Week One - Steve Reich: Various Works part I

Today's my last day for listening and commenting on works by Steve Reich. Fortunately I have the day off and am hoping to listen to 3 or 4 more pieces. I do feel a real sense of discovery; Reich's music is something I will return to again and again. Music for Mallets Instruments, Voices and Organ and Music for 18 Musicians are my favorites so far this week.

Today's Music.

1. Come Out - This is a seminal work of Reich's from 1966; a tape piece that uses the voice of Daniel Hamm, a participate in the Harlem Riot of 1964. Hamm says, "I had to, like, open the bruise up, and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them". Reich starts with the whole sentence then immediately shortens it to just "come out to show them". This is then manipulated, using two tracks, one track slightly faster than the other, to create a phasing effect. Reich later goes to 4 tracks and then 8 tracks by which time the original words are indistinguishable. There is a pitch and rhythm to the words that when repeated and manipulated do create a musical effect. Having said that, this isn't a work I'll be returning to except as an example to others of Reich's formative ideas.

2. Different Trains - Wow! I was not expecting this. What a great piece! Written in 1988 for string quartet and tape. The origin for the piece lay in Reich's observation that, though he spent the first years of World War II riding a train between divorced parents in New York and Los Angeles, if he had been in Europe, he would, as a Jew, have been riding a train to a concentration camp. It's in three sections:

• America-Before the War
• Europe-During the War
• After the War

What really surprised me was the rate of change for the pulse and the tonality. Everything I've listened to previously of Reich's would have a very slow rate of change tonally and sometimes the pulse wouldn't change at all or just once or twice. But in Different Trains there are multiple changes in each movement. Reich uses, just as he does in WTC 9/11, interviews with people, then uses a part of a spoken phrase to create a melodic fragment. This may have something to do with the high (for Reich!) rate of change. Reich also uses the sound of train whistles throughout; they are tuned to whatever tonality is present at the moment. The second movement uses air raid sirens to chilling effect, rising and falling against the spoken words and ever present syncopations of the string quartet.
I will definitely be returning to Different Trains and sharing this great work with friends and students.

Look for part II of today's blog later!