A very poignant
part of our world’s history is, without question, the Holocaust in Europe
during WWII. A piece of music that is
truly inspiring about this time is ‘Different Trains’, composed by Steve
Reich. Reich was born in New York on October
3, 1936 in New York. When he was just 1
year old, his parents divorced and his mother moved to Los Angeles. Because they settled on joint custody, Reich
spent much of his early childhood with a governess Virginia on a train
travelling back and forth between the two.
As an adult looking back on this experience, he realized that, if he
were a Jew living in Europe when he was taking these train rides, it would have
been different trains and very different destinations. The structure of this piece is separated into
3 parts. The first is tape of his
governess Virginia reminiscing about the train trips between Los Angeles and
New York with Reich. The second part is
tape of 3 Holocaust survivors who had moved to America speaking about their
experiences in concentrations camps. The
third is using both tapes together.
Today we will be
listening to 3 different moments in the work that are interesting to listen to
and think about in context to the subject.
In the first movement, we are listening to Virginia talk, and the music
being played is symbolizing the chugging of the train. She says things like “From Chicago to New
York” and “one of the fastest trains.” At
6:22 of this movement, her words change and are no longer about this trip. Instead, she starts stating dates, saying “in
1939”, “1939”, “1940”, 1941”, “1941 I guess it must have been.” As the words change to these dates, the music
changes as well. It speeds up quite
dramatically here, and it feels like we’re racing towards a different place
than New York or Chicago; we’re moving towards the war.
In the first
minute of the 2nd movement, the mood of the music has become much
more scary. There are sirens going on,
and there is more a sense of urgency. The
words are “1940” (Rachella), “on my birthday”, “The Germans walked in”, “walked
into Holland”. At 0:55, however, things
change again. The narration says “Germans
invaded Hungary” (Paul) and the music changes with it. The rhythms slow down a little, and the tone
of the siren becomes lower in pitch. The
sense of urgency becomes less as the Germans take over Hungary. The train feeling of the strings aren’t as
fast as the first movement either. The need
to get their passengers to their destination becomes less, because it is no
longer paying customers, but Jews.
The last moment of
the work we’ll be listening to is in the 3rd movement. The last part of the whole work is very
interesting. The music of the strings
has a more hopeful feel to it. At 7:29,
the words are “There was one girl, who had a beautiful voice” (Rachella), “and
they loved to listen to the singing, the Germans” “and when she stopped singing
they said, ‘More, more’ and they applauded.”
The words and the music give an idea of hope, until the words stop and
the instruments end. At the very end of
the piece, the strings slow down, fade in and out, and then fade out
completely, much like a train does as it stops.
Where has the train stopped? It
is in Los Angeles to see Steve Reich’s mother?
Or is it at the concentration camp that Rachella, Paul, or Rachel lived? What does it say that Reich is comparing his
train trips to those of the concentration camp survivors? Is it politically correct for him to do
so? In the end, the work creates a lot
of questions, and is an excellent piece of work about the Holocaust.
Nice post Tanya! I love how you describe the way the music changes when the dates enter in the first movement- I noticed that too. Attributing the slight slowing in the second movement to the desire of the Jews for the train to never reach its destination, and the way the piece ends to a representation a train stopping- I hadn't thought of it that way, but it fits! Very nice post!
ReplyDeleteVery good, Tanya--one of your best posts. You give your audience just enough information and description to give them things to think about as they listen, and in the end, you pose some good questions which might spark conversation.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about the quickening of the pace at the end of the first movement as rushing towards the war, but that makes sense. Also, I like that you question whether it's politically correct for Reich to juxtapose these ideas. I doubt he thought about that, as PC wasn't a big deal when he wrote this, but it's still interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteExcellent questions at the end - it would be particularly interesting to consider Reich's choice to compare his own life to that of people who experience the Holocaust; maybe that could be a good further discussion for this presentation? Good job!
ReplyDeleteI think your first selection is great! (And your others too!) I find it really interesting that you described that change of pace at the end of the first movement leads us to listening to a train arriving somewhere else - the war. I think it's a great description. I also liked that you posed the question whether or not it was politically correct for him to make certain statements, if they were his intention, of course. I think that would facilitate really interesting discussion.
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