SMND alum Dr. Brandon Hollihan (DMA ‘2020) has announced that his article “The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach as a Western Influence in Steve Reich’s Tehillim” was published in The Choral Scholar 58/3 (2020): 50-64. The Choral Scholar, a preeminent journal for essays in the choral field, is published by the National Collegiate Choral Organization. The peer-reviewed article was also read and approved by composer Steve Reich himself before publication.
The article focuses on central assertions in Dr. Hollihan’s DMA thesis Rehearsal and Performance Issues in Steve Reich's Tehillim: Unlocking the Process (2019) and initiates the development for future research on music for chorus and vocal ensembles by American minimalists. Hollihan’s final doctoral recital reproduced the historical 2014 performance at New York’s Miller Theater of Tehillim alongside Bach’s cantata BWV 4, the work Hollihan argues was a major influence on Reich in ways not readily apparent or previously explored in sufficient detail. With support from Notre Dame’s Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) and the Program in Sacred Music, Hollihan brought to campus the Grammy-winning professional ensemble Third Coast Percussion (nominated for the Grammy again this year) and alums of the Sacred Music Program to perform the fiendishly difficult Tehillim.
We offer our congratulations to Dr. Hollihan for this achievement.