Steve Reich: Jacob's Ladder / Traveler's Prayer

Nonesuch Records releases an album comprising the first recordings of Steve Reich's two latest works-Jacob's Ladder (2023) and Traveler's Prayer (2020) -on July 11, 2025. Jacob's Ladder, performed by the New York Philharmonic led by Jaap van Zweden with Synergy Vocals, was made during it's October 2023 world premiere at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall. The premiere recording of Traveler's Prayer, performed by Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals, was made at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, also in 2023. The two pieces were first released earlier this year as part of Steve Reich Collected Works, a twenty-seven-disc box set featuring music recorded during the composer's forty years on the label. Jacob's Ladder interprets, and draws text from, the Biblical book of Genesis, 28:12: And he dreamedAnd behold, a ladder set up on the EarthAnd it's top reached HeavenAnd behold, messengers of G-d ascending and descending on it. The composer explains, "Any melodic movement-up, down, or held-can find it's analogy on a ladder. Sometimes one only goes up a few rungs to reach something and then descends, or perhaps climbs higher, pauses, and then descends pausing at each rung on the way down. "There are four short sections-exposition, if you like-on each of the four lines of text then four longer sections elaborating on and developing those first four, " he continues. "What's particularly interesting to me in these much longer sections is that they are mostly instrumental music. The instrumental music interprets the movement of messenger/angels going up, down, or pausing on a ladder (or ladders) between heaven and earth: a musical interpretation without words. "Traveler's Prayer was composed before and during the 2020 pandemic. "The virus shifted the gravity of the words I was setting... three short excerpts from Genesis, Exodus and Psalms, " Reich says. "These excerpts are usually added to the full Traveler's Prayer found in Hebrew prayer books, " he continues. "While these verses can certainly apply to travels by air, car, or boat, they can also be applied to travel from this world to the next. "The first melody is from Biblical Hebrew chant in America and parts of Europe while the second is a more ornate style from Italy... The third melody I composed since, outside of Yemen, there is no existing tradition for chanting Psalms. As to structure, there are extremely free canons throughout.