Steve Reich's Different Trains:: A Philosophy of Music Point of View

Steve Reich’s Different Trains:
A philosophy of music point of view

Montreux Jazz Festival
04.07.15
Constant Bonard
constant.bonard@unige.ch
1.Introduction
Steve Reich’s Different Trains
Video excerpt
1.Introduction
Three questions:
(1) Does this piece express
something?
(2) If so, then what?
(3) How can Reich do it?
1.Introduction
 1. Introduction
2. Presentation of the piece
3. What are the expressive
means of Different Trains?
4. Philosophers’ anwers
5. Conclusion: Reich’s ways
1.Introduction
Take home message:
There are multiple physiological
and cognitive mechanisms
through which musical
expression can be achieved.
In Different Trains, we can
distinguish between at least six
broadly distinct families of
musical expressive means.
(Doggy theory, Aural tickle theory, Meyer’s emotions, Extra-musical content,
Musical forms as content, Imagining the lacking content)
1. Introduction
 2. Presentation of the piece
3. What are the expressive
“When I was one year old my parents separated.
My mother moved to Los Angeles and my father
stayed in New York. Since they arranged divided
custody, I travelled back and forth by train
frequently between New York and Los Angeles
from 1939 to 1942, accompanied by my
governess. While the trips were exciting and
romantic at the time 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 very different
trains. With this in mind I wanted to make a piece
that would accurately reflect the whole situation.”
1. America—Before the war
2. Europe—During the war
3. After the war

Three questions:
(1) Does this piece express
something?

(2) If so, then what? 
(3) How can Reich do it? 
3. What are the expressive means of Different Trains?
1. Introduction
 3. What are the expressive
3. What are the expressive means of Different Trains?
Spliting up the question
What does “expressing”
mean?
• The symptom, or sign, of an
affect.
• The elucidation and
articulation of an affect
through a medium allowing
for its communication.
3. What are the expressive means of Different
Trains?Spliting up the question
What is an affect?
Passions
Desires
Sentiments
Moods
 Emotions
See: Deonna, J. & Teroni, F., The Emotions: A philosophical introduction, 2012.
What is an emotion? Two components:
• Affective attitude toward a content

(physiological changes, action tendencies, feelings,
pleasures, pains, …)
• Content of this attitude
(a story, a person, a memory, a situation, a sound, …)
Roughly, what are the particular

emotions expressed in Different
Trains?
Trains?Spliting up the question: Roughly, what are the
emotions expressed in Different Trains?
1. America – Before the War :
Attitudes: excitement, fascination, doubt,
underlying fear, …
Contents: romantic travels, discovering the
immensity of the US, the power and the speed of the
trains, technological progress, the US before global
WWII & hidden atrocities unkown to young Reich.
2. Europe – During the War :
Attitudes: fear, anxiety, horror, dread, extreme

distress, helplessness, …
Contents: invasion of Europe by the Nazi

Government, antisemitism, the Shoah, trains of
Deportation, armed conflicts, …
3. After the War:
Attitudes: incredulity morphing into relief, painful
doubt, sad resolution, mild excitement, doubt,
despair, desolation, tragic-melancholic-irony, …
Contents: the end of the war, uncertain situation in

the world & of immigrants in the US, traumatic
memories, unreparable war attrocities, music in the
war/music about the war, …
1. Excitement and suspsicion about
America before the War.
2. Horror about Europe during the War.
3. Hesitation between relief and
desolation about events and
memories after the War.
a. What are Different Trains’ means
of elucidating and articulating the
attitude-part of an emotion in a
communicable medium?
b. And the content-part?
4. Philosophers’ answers
1. Introduction
3. What are Different Trains’
expressive means?
 4. Philosophers’ anwers
1. What are the means by which the music
expresses the attitude-part of emotions?
 a. Doggy theory
b. Meyer’s emotions
c. Aural tickle theory
2. What are the means by which the music

expresses the attitude-part of emotions?
a. Extra-musical content
b. Musical forms as content
c. Imagining the lacking content
4. Philosophers’ answers:
means of expressing the attitude part
a. Doggy theory
Stephen Davies, Peter Kivy,

Musical Meaning and Expression, 1994. The Corded Shell, 1980.
a. Doggy theory
“La colère arrache des cris menaçans, que la
langue et le palais articulent : mais la voix de la
tendresse est plus douce, c'est la glotte qui la
modifie, et cette voix devient un son […] Or,
qu'est-ce qui fait de la peinture un art
d'imitation ? C'est le dessin. Qu'est-ce qui de la
musique en fait un autre ? C'est la mélodie.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Essai sur l’origine des langues, 1781.

a. Doggy theory
• Prosody • Gestures
• Posture • Behavior
b. Meyer’s emotion
• Surprised by the change in rhythm
• Relieved by the return of the tonic
• Unsettled by a modulation
• Startled by a change in the harmony
• Puzzled by the absence of the main theme
Leonard Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music, 1956.

Abrupt
changes
In tempo and
harmony
Unsettlment
Lost of a tonic
center
Contentless anxiety
• Heart rate
• Respiration rate
• Stringent sounds
• Sudden loud sounds
• Timbre (e.g. of cry)
Called “Jazzercise” in Jenefer Robinson’s Deeper than Reason, 2005.

1. What are music’s means of expressing the
attitude-part of emotions?
a. Doggy theory
b. Meyer’s emotions
2. What are music’s means of expressing the

 content-part of emotions?
b. Musical forms as content
c. Imagining the lacking content
means of expressing the content part
• Language
• Noises
• Imitative sounds
b. Musical forms as emotional
content
J.-S. Bach, Ricercar a 6, Musical Offering J. Brahms, Piano concerto in C minor
Peter Kivy, The Corded Shell, 1980.

c. Imagining the lacking content:
• Narrative
• Picture
• Architecture
• Persona
• Metaphor
• Biographical/historical facts
For personae, see Jerrold Levinson, The Pleasures of Aesthetics, 1996.
For metaphors, see Roger Scruton, The Aesthetics of Music, 1997.
1. Introduction
3. What are Different Trains’
expressive means?
 5. Conclusion: Reich’s ways
1. What are Reich’s ways of expressing the
attitude-part of emotions?
a. Doggy theory: prosody of recorded voices
b. Meyer’s emotions: harmonic instability
c. Aural tickle theory: rhythmic repetition vs. abrupt shift
2. What are Reich’s ways of expressing the

content-part of emotions?
a. Extra-musical content: train & language samples

b. Musical forms as content: structure of the piece
d. Imagining the lacking content: declaration, titles
Prosody of recorded voice: It’s gonna rain,

1966
Harmonic instability: Desert Music, 1983
Language and noises samples: City Life, 1995
Musical structure : Electric Counterpoint, 1987
Declaration, titles, references to historical
events : Tehillim, 1981
Prosody of recorded voices

Harmonic instability
Rhythmic repetition vs. abrupt shift
Train + language samples
Structure of the piece
Declaration, titles
+ Steve Reich’s own personality
Steve Reich’s Different Trains:
A philosophy of music point of view
Montreux Jazz Festival
04.07.15
Constant Bonard
constant.bonard@unige.ch
Quoted references:
Davies, S., Musical Meaning and Expression, 1994.
Deonna, J. & Teroni, F., The Emotions: A philosophical introduction, 2012.
Kivy, P., The Corded Shell, 1980.
Levinson, J., The Pleasures of Aesthetics, 1996.
Meyer, L., Emotion and Meaning in Music, 1956.
Robinson, J., Deeper than Reason, 2005.
Rousseau, J.-J., Essai sur l’origine des langues, 1781.
Scruton, R., The Aesthetics of Music, 1997.

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Steve Reich’s Different Trains:

A philosophy of music point of view

Steve Reich’s Different Trains

1. America—Before the war

2. Europe—During the war

3. After the war

What is an emotion? Two components:

• Affective attitude toward a content

Roughly, what are the particular

Attitudes: fear, anxiety, horror, dread, extreme

Contents: invasion of Europe by the Nazi

Contents: the end of the war, uncertain situation in

2. What are the means by which the music

Stephen Davies, Peter Kivy,

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Essai sur l’origine des langues, 1781.

Leonard Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music, 1956.

Called “Jazzercise” in Jenefer Robinson’s Deeper than Reason, 2005.

2. What are music’s means of expressing the

J.-S. Bach, Ricercar a 6, Musical Offering J. Brahms, Piano concerto in C minor

Peter Kivy, The Corded Shell, 1980.

2. What are Reich’s ways of expressing the

a. Extra-musical content: train & language samples

Prosody of recorded voice: It’s gonna rain,

Prosody of recorded voices

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