Different Trains

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich helped to redefine music in the mid-twentieth century with his minimalist innovations. His 1988 work Different Trains, for string quartet and pre-recorded performance tape, contains Reich’s typical driving rhythms and highly repetitive structures. The impetus for the work was the Jewish American composer’s recollection of childhood cross-country train trips during World War II, and his later awareness that at the same time, trains were taking millions of Europeans to Nazi concentration camps. The piece includes pre-recorded samples of both train sounds and interviews with Holocaust survivors. Different Trains by Steve Reich Sarah Whitnah - Violin Anna Morris - Violin Donald Schumacher - Viola Richard VonFoerster - Cello 3/15/15 - House Concert - Denver, CO