by Donna Marie McCabe

Mills College Center for Contemporary Music
Oakland, California USA

In this paper I examine the multiple types of time utilized in Steve Reich's 1988 composition, Different Trains. I first give several philosophies about time which shall set the context for this paper. Included with this paper are graphs I compiled from multiple listenings to the piece while using a stop watch. The paper presents a brief description of minimal music, Steve Reich, and a synopsis of some of his more important pieces. Different Trains is analyzed in depth from various perspectives dealing with the text, the strings, and the train whistles. An historical background of events surrounding the Holocaust is also included.

Time has been continually defined and redefined from the beginning of civilization to the present day. It has also been discussed from a variety of disciplinary contexts; by philsophers ans scientists, as well as music theorists.

For example, Plato said that time is that which always is and never becomes.

Aristotle compares time with motion. He defines motion as the actualization of the potential. Motion and change are faster and slower, but time is not. Faster and slower are determined by time. Therefore, he concludes, time is neither motion nor change. Time, he says, is to be compounded by a succession of nows.

Newton argued for an absolute and objective time that always exists, and can not be changed. He believed that there was no other time than ontological time which could be expressed in a linear succession of now-moments. Einstein, like Freud, believed that time dealt with consciousness, and could not be held in memory.

Kant believed that time is subjective, yet universal. "You don't see time nor hear, smell, taste, or touch it. It isn't present in the sense data as they are received. Time is an intuition which the mind must supply as it receives the sense data."1

Physicist Ludwig Boltzmann claims the flow of time is only a convention, and local arrows, which can point in either direction, are defined in the universe by regional increases in entropy (degree of disorder in a closed system). Entropy, he says, always increases with the passing of time. Contemporary physics recognizes this as proof that there is arrow of time directed from the past toward the future.

Jonathan Kramer believes that time in music can be different things. Most importantly, he feels time is not an independent process, but a relation between a person and an experienced event. As such, time exists not as an objective reality, but as an interaction between listener and composition. Time then, can be interrupted, sped up or slowed down, or even reordered. Musical sounds unfold in time, but time itself is elusive, subjective, and abstract.

Minimal music began in the 1962 with LaMonte Young and his Theatre of Eternal Music. Since this time, minimalism has heard such composers as Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Frederic Rzweski. The music can be characterized by Glass's abrupt changes in repetition and Reich's slowly changing processes. During this active time in the electronic medium, process music began to bridge a gap between the highly experimental and academic electronic music and the popular music of the time. Even today Glass and Reich have an audience that spans a larger population than possibly any other type of electronic or classical music.

Over the years minimal music has been called a number of different things; trance music, systems music, process music, solid state music, repetitive music and structuralist music. Feeling the terms were pejorative, and not accurate descriptions, Milton Babbitt coined the term "maximal" to refer to this type of music. In this paper, I shall use the terms "process music" and "minimal music" to be adequate representations.

There are some definitions, put forth in an article by Dan Warburton, which I shall use in describing some of the processes involved in the composition of minimal music. Examples of phasing can be heard in early Reich works such as Come Out and Its Gonna Rain. Linear additive (or subtractive) process is defined ad the addition (or subtraction) of one event at a time. The event could be a note, a word, etc. An example of this is the text part in Rzweski's Attica which first is a linear additive process, then turns in on itself to a linear subtractive process. In block additive process there is a gradual assembly of a unit within a predetermined and unchanging time frame. Reich's Clapping Music is an example of this process. The time signature in block additive processes remains constant and is heard to do so (unlike the linear additive process where it appears to be changing). Overlapping pattern work is the technique Terry Riley used in his piece In C. This process is described as a fluctuation and intermediary position between rhythmic regularity of the block additive process and the more expansive linear additive process. Finally, the textural additive process can be heard at the beginning of section III of Different Trains. It is characterized by the gradual entering of one voice at a time until the whole texture is full.

In line with these definition, a key factor in early minimal music was that the important compositional idea was the process (as outlined above), and that no one sound should have any greater importance than any other sound. This non-hierarchical music held a similar philosophy with John Cage, yet was almost the complete opposite method of arrival. For Cage, he choose to let sounds be themselves by removing his emotions from the compositions and using chance procedures. The minimalists also objectified the compositional techniques, but used specific processes to generate the works. These processes were decided prior to the execution of the composition, and then they merely worked themselves out, leaving nothing to chance.

The philosophy of non-hierarchical (minimal) music is similar to Zen and other Eastern religions. Particularly in Zen, the world is seen as an inseparably interrelated field, no part of which can actually be separated from the rest or valued above or below the rest. Time is strictly moments that do not relate to each other. No event has any purpose; each is there only because it has to be there. Music with these characteristics seem timeless, not only in the sense that one experiences no awareness of motion through time in hearing it, but also in the sense the response is probably not affected by the number of times we hear the music. It is always meaningful or meaningless.

One key difference between process music and almost any other type of music is that the music must truly be experienced during the time of the piece. It is not possible to "get" the music simply by looking at a score. Nor is is possible to produce a successful analysis of a work without having heard it. In analysis of minimal music, events are deemed to be significant because they are heard to be significant, and not the other way around. The repetitive cells, looping, or phasing processes must be experienced over time. Although it is possible to know what effect the process will have, or has had in the past, this is much different than experiencing and listening to the music. It is, perhaps, for this reason that the music reaches a vast audience. No previous knowledge about a piece, or how it was composed, or musically elite scores need to be followed in order to appreciate a good listening. The listener needs a different approach to listening, without the traditional concepts of recollection and anticipation.

Minimal music presents a succession, rather than a progression of events and is essentially static. This stasis allows sonorities to be themselves as they do not exist primarily in functional relationships with other sounds. All events are equally important (non-hierarchical) and time, as we ordinarily conceive it, dissolves. There is only duration. For ordered time depends upon the existence and recognition of the beginnings and ends of separable events and patterns. Minimal music portrays a never ending present, for the past, present, and future are, in essence, the same. The music is a resultant, existing only in the sounds heard.

Cage has said that music fulfils itself when it teaches people how to listen. Minimal music presents itself and lets the listener hear in any random, aimless, or structured manner. It is a sound sculpture where the listener determines which psycho-acoustic by-products to hear and when. The music fulfils itself, and the listener fulfils themselves.

Steve Reich was born in New York on October 3, 1936. He attended Cornell University as an undergraduate, majoring in Philosophy. His graduate music work was conducted at Julliard School of Music and the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. During the early 60's Reich became familiar with and studied West African and Balinese music. These ethnic influences are predominate in most of his works.

Reich's early works are processes that relate only to themselves. He allows the listener many perspectives of hearing. No longer does one listen to a finished work, but the listener actively participates in its construction. Examples of Reich's early phasing pieces date back to 1965. At this time he was interested in using recorded speech as a source of electronic music. The recordings of speech where then phased or repeated so that the resultant speech-melody and meaning were presented together as they naturally occurred. By using actual recordings of speech as a source of electronic or tape music, speech-melody and meaning are presented as they naturally occur. By not altering its pitch or timbre, one keeps the original emotional power that speech has while intensify its meaning and its melody through repetition and rhythm. This idea was later expanded upon in Different Trains.

The phasing process used required two tape players which were then played at slightly different speeds to produce a time shift. This process was first used in Its Gonna Rain, followed by Come Out and Melodica in 1966. The phase shifting is an extension of the idea of an infinite canon. This process was impersonal in that once it was set up it inevitably worked itself out. It was very precise and left nothing to chance.

The following years were marked with other electronic (but not tape music) phasing pieces. This list includes Slow Motion Sound, Phase Shifting, Pulse Gate, Pendulum Music, and Pulse Music. Reich also composed many acoustic pieces based on this same process between 1967 and 1971. These works included Piano Phase, Violin Phase, and Four Log Drums. For Reich, this was a significant breakthrough and lead to the emergence of his own performing ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians. Reich was always a performing musician himself. Even today, this group always performs first drafts of his music, after which Reich may make changes. His philosophy is that if his musicians can't play the piece, something is wrong with what he has written.

Frequently in Reich's acoustic phasing pieces there is a single performer, playing against multiply out of phase tapings of the same material. The melodic patterns resulting from the combination of two or more identical instruments playing the same repeating patterns out of phase with each other was important. Always the timbre remained constant. Reich believed, at that time, that acoustic instruments could be used to produce music that was genuinely richer sounding than that produced by electronic instruments.

During the 1970's Reich's ensemble grew to much larger proportions. This was economically possible based partly on the fact his music reached a large, and growing audience. Works included Drumming; Clapping Music; Four Organs; Music for Mallet Instruments, Voice and Organ; Six Pianos; Music for 18 Musicians; Octet; and Music for a Large Ensemble. Drumming, composed in 1971, among other things, was the start of Reich using the human voice to become part of the musical ensemble by imitating the exact sound of the instruments. The music up until this time has been characterized by a driving pulse and a static timeless quality. An important part of this musical experience was provided by the listener: the compositions were not objects with a clear identity but sources of opportunities for the listener to make and analyze their own perceptions.

Reich's music during the 1980's has shifted in some ways, yet also returned to his original concepts firmly established during the early 60's. His first attempts at writing music were trying to set texts from William Carlos Williams, Charles Olsen, and Robert Creeley. He felt he was unsuccessful in doing that during that earlier time. It was this interest in text which lead Reich to the taped extracts from speeches and interviews that in turn produced his first pieces, Come Out and Its Gonna Rain. While these older pieces were text-based, a listener began to hear the melody almost to the exclusion of the meaning of the words. The works of the 1980's are concerned with rhythm, harmonic content, timbre, texture, and meaning of the text. With all these factors in mind, it can be seen that his music during the 80's is both a return to his original ideas, and a new and developing interest in melody. The most recent works include Tehillim, The Desert Music, The Counterpoint Series, and Different Trains.

Tehillim, composed in 1981, is Reich's first piece where the speech- melody is extracted and restated by accompanying melodic instruments. This is the opposite of the idea started in the early 70's which had voices imitating the instrument melodies. This process led Reich to avoid short repeating patterns and the absence of fixed meter or metric pattern. The rhythm of the music comes directly from the text. It is this principle that lead to The Desert Music, and the topic of this paper, Different Trains.

Most pieces of the 80's show both a spiritual side of Steve Reich, and an intensity and profound sense of urgency. In The Desert Music, Reich, after over 20 years, accomplishes his goal of setting the poetry of William Carlos Williams. Here we feel the urgency Reich feels about our human ability to destroy the world.

In both Tehillim and Different Trains, we get to know the part of Reich which is the spiritual Jew: the former a Hebrew Psalm setting, the later a Holocaust account. In the typical Reichian style, we find him writing music where his intuition leads, and where his feelings guide him. George Gershwin has said, "There is only one important thing in music, and that is ideas and feelings."

Different Trains is Steve Reich's latest composition setting text in its own rhythm, creating a speech-melody with both rhythm and meaning. The piece is scored for string quartet and tape. Different Trains marks a return to taped speech manipulation, and also acoustic instruments performing live with their taped counterparts.

The concept for Different Trains itself demonstrates a departure from Reich's earlier ideas of process music. His music no longer refers only to its own creation (as in phasing), but also represents something outside of itself. During the late 30's and early 40's Reich was a child, living in America. After his parents divorced, Reich would frequently ride trains with his governess from New York to Los Angeles to visit his mother. At some point, Reich realized that had he been in Europe at this time as a Jew, his train rides would have been much different. What he was perceiving as romantic train rides, could have been the rides that drove him to a concentration camp. With this in mind, Reich then collected recordings of Holocaust survivors, his governess, a retired train porter, air raid sirens, and American and European train whistles.

Although Different Trains is not particularly a goal-directed piece, it is certainly much more so than his previous works, which merely stopped and started. This is partly because he uses harmonies in the strings. Although they are functional harmonies, they do give the piece increased direction.

No longer do we hear objective music allowing for subjective listening. This piece relies heavily on the subjectivity of the listener. It is a documentary of events within the context of a piece of music. Listening to this piece as a Holocaust survivor would elicit completely different and far more intense feelings and emotions than from someone with only an academic understanding of those horrible deeds.

One common fear among Holocaust survivors is that no one will believe their story. Slaves in the concentration camps were ordered by the Nazi's to destroy the evidence of the catastrophic annihilation prior to the fall of the Third Reich.

However this war may end, we have won the war against you; none of you will be left to bear witness, but even if someonewere to survive, the world will not believe him. There will perhaps be suspicions, discussions, research by historians, but there will be no certainties, because we will destroy the evidence together with you. And even if some proof should remain and some of you survive, people will say that the events you describe are too monstrous to be believed: they will say that they are the exaggerations of Allied propaganda and will believe us, who will deny everything, and not you. We will be the one to dictate the history of the Lagers.

It is because of this fear that many survivors wrote their stories to be recorded in history. The belief that it happened once, and it can therefore happen again, is forever prevalent in survivors minds. They can never be at rest in our society.

By Reich composing Different Trains, it is as if he is helping the survivors plight so that history does not repeat itself. A hefty goal for such a non-goal oriented composer. Interestingly enough, as of1989, we have a united Germany. In light of recent events, we are finally witnessing and end to the cold war; a war initiated at the close of the Holocaust and World War II. At least on the surface, it appears less likely that such atrocities could ever happen again.

In studying the background of Holocaust survivors, it became obvious to me the dichotomy that Reich saw between his romantic train rides, and what the survivors call riding the cattle trains.

Almost always, at the beginning of the memory sequence, stands the train, which marked the departure toward the unknown, not only for chronological reasons but also for the gratuitous cruelty with which those (otherwise innocuous) convoys of ordinary freight cars were employed for an extraordinary purpose.

Among our many accounts there is not a diary or story in which the train does not appear, the sealed boxcar converted from a commercial vehicle into an ambulatory prison or even an instrument of death. It is always packed...from fifty to one hundred pieces of human material.

...the convoy was stopped two or three times in the open country-side, the doors of the freight cars were opened, and the prisoners were allowed to get off - but not walk away from the tracks or to go off on their own.

..forgetting that we are all in the ghetto, that the ghetto is walled in, that outside the ghetto reign the lords of death, and that close by the train is waiting.

Prisoners were being moved in freight trains from one concentration camp to another frequently so that communication and planning were never established. Most survivors claim to have never really known the extent of brutality. Whatever communication that did happen was often established at the train stations.

So it is evident that the railways were a constant presence to the prisoners. Many people marked the passing of time based only on the number of times they had been moved. Once captured, an average prisoner could expect a three or four day train ride, packed into a freight car, before their arrival at their initial concentration camp. This ride is documented by Reich in Different Trains.

One striking aspect of the text of the piece is in the second movement, Europe - During the war. Is the only movement which the text progresses linearly. Although, the accounts are discontinuous in the sense that they portray 3 peoples testimonies to create the obvious forward passing of time. This is not true of either section I or section III,

Section II takes us through three children's remembrances of the events as they experienced them. Children have a much different understanding of time than adults. It has been my experience that children are able to experience long time spans as only a mere fraction of time, or the other way around. Child Development Specialists agree that children do not obtain a real sense of time until about age 7. Children under age 10 are usually excluded from most laws, as a true sense of right and wrong has not been established. With this in mind and the text set forth in section II, we can hear that most of the information these children learned about the war was through adults.

As the text demonstrates, passing of time with children is usually marked by birthdays and school years. There were many of events and information to be stored in these young children's minds during this time in Europe, which could also affect their perception of time in their memory. Freud wrote, "the processes of the unconscious (the memory) are timeless; i.e. they are not ordered temporally, are not altered by the passage of time; they have no reference to time at all." Restated, events and experiences become timeless in memory. During a time of war there are not many things which would not be confused. Europe during this time was in a state of chaos. With all these factors, it is almost unrealistic to have the text in section II be linear. Yet the linearity makes the account more believable and easier to understand. This is another reason I believe that Reich is composing this story so that it never happens again, and so that the survivors are believed.

The children's accounts take us through their learning of the Germans invading, attempts to hide, being taken away by train into a concentration camp, and being shaved and tattooed. The final line of text in section II "Flames going up in the sky - it was smoking" is symbolic of the fall of the Third Reich. To the prisoners, freedom was within sight.

If Rachella's memory of it being 1940 is correct, the time spanned by the second section would be about 5 years. 1942 was the year that the Nazi's began tattooing numbers on the left forearm of all prisoners. Prior to this, inmate numbers were merely sewed on clothes. In 1944 there was a large influx of both children and Hungarian Jews begin captured. Autumn 1945 was the fall of the Third Reich. Again, this shows the text is linearly progressing through a time span of earlier to later events.

In both section I and III it is not as easy to follow the flow of time through the text. Although the section headings give us a general description of the time frame, the actual text does not all the time.

An initial listening of the piece, with no previous knowledge about it, could confuse a listener's time perception. In section I, the first six lines, which unfold over 6 minutes and 22 seconds, could be understood to be present tense. These lines come full circle with the double instance of "from Chicago to New York." Here we have two people recollecting similar experiences during similar times.

When the text begins counting years "in 1939" the listener is given a sense of time. A time they may or may not associate with the Holocaust based on their own personal experiences. This event may cause the listener to reinterpret what they possibly heard as present tense before, to be heard as past tense. Both Meyer and Kramer refer to this as an extended present. The first six lines can be stored in short term memory and actually have their meaning altered by an event that occurs almost six and a half minutes later. It is possible, in this case, to have a present that extends over such a long period of time based on the repetition of the phrases and groupings (or cells). It is relatively easy even for an inexperienced listener, to hear the first six lines as only six events, repeated and spread over a time.

The text then progress linearly from 1939 to 1941. We spend a total of 53 seconds in 1939, 22 seconds in 1940 (which is restated for another 20 seconds non-linearly in section II), and 56 seconds in 1941. It becomes apparent here that we are relying on people's memories, which are not always accurate. "1941 I guess it must have been" gives the listener an awareness that these are actually personal recollections; it is the first reference to anything personal. Both Virginia and Mr. Davis would have been in their thirties during the war, which could indicate that they had a greater understanding (as related to the children of section II) of what was happening in Europe at that time even though the did not personally experience it. Their perceptions of time are most likely very different than Rachel, Paul and Rachella's. The liner notes to Different Trains indicate that both Americans were in their 70's and 80's at the time of the interviews with Reich, which could also effect their memories about past events. There is no break between section I and the previously mentioned section II.

Section III is also non-linear in the unfolding of its text. It is a beautiful joining of the feelings of both the Americans and the Europeans after the war. It is the time in the piece when Reich shows the connections between the train rides. The first 8 lines could be considered linear, recounting the feelings after the war and subsequent travels to America. Where the masterful joining occurs is when we hear "going to America/to Los Angeles/to New York." For the first time we can actually imagine that the train rides would now be similar. As Reich, Virginia and the porter were riding trains from New York to Los Angeles, so to were Rachella, Paul, and Rachel. Their times are no longer running parallel to each other, but simultaneously in the same space. When we hear Mr. Davis speak again "from New York to Los Angeles" and Virginia say "one of the fastest trains" we are brought back in time to the memory of section one. Certainly by this point we have realized what Reich intended, to demonstrate how different the train rides were, yet at the same time, how they were similar.

Mr. Davis then says "but today, they're all gone" and then we are instantly thrown into the present day. He is not speaking of 40 years ago and the war ending, he is talking about now, or at the time of his interview with Reich. This is the first time that we know for sure that we are speaking of the present day. On first listening and having heard Mr. Davis's distinctive voice before, the initial reaction is that he is speaking about the great trains of the 30's and 40's. While it is true that these trains are all but extinct now, I hear it much differently after this research. When he speaks that "they're all gone," I've begun hearing it as the Nazi are all gone. This may not be out of context. If we remember back, we know that many Holocaust survivors believe that it could happen again. They tell their story to prevent it happening again. Reich composes his music so that it never happens again.

It does not seem improbable that this is the case because in the following lines we are again thrown back into the past, talking about the Holocaust rather than the train rides. This time the past for Rachella has some pleasant memories associated with it, as it did for the Americans in section I. If we assume "they're all gone," to mean the Nazi's, Reich would have set up the memory "one girl, who had a beautiful voice." It does not come as such a discontinuity. The final three lines are the most linear in the piece, as they are all said by the same person and form a complete sentence.

In Different Trains we experience Reich in a way we have never before done so. He is no longer separate from his music, allowing a process merely run itself through. I feel it in this piece more so than either Desert Music or Tehillim. It has been difficult for me to hear the piece as three sections. Looking at it on paper, and analyzing the text, it is apparent why the sections were divided up as they were; before, during, and after the war. But in the listening, I hear it as one unified work, held together by the linearity of the train ride. Analyzing the music this way, we obtain a result unheard of for Steve Reich; silence. And this silence is dramatic silence which occurs between section II and section III. But it is much more than a pause between sections. At this point we're waiting to hear that the war is over. A stop in the fury. The quiet after the storm. A moment of silence for the innocent victims of the Nazi's. And when the music does begin again, we are given a solo cello which is gradually joined in the Reichian canon with the other strings (the textural additive process). This is the first solo line in the work.

Kramer has said that the train represents linearity; the jet non-linearity. One interesting point is that the first text we hear reads "from Chicago to New York." At first glance this seems normal. But, Reich stated that he used to travel from New York to Los Angeles to visit his mother. The very first line of the text in non-linear if we are talking about someone traveling from New York to Los Angeles. This would lead the listener to believe that the train went from Los Angeles to Chicago, then on "from Chicago to New York." The train may still be considered linear even with routes that have stopovers, but the piece starts from nowhere. We have no knowledge of how they got to Chicago, although it can be presumed. In conjunction with the text, the string start densely and from nowhere. This gives the piece a similar feel to his older music, the piece starts, it does not necessarily begin.

Unlike the start of the piece, musically there is a definite ending to the work. The pulsing train like sounds slow, instruments drop out, dynamics are lessened and a cadence occurs over what is close to a two minute ritard. However, it is ironic that the final words are "more, more."

The whole work is divided into three sections; the first with 12 cells, the second with 24 cells, and the third with 12 cells. The are similar to the abrupt changes heard in Glass' minimal works. The cells also lead to overall form of a non-directed linear piece.

I completed a thorough timeline of events that occur in Different Trains. These timelines are included with this paper as reference. Since Reich indicates three sections, and the CD tracks are labeled according to this analysis, my timelines also are broken into the three prescribed sections.

Once the timelines were complete and accurate, I had a better understanding of the structure of the whole, as well as the intricate factors at work in the piece. The elements analyzed were the duration of the string parts as they are divided into discontinuous cells, the occurrence of train whistles and air raid sirens, and the actual processes involved in the repetition of the text. Also observed, but not noted on the charts were the tempos and harmonic content of the string parts.

SECTION ONE AMERICA - BEFORE THE WAR

Section I has a duration of 8 minutes and 59 seconds. Although there is no break between this section and the next, there is an audible distinction, marked by the transformation of the American train whistles into air raid sirens.

The piece begins with a 35 second introduction in which there is no text spoken. The string sounds are immediately distinguishable as a train chugging along. This becomes even more confirmed by the entrance of two short sections of sampled American train whistles at second 17 and 27. On early listenings, it was the occurrence of these train whistles and the sudden changes in the material the strings play that marked the passing of time for me. Initially, the text did not help in my perceptions of the timings of the shorter cells.

A characteristic of this section is that from the start to 5 minutes and 42 seconds (the return of the initial text) the strings and tape always preceded the entrance of new text. By this I mean that there was a change in the string activity which then alerted me that new text was about to be introduced. In this respect, I felt anticipation when the strings changed and the text had not yet changed. This is a characteristic of goal oriented music which plays on the expectation of the listener.

At 5 minutes and 42 seconds there was a change which occurred. Not only were we hearing a similar repetition (the text is repeated a different number of times in a different order than the second cell) of material previously stated, but this was the first instance of the text and the strings changing at the same time. At this point, I lost my expectations about when change was to occur. From this time until well into the second section at 13 minutes and 6 seconds the changes occur simultaneously.

The tempo gradually slows down from the initial pulse to something slightly slower just prior to the return of "from Chicago to New York." At this point, the tempo picks up to the original speed, which is about a quarter note = 104. The tempo then varies in accordance with the text rhythm.

Since during my initial listenings I was unable to understand the processing of the text, I used the obvious changes in individual cells to measure time. Without taking into consideration the text, all I had to measure time was the string part and the train whistles. The stings parts are picking out the melodies inherent to the text, and are heavily repetitive. They have the same timeless quality that much of Steve Reich's music has had in the past. It is no wonder that I had a difficult time distinguishing the cells of varying length.

When the string parts did not help mark time, I moved to the occurrence of the train whistles. I soon realized that it did not appear that they were occurring regularly. All I could determine was the number of whistles per cell. These numbers were as follows: 2 in the intro, then 2, 5+3, 5+3, 3+3, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2. (I use 5+3 here to mean 5 major instances of the whistle, and interspersed between those 5 are 3 quieter, different pitched whistles with occur in pairs with the louder ones. See the chart for a clear demonstration.) This lead me to think that the sections with 5+3 whistles were longer than the sections with 2. I also heard all the sections with 2 whistles to be the same approximate length. After drawing the timeline, I found that neither of these theories worked. This was a proof to me that I was getting lost in the timelessness of the music.

After hearing only section one, I thought about 7 minutes had passed. All I knew for sure was that we started at a somewhat odd place, we returned there after some amount of time, but when we left the starting place the second time, we moved to something completely new and different. With this new material of "1939" I found the manipulation of text to be much easier to follow, as there were short lines. I then tried to equate the number of times the text was repeated to the lengths of the sections. This lead me to thinking that "in 1939," "1939," and "1940" were all identical in length. Also that "1941," and "1941, I guess it must have been" seemed much shorter in time than the previous three cells. Again, my concepts of time were proven wrong by the chart.

After completing the time line for the first section, I then started to see how Reich was playing with time. Cells which I considered the same, varied by as much as 20 seconds, or almost 30% (the difference between cell 3 of 76 seconds and cell 4 of 56 seconds which I perceived to be about equal based on only the string parts and the train whistles). After examining my timeline, it was obvious how I perceived time. I first took into consideration the amount of time that the strings lead the text. In both instances it was exactly 10 seconds. Once started, the text repeats itself numerous times and continues on through until the very beginning of the following cell. My other time markers were the train whistles; both cells 3 and 4 have 5+3 occurrences of train whistles. Whether consciously or not, Reich distorted time masterfully in this, along with many other instances.

The train whistles appear somewhat randomly on the time line. It seemed unlikely that they were completely random, so I investigated further. I compared sections with equal numbers of train whistles (calling X+n equal to X instances). The result was a proportion of 1.5 for 8 of the cells, and 1.35 for the remaining two. I started in the middle, with cells 6 and 7, both having 2 whistles. 60:40 = 1.5. Moving one cell in either direction to 8 and 5, both with 3 whistles with the same ratio of 60:40. Cells 2 and 12 both have 2 whistles with a ratio of 45:30 = 1.5. Cells 9 and 10, with 2 whistles each have a ratio of 33:22 = 1.5. Then cells 3 and 4 have 5 whistles each with a ratio of 76:56 = 1.35. And finally cells 1 and 11 with 2 whistles and a ratio of 35:26 = 1.35.

cell pairs duration proportion train whistles

1 : 11 35 : 26 1.35 2 3 : 4 76 : 56 1.35 5 2 : 12 45 : 30 1.5 2 6 : 7 60 : 40 1.5 2 8 : 5 60 : 40 1.5 3 9 : 10 33 : 22 1.5 2

The cycling of the text is demonstrated in the top section of the time line. When partial phrases were added toward the who line of test I choose to call them a separate cycle altogether. These type of divisions worked well in finding the cycles. These are self explanatory on the chart. The most interesting aspect of the cycling of the text in this section is that no two patterns are the same, not even during the repeated cell "from Chicago to New York."

The general trend of the cells goes from longer to shorter over the section as the time between whistles gets longer and more consistent. These two devices, which I initially tried to use to mark time passing, are working opposite each other; one gets faster while the other gets slower. The string section is very train like and is fairly dissonant throughout the entire section.

SECTION II EUROPE - DURING THE WAR

The total duration of section two is 7 minutes and 31 seconds. There is no pause between section I and II. There is a pause between section II and section III.

The beginning of section II is marked by a smooth transition from American train whistles into air raid sirens. These sirens, which were probably a common sound in Europe during the war, are present throughout the entire section. Their duration and intensity (or volume) change throughout the section which also leads the listener to hearing a distorted time. They are represented on the timeline along with an approximation of their amplitude. In this scale, higher equals louder sound.

At the start of the section, the strings are quieter than in section I and follow the speech-melody closely. It is not until cell 15 that they become very intense and train-like again. When they do start pulsing train sounds, they are faster than ever before, or ever again in the piece. The strings then no longer follow the pitches of the spoken text and only beat loudly and dissonantly, in urgency. The intensity grows at cell 13 with "Quick, Go." It begins to slow again at "they shaved us" and the incessant sixteenth notes drop one note at a time (block subtractive process) until "flames going up in the sky" when they are playing only the speech-melody.

The train whistles, this time European train sounds, do not enter until 3 minutes and 34 seconds into section II. They begin at a point where the story recalls being captured and thrown into the "cattle wagons." This, along with the strings becoming substantially faster at "Quick, Go" shows that Reich is not only setting text here, he is text painting.

The tempo remains fast until "they shaved us" when it begins to slow throughout the rest of the section. This is probably how the survivors memory recalled the events, as painful events often appear to be remember to be much longer than they actually were. The slowing of the tempo seems to move along with the slowing of time in memory.

In this section, cells with equal number of train whistles do not appear to have set proportions. While this is true, it is also true that not all cells in either section II or section III have train whistles as in section I. A measure of the begin times of the air raid sirens revealed that sections had anywhere from 0 to 4 initiations. These start times were not regularly spaced, but were never more than 13 seconds or less than 4 seconds apart. Once the European train whistles start at 3 minutes and 34 seconds into section II, they cycle with the air raid sirens; sometimes striking together, sometimes not. It does not appear that cells with equal numbers of air raid siren instances are directly proportional.

The cycling of the text in section II is quite different from either section I or III. As previously explained, the ordering of the text from cell to cell is extremely linear. Section I showed many extended or partial cycles working, and a lot more repetition of the text than section II. Here we see many instances of the text of one cell being said only once, in its entirety. Of 24 cells, 5 are said only once, and 7 are said only twice. The other half of the cells repeat their texts in full or in part a maximum of 7 times; and this is in the first cell of the second section. This also adds to this linear feeling of this entire section.

Section II has the most number of cells, the most text set forth, only one less train whistle than section I, and is one and a half minutes shorter than section I, and almost three minutes shorter than section III. We can clearly hear the tension and frantic activities that were occurring in Europe during the War in this section.

SECTION III AFTER THE WAR

It is interesting that the third and final section has no location attached to its section title. Based on my findings mentioned when previously explaining the text, it appears symbolic as the two different experiences are now being joined together.

Section III has a duration of 10 minutes and 20 seconds, the longest of the piece. It is approached from section two by approximately 2 seconds of silence. The importance of this silence was mentioned earlier.

The cello begins alone and starts they typical Reich canon (textural additive process). It is a this point that the music is also bringing us back to section one; again we are hearing the strings leading an introduction to the text. The strings are predominantly playing the speech-melody and are exceptionally consonant. The beginning of the sixteenth notes is at "going to America." Here we see another instance of text painting with Paul, Rachel and Rachella actually boarding a train and getting out of the concentration camps. It is not until the return of "from New York to Los Angeles" that we hear the train like pulsing in the strings. This pulsing continues until cell 10 when we hear the speech-melody again.

"From New York to Los Angeles" is quite similar to cell 5 in section I. In section I the duration is 60 seconds and the text is led by an 8 second introduction by the strings. In section III, there is also an 8 second introduction by the strings, and the duration of the section is 53 seconds. Although the repetition of text cycles is not equal in number, the process is identical. As in section I, there is always a constant adding of text "from New York." See the diagrams for a clear demonstration.

The repetition of "one of the fastest trains" by Virginia is also similar to her initial statement of the phrase in section I. Cell 3 in section I is 76 seconds long, with a 10 second string introduction. Cell 9 in section III is 60 seconds long, with no lead in from the strings. The text is cycled 29 times in section III, and 21 times in section I. However, the process used to cycle text in this cell in section I is merely continued for longer during section III.

Unique to section III is the absence of sampled train whistles or air raid sirens until 4 minutes and 10 seconds. When the whistles arrive, we hear them for only slightly more than 2 minutes. During cell 7, the return of Mr. Davis and "from New York to Los Angeles," we hear American train whistles. But in the following cell, the return to Virginia and "one of the fastest trains" we hear the same whistles as during section II; European train whistles. Here is another way which Reich musically joins the two distinct experiences together through the train.

With the onset of Steve Reich's music from the 80's and beyond I have to question whether he is still writing minimal music. His early minimal works were characterized by the lack of tension and relaxation they presented. The process and the sound was all the listener heard, and it just happened that the result was music. Process music was where the form and the content were inseparable. Different Trains often left me with feelings of anticipation and tension.

Philip Glass has said of minimal music that it is "not a literal interpretation of life and the experiences of time are different. Music no longer has a mediative function referring to something outside itself, but it rather embodies itself without any mediation. The listener will need a different approach to listening, without the tradition concepts of recollection and anticipation. Music must be listened to as a pure sound event, and act without any dramatic structure. It is a music whose function is not to represent something outside itself, but only to refer to its own creation." Certainly, Different Trains can not fit into Glass' definition.

To me it seems that Glass is referring to a music without an inherent meaning. Leonard Meyer can be quoted as saying "anything acquires meaning if it is connected with, or indicates, or refers to something beyond itself so that its full nature points to and is revealed in that connection." Meyer's beliefs lie heavily in information theory. In information theory, any needless repetition of an idea in different words (a tautology) has no significance, or no meaning. If we believe these previous statements to be true, it would be illogical to call Different Trains minimal music..

Elizabeth Woods, in Music and Meaning, believes that where there is intrinsic value there is intrinsic meaning. To Woods, music's meaning exists only in its being heard. What the music is about is less important than what the music is.

As I started this paper with philosophies regarding time, I end with a philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche regarding meaning in music. Music is the very thing that gives life its meaning.

Bernstein, Leonard - The Unanswered Question, Harvard University Press.

Cage, John - "Experimental Music," 1957.

Callahan, John - Four Views of Time in Ancient Philosophy, 1948.

Dodge, Charles (Thomas Jerse) - Computer Music: Synthesis, Composition and Performance, Schirmer Books, 1985.

Gagne, Cole (Tracy Laras) - Soundpieces - Interviews with American Composers.

Gershwin, George - "The Composer in the Machine Age."

Griffiths, Paul - Modern Music, The Avant Garde since 1945,

Heisinger, Brent - "American Minimalism in the 1980's," American Music, Winter, 1989.

Kramer, Jonathan - The Time of Music, Schirmer Books, 1988.

Levi, Primo - The Drowned and the Saved, Vintage International, 1988.

Lohner, Henning - "Steve Reich in Conversation with Lohner," Interface, Volume 17, 1988.

MacDowell, Edward - "Suggestion in Music," 1896.

Manning, Peter - Electronic and Computer Music Composition, Oxford University Press, 1985.

Mertens, Wim - American Minimal Music.

Meyer, Leonard - Emotion and Meaning in Music. Music, The Arts, and Ideas.

Potter, Keith - "The Recent Phases of Steve Reich," Contact - a journal of contemporary music, No. 29.

Reich, Steve - liner notes from "Different Trains," "The Desert Music" and "Piano Phase."

"Texture - Space - Survival," Perspectives of New Music, Vol 26, No 2.

Writings about Music including "Music as a Gradual Process".

K. Stockhausen - Structure and Experiential Time. How Time Passes.

Warburton, Dan - "A Working Terminology for Minimal Music"

Woods, Elizabeth - Music and Meaning.

Xenakis, Iannis - Arts/Science: Alloys.