Four Organs begins with a pattern of eighth notes played by the maracas—a steady, unyielding rattling that’s sustained for the duration of the piece. When the organs come in, they too play repeated figures of eighth notes, and although Reich manipulates both the lengths of the notes (augmenting them steadily) and the notes themselves (which, taken together, make up a dominant eleventh chord), the piece can sound repetitive at first, monotonous, bewildering. That night, it didn’t take long for some rather prominent coughing to break out, before the crowd let loose with less subtle forms of protest: boos and catcalls, the agitation growing over the course of the piece’s 15-plus minutes. At one point, an older woman approached the stage, took off a shoe, and banged it on the stage, imploring the ensemble—which included Reich and Tilson Thomas—to stop. Someone else sprinted down an aisle, yelling, “All right! I confess!” Other aggrieved patrons simply left. With the commotion escalating, the musicians could barely hear each other play, forcing Tilson Thomas to call out the beats over the noise. This was no easy task. Consider the note of instruction that Reich included in the score of Four Organs:
The meter of bars 1 through to 17 is eleven eighth notes grouped 3 plus 8. The meter of bars 18 through to 21 is eleven eighth notes divided 4 plus 4 plus 3, and the meter of bar 22 is 4 plus 3 plus 4. Starting at bar 23 the number of eighth notes per bar begins to increase, and continues to increase in every bar all the way to bar 42 which is 265 eighth notes long. To facilitate counting longer and longer durations, the number of eighth notes in each sub-group within each bar is written numerically in the center of each organ part. To keep accurate count all organists must obviously be able to hear the maracas clearly.
The musicians continued on, and after it was all over, the audience exploded—with plenty of bravos to counter the detractors’ boos. When the musicians walked off the stage, Reich was, as he remembered it, “as white as a sheet.” Yet Tilson Thomas was practically gleeful: “I said, ‘Steve, this is the greatest thing that’s happened. Nothing like this has happened since the premiere of The Rite of Spring. For sure, by tomorrow, everyone in the world is going to know about you and your music.’ And that’s just what happened.”