Ortiz-Vázquez 1

Sabrina Ortiz Vázquez

Professor Dibinga

Music and Cultural Identity 106-011

December 16, 2016

Different Trains: the journey through music

I. How music relates to feelings and how it is presented in a certain piece while

learning something from it.

Throughout the semester, we have been discussing how music can transmit emotions,

culture, political and historical events, among other things. We have seen how through time,

music has evolved and transmitted many of the afore mentioned things through lyrics but also,

through instruments and digitalized sounds. In Steve Reich’s1 “Different Trains”, the composer

intends to show how he feels towards a train ride from west to east coast U.S., but the important

part of this piece is how, through music, he presents a different train with a very different

destination in a very different situation than what he lived: A Jewish cargo train in 1941 Poland.

As Amy Wlodarsky writes, “he splices together spoken recollections by three Holocaust

survivors to create a narrative of Jewish suffering during World War II” 2. Through this piece, he

transmits what it felt like to travel, as Brent Heisinger says “on a very different kind of train in

Europe at that same time”. 3

The part of the piece being used in this paper would be part two of “Different Trains”.

Part two narrates through a voice over, how it felt to travel on a train in 1941 Poland during the
1
Steve Reich is an American composer who was one of the key founders of the minimalist
school of music. Morrison, Chris. “Artist Biography”. All Music. 2016. Web. December 16,
2016.
2
Wlodarsky, Amy. “The Testimonial Aesthetics of Different Trains”. Journal of the American
Musicological Society. 2010. Web. December 14, 2016.
3
Heisinger, Bret. “Different Trains; Electric Counterpoint”. American Music. Illinois: University
of Illinois Press. 1992. Web. December 14, 2016.
 Ortiz-Vázquez 2

occupation by the Nazis. It is recorded over a quartet of strings which gives and transmit the

feeling and the message of the piece. If we listen carefully, we can hear that the strings play a

tune symbolizing the movement of a train on tracks. As Naomi Cummings writes, “there is no

mystery to the fact that the repetitive patterns played by the string quartet- recorded over itself

four times- are supposed to represent the motion of a train” 4. Not only can we hear the train

tracks throughout the piece, but we can also hear sirens, warning bells, simulations of screams.

These sounds are what transmit us the suffering of those people that lived during that historical

event. It is what connects us with the past events that happened in the world. All of that,

presented in minutes.

Another way this piece connects us with this historical event is the symbolism of the train

on the music. Oren Stier writes that, “Reich presents the Holocaust-era train as highly symbolic.

In creating music of memory, Reich suggests that the train image can be a vehicle for engaging

with the role of the Holocaust in contemporary culture and identity” 5. The whole piece has

symbolic meanings. The train tracks, the sirens, everything in this piece has something to do with

this terrible historical event, and it is a great way to transmit that message, making sounds that

are not normal to music but contribute so much to a piece that you can feel what it transmits to

you.

The whole point to present this piece on this paper and to talk a little about it is because,

as we learned in class, music says a lot about certain periods in history. This piece presents

clearly how a train ride for a Jew would feel like, and with all the effects it has, you can actually

feel in your bones what it meant. The music not only helps you understand what it felt, you also

4
Cummings, Naomi. “The Horrors of Identification: Reich’s Different Trains”. Perspectives of
New Music. 1997. Web. December 14, 2016.
5
Stier, Oren. “Different Trains: Holocaust Artifacts and the Ideologies of Remembrance”.
Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Oxford University Press. 2005. Web. December 14, 2016.
 Ortiz-Vázquez 3

feel a certain connection because the composer uses chords that gives you chills and the way the

instruments play goes in accordance with what the voice over says, which gives you all the more

chills yet.

This piece shows us that times are connected through music, as is the history of an event

or era. This also shows us that music can also be a way to connect and lean a little bit of the

history of a place, which brings us to the culture and identity part of the course. It is true that the

composer was born as an American, but his Jewish heritage and his music helps him connect

with the history and the events that occurred while he lived on the other side of the world taking

a different train than those who lived in Poland. As he (Reich) himself says, “I now look back

and think that, if I had been in Europe during this period, as a Jew I would have had to ride on

different trains. With his in mind, I wanted to make a piece that would accurately reflect the

whole situation” 6. This also shows us that, for him, music was the way to express what he

wanted to say.

Music is the universal language. As I have shown above, music is a way of expression

that helps you free what you have inside, and show the world how you feel about certain topics,

like Steve Reich did with “Different Trains”. He knew that if there was one way people could be

moved and, at the same time, learn about the horrors of the Holocaust was through melodies and

the works of music.

II. How music relates to cultural identity

6
Quoted by Amy Wlodarsky. Wlodarsky, Amy. “The Testimonial Aesthetics of Different
Trains”. Journal of the American Musicological Society. 2010. Web. December 14, 2016.
 Ortiz-Vázquez 4

As mentioned in the previous part, music is a way of expression and a way to transmit

certain feelings and emotions while interpreting a piece. Another important part of this course

was how music was related to culture and identity.

Music serves many purposes, and one of them is transmitting cultural identity to other

parts of the world. As Denis Martin writes in his article, “in reality, many case studies (of which

only a small number can be cited in this article) indicate that music, like other symbolic forms,

participates in the process of identity configuration from the outset.” 7 Like mentioned above in

one of the paragraphs, Reich uses the train to symbolize a vehicle to engage people that live in

modern society on the Holocaust and as a symbol of modern culture and identity. Music

influences the culture and identity of each country or group of people and it is important in a

society so they can pass it on to future generations.

Music is important for humans and societies. It is through music that we express

everything our hearts are trying to communicate to us. It is an art that can reach any human being

and touch their souls for the better. It is also what helps cultures communicate and better

understand each other. As Soedjatmoko writes, “The essence of a culture is defined by its

responses to the ultimate questions of human existence: death, hope, tragedy, love, loyalty,

power, the meaning and purpose of life, and the place of transcendental in human existence” 8.

Culture transmits all of these questions the human being has and the way they do it is through

music, at least most of the time, because music is understandable to any human being no matter

7
Martin, Denis. “By my fair one’s side… Music and Identity”. Revue française de science
politique. Sciences Po University Press. 2012. Web. December 15, 2016.

8
Soedjatmoko. “Communications and Cultural Identity”. Third World Quarterly. Taylor and
Francis, Ltd: 1979. Web. December 14, 2016.
 Ortiz-Vázquez 5

what country, culture, religion or race. Music feeds the soul and it has turned out to be so

important to our culture that we basically could not exist without it.

Works Cited

Cummings, Naomi. “The Horrors of Identification: Reich’s Different Trains”. Perspectives of

New Music. 1997. Web. December 14, 2016.

 Ortiz-Vázquez 6

Heisinger, Bret. “Different Trains; Electric Counterpoint”. American Music. Illinois: University

of Illinois Press. 1992. Web. December 14, 2016.

Martin, Denis. “By my fair one’s side… Music and Identity”. Revue française de science

politique. Sciences Po University Press. 2012. Web. December 15, 2016.

Morrison, Chris. “Artist Biography”. All Music. 2016. Web. December 16, 2016.

Soedjatmoko. “Communications and Cultural Identity”. Third World Quarterly. Taylor and

Francis, Ltd: 1979. Web. December 14, 2016.

Stier, Oren. “Different Trains: Holocaust Artifacts and the Ideologies of Remembrance”.

Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Oxford University Press. 2005. Web. December 14,

2016.

Wlodarsky, Amy. “The Testimonial Aesthetics of Different Trains”. Journal of the American

Musicological Society. 2010. Web. December 14, 2016.