Steve Reich - Different Trains: America, Before the War

Song Exploder

Hrishikesh Hirway

Music

4.8 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Steve Reich is a legendary composer who was one of the pioneers of minimalism. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and the New York Times called him “America’s greatest living composer.” I had the incredible honor of getting to speak to Steve Reich about his piece Different Trains, written for string quartet and pre-recorded performance tape. It was first performed in 1988 by the Kronos Quartet, and they released a recording of it in 1989, which won the Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Different Trains is a piece about World War II and the Holocaust. It’s made up of three movements: America – Before the War, Europe – During the War, and After the War. For this episode, Steve Reich breaks down the first movement, which was inspired by his own childhood experiences.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece,
0:05.0	tell the story of how they were made.
0:06.7	I'm Rishikesh Hereway.
0:13.4	Steve Reich is a composer who was one of the pioneers of minimalism.
0:17.4	He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music and the New York Times called him America's
0:21.5	greatest living composer.
0:23.5	I had the incredible honor of getting to speak to Steve Reich about his piece, Different
0:27.6	Trains, which was written for string quartet and pre-recorded performance day.
0:32.8	Different Trains was first performed in 1988 by the Chrono's Quartet.
0:37.2	They released a recording of it in 1989, which won the Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary
0:42.3	Composition.
0:43.9	Different Trains is a piece about World War II and the Holocaust.
0:47.4	It's made up of three movements, one, America before the war, two, Europe during the war,
0:53.6	and three after the war.
0:56.0	This episode, Steve Reich breaks down the first movement, which was inspired by his own
0:59.9	childhood experiences.
1:01.2	Steve Reich, my name is Steve Reich.
1:17.4	The first inklings of different trains happened with an offer from the Chrono's Quartet
1:22.0	to write them a piece.
1:23.8	The Chrono's Quartet is a string quartet, started in the early 70s by David Harrington
1:29.7	and other musicians in the Sips' Describbet area.
1:34.1	Their specialty by far is new music.
	...

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