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Steve Reich - Listening Report

 

Stephen Michael Reich created is an American composer who is known for his important role in the development of minimal music in the 1960s. Minimal music describes a form of music or compositions that are with limited or minimal musical materials. 

Reich’s play “Different Trains” contains very simple instrumental sounds combined with train sounds and speech. Recorded speech, such as “from Chicago to New York”, “from Los Angeles to New York” and “different trains” is incorporated into the play. These speech sounds are very common during train rides.

“Different trains” is a play that describes Reich’s experiences of traveling by train between New York and Los Angeles during World War 2. Therefore, the play is also divided into segments.

The first segment (minutes 0 - 9/10 of the play) portrays the time before the war and Reich traveling through America back and forth between New York and Los Angeles.

The second segment (minutes 9/10 - 16 of the play) portray the time during the war in Europe. This segment seems more dramatic than the segment before.

The last segment (minutes 17 - end of the play) portray the time after the war.

Each segment is introduced by violins and cellos. Very characteristic of this play is that there is not a huge variation in the instruments. The play is very minimalistic

 

regarding the instruments but the recorded sounds and speech add variation to the play and make it very different.

The instrumental music makes the play highly dramatic without needing much variation in the instruments. Additionally, the visuals also add to the dramatic character of the play.

The instrumental music, speech sounds and train sounds create an atmosphere in which the listeners are able to feel like experiencing this train ride that Reich tries to recreate. The play feels like a story being told, especially because of the added sounds and speeches, and the division into the different segments. Because of that, the play does not become boring even though it is quite long.

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