The War Was Over, Are You Sure?

The idea for the piece comes from my childhood.  [Due to my parent’s divorce], I travelled back and forth by train frequently between New York and Los Angeles from 1939 to 1942. […] While these trips were exciting and romantic at the time, I now look back and think that, if I had been in Europe during this period, as a Jew I would have had to ride on very different trains.  With this in mind, I wanted to make a piece that would accurately reflect the whole situation.

Steve Reich

Reader, he did.

Steve Reich Different Trains is a complex, emotionally and intellectually engaging response to the holocaust. Writing about it is difficult to do without simply describing the piece, the point is I think to record just how it makes one feel.

Different Trains is divided into three movements, America – Before The War, Europe – During The War and finally After The War.

To simplify it immeasurably, Steve Reich recorded both his nanny and a Pullman car attendant (Virginia and Lawrence) talking about the cross country journeys and the service. He broke their text down into short phrases, played with their tone and pitch in a sampler and had the Kronos Quartet echo the speech in equally short speech-like phrasing. This is set to the sound of American trains of the period, again cut into short bursts almost like notation.

Then for the middle section Reich used the testimonies of three European holocaust survivors now living in America (Paul, Rachel, Rachella), broken down as the previous section was amidst the sound of European trains, sirens and warning bells. Then finally all five voices are heard in the final movement, along with a return to the American train sounds.

All of which informs you, but ultimately tells you nothing at all.

The first thing that strikes you is the rhythm, voices/trains/strings everything powers onwards. This is exciting when you are dealing with the distances and luxury of America framed by the positively pitched train sounds but once you hit the middle section it is a bewildering, disorientating ride. The strings sour and slow horribly, the train sounds are fractured and pitched like a descent into the depths and of course, the trains rattle on.

At the start of the third movement the Kronos Quartet play brightly, briskly the voice states ‘the war was over‘ only to be undercut by the next voice stating ‘are you sure?‘; the music is bright but too much has been lost, too much has been learned to celebrate. The survivors talk about America, new place names, new lives and then later the American train noises pitch in anew and the voices of Virginia and Lawrence resume again, comforting us. Then in the final moments we are played out by pastoral sounding strings.

To listen to Different Trains is to be forced into a confrontation with our recent past. Specifically it is Reich’s reaction to the holocaust, filtered through his experience as an American of Jewish ancestry. It is not an easy listen, but the fact that there were survivors’ voices to use provides a kernel of hope at least. As someone without a Jewish background my reaction to Different Trains can only be an intellectual, empathetic one, I found this piece by Pitchfork editor Matthew Schnipper very thoughtful and moving.

Different Trains is not Reich’s only use of speech as an instrument, ‘The Cave’ and ‘Come Out’ preceded it, the latter is a hard, gritty listen on the topic of civil rights but it is his best, most musical use of voice, aided by the unique talents of the Kronos Quartet.

No pretty pictures, no Lego today. I have to say the balance of Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint is perfect. Light and weight.

Virginia Mitchell, Lawrence Davis, Rachella, Paul and Rachel.

1273 Down.

PS: This is rather spiffing. I like the man.