The highlight was The Smith Quartet's version of Different Trains, on the Saturday in the Old Fruitmarket. The piece is out of this world -- it has a sort of tangible materiality that makes the world "artefact" (as in an art artefact) perfect. Different Trains is actually not only an artistic artefact, but that more familiar, historical one. One often hears about audiences and readers being "transported back" to the past; Different Trains transports history into YOU.
On the Sunday we saw a few of Reich's smaller pieces - Violin Phase, Electric Counterpoint and Vermont Counterpoint. Although each was played by a single player and a tape (as opposed to multiple players), seeing (and Reich's music really does make you LOOK at the musician) them played live in any way whatsoever is still rather fantastic. Searching for Violin Phase today, I happened upon the video below, which looks to me like students at a conservatoire playing it. Below it, in the comments is a (very uncommonly, for Youtube) interesting one, which just happens to say something very interesting about Reich's music. Here's the video:
Scrolling down, you'll see this comment:
"This is the soundtrack to biting into a crisp apple."
I think that's strangely apposite. It gets at something about Reich's music, something about heightened experience, about sensual extravagance, about the particularity of moments. Everything the same and everything different. One day I will write this better.
Here's the first part of Different Trains. Take time out. Listen to it. Find the other parts. Part 2 is particularly mindblowing. It's ending is one of the most chilling sections of music I've ever heard.
The train whistles you hear are made by a viola!:
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