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Steve Reich’s Different Trains

 

Reem Zedan 7711552

Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

The Future of [American] Music

02 February 2022

 

Steve Reich’s Different Trains

Minimal music is not a concept I am familiar with. Yet, I really enjoyed Steve Reich’s Different Trains piece. It combined conventional music (music that is produced by instruments) and added sounds of a train track, train whistles and multiple train announcements. This might sound unimpressive for today’s age but when I realized how sampling was very new and uncommon, I could not help but admire Reich’s creativity and his way of thinking outside the box.

The urgency of the melody truly instigated a feeling of stress and worry. In the background the listener can hear the sound of the horn of the train making it seem like doom is coming closer. This piece of art can also showcase how quickly the world around us moves and how we need to adjust to the fast-paced society that we live in. The voice that was intertwined with the sound of the trains acted like a portal, allowing the listener to be transported to an actual train. The title of this piece makes me think of the reason behind it and its symbolic value. Like how the lives of people are composed of different trains. Some of us get on the same train, but we get off at various stations. While others decide to take a totally different route and end up somewhere else completely

In my opinion, Different Trains was a masterpiece which had hidden meanings. The integration of the sound of multiple trains, horns, and the voices in the background all added to the storyline of this musical piece. What I appreciate about this work is that a lot could be interpreted and discussed just from the first five minutes of listening to it while staying minimalistic, modern and nostalgic.

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