Different Trains
Different Trains is a work by Steve Reich for String Quartet and pre-recorded performance tape. The basic idea of this way of composing is that selected recordings of speech generate the musical materials for the instruments of the quartet. Album cover for Different Trains Image source Listen to it here: Different Trains - Part 1 America Before the War : Different Trains - Part 2 Europe During the War : Different Trains - Part 3 After the War : To put things into context, this was composed in 1988 and premiered by the Kronos Quartet on 2 November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the same year. To put such a thing together and coordinate its performance was significantly more difficult then that it would be now with modern technology and yet the work is still considered to be novel compared to the vast majority of works performed today. Reich's parents separated when he was just one year old, which meant that he would frequently travel back and forth: his mother lived in ...