Tag Archives: reich

Different Trains

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Sempre dagli archivi della Fondazione Pulitzer, Different Trains di Steve Reich (anche se a me non piace più di tanto).

Program Notes

Different Trains, released in 1989, captures Reich harnessing a return to using speech patterns in his work, as in ‘Rain,’ with a spare though startling string accompaniment in the form of the Kronos Quartet.
The ‘Different Trains’ theme originates from Reich’s childhood, several wartime years spent travelling with his governess between his estranged parents, his mother in Los Angeles and his father in New York. Exciting, romantic trips, full of adventure for the young Reich but many years later, it dawned on him that, had he been in Germany during the ethnic cleansing by the Nazis, his Jewish background would have ensured that the trains he would have been riding on would have been very ‘different trains.’
He set about collecting recordings to effectively recreate and document the atmosphere of his travels to contrast with those of the unfortunate refugees. By combining the sound of train whistles, pistons and the scream of brakes with extracts of speech by porter Lawrence Davis, who took the same rides as Reich between the big apple and Los Angeles, governess Virginia and three holocaust survivors (Paul, Rachel and Rachella), Reich creates music of great intensity and feeling.
The rhythmic patterns and pitch of the voices establishes the phrases and course of the music heard in the quartet: ‘crack train from New York,’ and ‘1939’ for example, heard in the invigorating, steam-driven opening movement, America-Before The War. The slow, middle section, Europe-During The War, finds the refugees in the midst of their nightmare, ‘no more school’ and being herded into the cattle wagons. ‘They shaved us, They tatooed a number on our arm, Flames going up to the sky- it was smoking.’ Sirens from the Kronos help to convey the despair and confusion of the Jewish plight. Reconciliation is achieved in part three, After The War, where Paul, Rachel and Rachella are transported to live in America.
There is an incredibly poignant moment when Paul proclaims ‘… the war was over,’ Rachella, in sheer, fragile disbelief, asks ‘Are you sure?.’ The New York Times hailed Different Trains as ‘a work of… astonishing originality’ and the piece was subsequently awarded a Grammy in1989 for Best Contemporary Compostion.

Steve Reich – Different Trains – members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra

Piano phase

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Phasing can be described simply as playing two identical phrases with a slight metronome difference (one slightly faster than the other). As a result, the two phrases initially sound in unison. Then, when the difference is still very small, a strange perception occurs, as if the notes were stretched out or had a reverb. Later the difference becomes clearly perceptible: the melody also splits in number of notes (2 notes in the time of one). Finally the melody returns in phase, but while one pianist plays the first note, the other plays the second: we thus have bichords instead of the initial unison.
In this piece the process continues through various stages of phase and antiphase, until the two pianists are out of phase to the point where the first note of one overlaps with the last of the other. Thus a small phrase of 12 notes generates a piece of about 20 minutes.
On the October 2006, Peter Aidu (one of the most highly acclaimed modern pianist in Russia) performed the legendary Steve Reich’s composition Piano Phase with an absolutely unique technique. While playing on two pianos, with a left hand on one instrument and the right hand playing separately on the second piano, Peter was recreating the sounding of two performers! This tremendous performance was accurately recorded, and now is available exclusively from Internet Archive.
More in this Internet Archive page.

Steve Reich – Piano phase (1967) – Peter Aidu, 2 pianos
Download mp3.

Steve Reich 70

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Steve Reich
Negli USA ci sono grandi festeggiamenti per i 70 anni di Steve Reich (3 ottobre), tanto che il suo editore (Boosey & Hawkes) ha appositamente creato una pagina sul proprio sito.
Festeggiamenti ben giustificati se consideriamo che, a differenza di altri minimalisti che non hanno saputo sviluppare la propria musica diventando via via più banali, Reich, pur rimanendo sempre coerente al proprio stile compositivo, è stato in grado di evolversi e produrre sempre brani di livello dignitoso e a tratti anche molto belli. Effettivamente, fra i minimalisti è uno dei più raffinati.
Dai pezzi di Reich, Boosey & Hawkes ha tratto anche delle suonerie da cellulare. Data la loro ripetitività, funzionano quasi meglio di quelle ricavate dai brani di classica della serie booseytunes. Le trovate qui. Sono in vendita a 1.5 sterline [i soliti € 2 (figli di cani!)].
Saltando a piè pari gli esempi audio miseria (max 1 minuto) disponibili sul sito del suo editore, ecco un intero movimento di Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76) e un video, tratti dal sito personale di Reich.