Skip to main content

Listening report: Steve Reich

Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. His work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich sees music as a gradual process as he once said and he is interested in perceptible processes. He wants to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music.

 

Reich´s work Different trains“ is truly something different. In fact, it is a new way of recording which needed a lot of preparation in advance. He did the following to prepare as he writes on his website (Source 1):

 

1.Record my governess Virginia, then in her seventies, reminiscing about our train trips             together.

2.Record a retired Pullman porter, Lawrence Davis, then in his eighties, who used to ride lines between New York and Los Angeles, reminiscing about his life.

3.Collect recordings of Holocaust survivors Rachella, Paul and Rachel, all about my age and then living in America—speaking of their experiences.

4.Collect recorded American and European train sounds of the 30s and 40s.

 

To create his work, Steve transferred the speech samples and the train sound to tape with the use of sampling keyboards and a computer. Various trains were used to gain the train sound.

 

 “Different trains“ begins with fast violins and the first voice is added. At minute 1:05 there is a shift where the melody gets slower and a woman’s voice is added. Following, there is a pause of speech and the violins are getting faster again when the voice returns. The rhythm is very hectic which makes me feel nervous and the work less enjoyable. But the art of morphing all the sounds together makes up for the nervousness it gives me. In the work alternations of fast and slow sounds are used. At minute 4:28 the sound of the train is added which changes the piece tremendously by giving it a deeper meaning.

 

 

 

Sources:

1. https://stevereich.com

2. From the Reader, Music as a Gradual Process by Steve Reich (1968)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure

 Sarah Kumar Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath The Future of (American) Music 06 Mar. 2023 Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure According to John Oswald, “[a] plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something familiar which has already been recorded” (Lecture Slides 18). However, only if the source stays recognizable can it be called plunderphonics. In his album Plexure , several songs are played back and mixed together, thus creating a new sound. This is interesting because while the excerpts of songs that are used are recognizable or at least sound familiar to some degree, played backwards and mashed up as they are in Plexure , they create a new sound. Like on the cover of the album, on which a collage making up a man can be seen, the mixing of different songs played backwards gives a new feeling to something known. The way the songs are mixed makes them unintelligible. The meaning of the words of the original recordings are not able to be compr...

John Cage – Inlets

  This does not sound like music to me. Depending on the interpretation of different players or performers, this piece will always sound different. In this case, it sounds to me like someone is walking through a cave with water at the bottom, dragging their feet through it. Sometimes it sounds like water in a toilet bowl, especially when we hear the water in a bigger shell being swished around. These sounds are relaxing in the background, it is like a gentle stream of water. I just wonder what went through the head of the composer while writing this piece. But I guess he had some experimental ideas that are interesting to try out. Those shells are quite pretty, I have never seen such big ones that are not broken. I was surprised when something else happened towards the end of the piece. That tone which came out of the one shell was so clear, it sounded like a trumpet. I didn’t know that shells can sound like that. It was quite beautiful. It was a nice way to end the piece. I di...

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops III

  The Disintegration Loops is a quartet of albums published in 2002 and 2003 by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. The pieces are made up of tape loop recordings that were played over time, with noise and crackles rising as the tape deteriorated. Basinski noticed this effect when attempting to convert his older recordings to digital format. The completion of the recordings coincided with the September 11, 2001 events, which Basinski witnessed and adds a deeper meaning to the composition. The composition is fascinating in many ways and makes the listener lose track of time. The tape loop recording had a very calming effect on me and put me in a trance-like state when I listened to it in its entirety. The tape loop is really soothing, so much so that I didn't even notice the loss of quality when I first listened to it. It makes you forget about time and allows you to really get into the piece capturing the calmness it exudes. You forget or don't really notice how i...