Steve Reich – "Different Trains": Sonic Historiography (?)

 In “Different Trains,” Steve Reich tells a story of his childhood – and that of a childhood he fortunately did not have. Over a sonic basis of train sounds, speech samples are looped; all of this again transformed into playable notes and then overlayed and sometimes echoed by single instruments of a string quartet. The first remarkable thing, in my opinion, is that Reich has managed to make all of this sound coherent, with a common key and speed (even though both of this changes over the course of the piece).

The first part, “America Before the War,” features visuals taken from the back of a moving train. The sounds of the steam locomotive and the speech samples signify a circular movement with changes in intensity; in terms of the speech samples, this kind of movement is best exemplified by the repeating sample: “From New York to Los Angeles to New York” etc. The movement signified in this part is thus circular like the motion of train wheels. This and the general fast pace of this part convey a sense of urgency and agitation. It seems that someone, or perhaps many “someones,” are running away, moving forward not to stay in one place for too long. Besides the obvious autobiographical aspect, this could symbolize most of American society’s absentmindedness when it came to greater political developments in the world. Towards the end of the part, years numbers are stated, signifying a movement not only in space but also in time.

With the beginning of the middle part, “Europe During the War,” this circle of movement in space is broken and time finally wins. This part is generally slower and more dissonant, with siren sounds played and mimicked by the instruments and predominantly downward-moving melodies. The visuals change too, become static, like images of boxcars or wood panels. Before the part ends with screams and finally a black screen, the tempo becomes quicker for a little movement (around minute 13), signifying both an (attempted) escape and the machine-like characteristics of the Nazis’ murder factories throughout Europe. There is no escape.

The last part, “America After the War,” breaks this mood and tries to “build a bridge” to the first part, quite literally in terms of the visuals. The pace is rather fast again, and speech samples like “to Los Angeles” and “one of the fastest trains” return, but now with a questioning note aptly captured and placed by Reich. In an age in which railroads in the US thrived again and began their last era of prosperity with faster and more luxurious trains, advancing dieselization and Pullman travel, “America After the War” cannot leave behind its past. And this past now consists not only of the glorious past of American railroading, but also of the insufferable and nearly incomprehensible suffering of the Shoah. What happens to be a central question of Holocaust Studies is thus reflected in this piece as well, namely the discreditation or possibly rather dilemma of modern civilization in the face of such bestiality.

So, what role exactly does the music play in this very much history-themed piece? Why did Reich use instruments at all and did not just arrange the samples in an artistic way? In my book, the musical framework as provided by the string quartet is what differentiates historic fact, i.e. the past, from historiography, history that can be read or otherwise perceived by the average person. The historic fact, if you will, is presented by the samples and the speech in the piece. But it is only the music that forms a comprehensible narrative out of it, which provides a tangible form for the content. I’m not saying that Reich did a historian’s work with this piece; I’m saying that his musical arrangement made the matter less dense and thus more listenable and comprehensible, opening a portal into the consciousness of his listeners for the history and his take on it – first a society constantly running away from itself, then the viciousness of the Shoah, and then the futile attempt of recreating (and exceling) the former state after the war with the lingering knowledge of what had happened.