create one of his most frequently staged pieces, “Clapping Music” (1972).

“It is a piece that can easily warm up the team and the audiences. But of course, it will be quite obvious when one performer fails to clap on time, considering there are only two performers on stage. I was always nervous before clapping on stage,” says Reich.

But while many people say Reich’s trail-blazing pieces have changed the course of modern music, Reich expressed misgivings about the value of novelty for its own sake.

“I was once attracted by the idea of creating something new in the 1960s, but I don’t think it is such a good idea now,” says Rich. “There are people who write pieces that I would say are very old-fashioned. But if they do a good job, they’ll succeed. Just as (Duke) Ellington said, ‘there are two kinds of music: good music and the other kind.’ So, it does not matter what you do, but it matters how well you do it.”

Reich personally favors medieval music, African drumming and contemporary classical pieces, yet he also admires the masters of Romanticism and Classicalism.

Still, he encourages young musicians to pay attention to the music of today and not to focus too much on the established classics.

“Surely, there are many not-that-good contemporary pieces, or even some terrible ones. But just like when entering a garden, you will always find a few flowers and many weeds. That’s life!” says Reich. “It’s not that we are living in a bad time. We’re living in a normal time. Every period of history has a characteristic sound.”

As Reich sees it, today’s popular music is merely a form of folk music. But even in today’s modern musical landscape, where more genres and ways to make music exist than ever before, Reich still believes that the classics still have the power to teach and to move young performers and composers.

“I hope that young musicians will continue to play Mozart and Haydn, while continuing to create more musical styles. That will help their musicianship,” he says.

Reich himselfs admits that he had never heard any music composed after 1900 until when he was 14, but his life changed when a number of friends recommended him Stravinsky, Carlie Parker, Miles Davis and the drummer Kenny Clark. This experience was like walking into a new world, he says. And after entering, he never left.