Jay Reise

Jay Reise (born 1950) is an American composer.

Reise spent his childhood surrounded by classical music and jazz, but began his composition studies with Jimmy Giuffre and Hugh Hartwell in 1970. After graduating Hamilton College in 1972, he pursued composition study at McGill University (with Bengt Hambraeus and Bruce Mather), the University of Pennsylvania (AM, 1975; George Crumb and Richard Wernick), Tanglewood, and Carnatic rhythm with Adrian L’Armand.

He is currently a Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.

Reise is married to visual artist Cecilia Paredes and has two sons, Matthew Reise (born 1981) and Nicholas Reise (born 1983).

Reise’s music draws on polyphonic classical traditions. After being influenced by the great western classical voice-leading tradition, he became interested in Carnatic rhythm and integrated its techniques into his style. This has resulted in a method he calls "rhythmic polyphony" in which rhythmic motives are developed within the phrase such that the cadence point of the phrase is implied by the rhythms alone.

Works written before the adoption of the rhythmic method include Symphony of Voices (1978) which was premiered at the Monadnock Festival with soprano Neva Pilgrim, and his Second Symphony (1980) premiered by the Syracuse Symphony, conducted by Christopher Keene, and performed subsequently by the Philadelphia Orchestra. His Third Symphony was premiered by Keene and the Long Island Philharmonic in 1983. His 2-act opera Rasputin with a libretto by the composer, was commissioned by the late Beverly Sills and the New York City Opera, and was premiered by City Opera in 1988. Rasputin received its Russian premiere at the Helikon Opera in Moscow, directed by Dmitry Bertman, in September 2008.

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