This chamber music piece was written by Steve Reich as a remembrance of the Shoah. Have a listen.
Different Trains: "1. Triple Quartet: I - Steve Reich / The Smith Quartet
2. Triple Quartet: II - Steve Reich / The Smith Quartet
3. Triple Quartet: III - Steve Reich / The Smith Quartet
4. Triple Quartet Duet - Steve Reich / The Smith Quartet
5. Different Trains: America - Before The War - Steve Reich / The Smith Quartet
6. Different Trains: Europe - During The War - Steve Reich / The Smith Quartet
7. Different Trains: After The War - Steve Reich / The Smith Quartet"
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
First Meeting Notes
Kristallnacht 70
First meeting notes.
March 20, 2008
Unitarian Church
11:30 a.m.
NEXT MEETING: APRIL 17th, 11:30 a.m. Unitarian Church, 3707 Eastern Avenue, Davenport
Our event's name: “Beyond Kristallnacht: Lessons for today”
(The night of broken glass)
The dates for the 70th anniversary observation
November 7-9, 2008
In attendance
Rabbi Henry Karp
Bill Zessar
Allan Ross
Rabbi Michael Samuel
Rev. Ron Quay
Rick Weinstein
Marietta Castle
Ida Kramer
Rev. Roger Butts
Some thoughts about why this is important, or why people have come together for this project:
**Rabbi Karp: More education events in the QCA about the holocaust. With a spring event—Yom HaShoah service and a fall event—Kristallnacht, we’ll hopefully build momentum for the other. Plus, it will be good to have an event that will not be the same as Yom HaShoah (i.e., a service).
**Bill Zessar: Committed to any event that relates to holocaust awareness.
**Allan Ross: Father was 26 years old when Kristallnacht took place. His big concern: How does Kristallnacht affect us today? What should we be doing today?
**Rabbi Michael Samuel: There is always talk of six million victims. He wants it known that there are more like 24 million victims of Nazi hatred. He also wants to bring to light the terrible loss—what scientists, philosophers, poets were killed before their time…
**Rev. Ron Quay—an American Baptist pastor (and head of Churches United of the QCA), he wants the church to wrestle with its historic role of anti-semitism. When you are a dominant cultural expression (e.g., the Christian church), there are many missed chances to see, notice and appreciate the other.
**Rick Weinstein—Increasingly sensitive to the idea that the generation of first hand witnesses are beginning to thin out. So we bear witness as we can. Yom HaShoah, which he chairs, gives voice to the aftermath—voice to the survivors of the carnage. Kristallnacht is an opportunity to give voice to the opening salvo in the Shoah.
**Marietta Castle. My late husband was born on the night of Kristallnacht, so while his parents were celebrating, in Europe there was crisis and chaos. She has a deep personal connection to this issue.
**Ida Kramer. Lost a cousin in the holocaust. Is deeply involved in these issues.
2. Is this worth doing?
Everyone agreed that this is worth doing.
3. Dates:
November 7-9.
Rabbi Karp explained that we wanted to do a whole weekend of events, culminating in a Sunday afternoon series of workshops about what to do now. Starting Friday at a Temple Emanuel service, including a Saturday evening showing of Bonhoeffer and concluding on Sunday.
Venues:
The Figge auditorium was mentioned as a possibility for showing the film. The Figge was also mentioned as showing a series of prints (10) by an artist Erwin Eisch, whose work covers Kristallnacht.
Temple Emanuel, Tri City Jewish Center, Schools
There was a long discussion about involving the public schools. It was decided that Marietta Castle would chair this subcommittee and that Ida, Art and others would be recruited to help. It was also mentioned that perhaps a consultant could be found who knows how to gain entrance into the school system, a kind of social studies coordinator.
5. Audience/Publicity. We did not talk much about this question. Other than the audience of the whole community and the school children.
During the conversation about having Victoria Barnett speak in Temple Emanuel as part of Friday night service and/or Tri City Jewish Center on Saturday morning, Rev. Quay mentioned that it might be intimidating for Christians to go to that site. It was suggested that we should provide another opportunity for Victoria to speak to a broader audience if she was agreeable to that. See below for more information.
6. Some possibilities:
Martin Doblmeier. Martin is the PBS documentarian whose movies Bonhoeffer and the Power of Forgiveness have been warmly received by critics, as well as the Quad Cities. More than a capacity crowd gathered to watch his movie the Power of Forgiveness at an auditorium at Augustana last year. A wide range of faith leaders were involved in that showing—including Rabbi Karp, Rev. Quay, Rev. Peter Marty, Rev. Becky David and others. It was a powerful experience. Martin has agreed to come to show his movie Bonhoeffer to the Quad Cities on Saturday, March 8, in the evening.
Victoria Barnett (invited). Victoria is a leading scholar on “Bystanders.” She is the director of church relations at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She is considering our invitation.
Allan Ross is in conversation with Sean O’Harrow, Ph.D. director of the Figge Art Museum to house a series of 10 prints by Erwin Eisch. (An example of his work can be found here...
http://www.turchincenter.org/exhibits.detail.php4?exhibitsid=54)
School outreach will be conducted by the education subcommittee, headed up by Marietta. This includes the possibility of a teacher workshop on kristallnacht, and a teacher’s kit. Rabbi Samuel discussed the possibility of an essay contest with prize.
Travel the exhibit at the Figge to the schools?
If we involve a teacher’s workshop, Allan suggested perhaps they could get continuing ed credit.
There is an outside shot at getting David Bowlin (Oberlin Conservatory; Director, Chamber Music Quad Cities) to put together a performance of Different Trains (See post on First Meeting Packet for additional information.)
8. Who else should be at the table:
Sean O’Harrow, Ph.D. (Marietta will invite.)
John Kiley, Catholic Diocese. Rabbi Karp will invite.
ACTION ITEMS
Allan Ross will work on grants from RDA and Scott County…
We need a secretary for the next meeting.
We need an education subcommittee.
We need to get a specific invitation to Art.
We need to have a focus for each meeting.
NEXT MEETING: April 17, 11:30 a.m., Unitarian Church Davenport (3707 Eastern Avenue).
First meeting notes.
March 20, 2008
Unitarian Church
11:30 a.m.
NEXT MEETING: APRIL 17th, 11:30 a.m. Unitarian Church, 3707 Eastern Avenue, Davenport
Our event's name: “Beyond Kristallnacht: Lessons for today”
(The night of broken glass)
The dates for the 70th anniversary observation
November 7-9, 2008
In attendance
Rabbi Henry Karp
Bill Zessar
Allan Ross
Rabbi Michael Samuel
Rev. Ron Quay
Rick Weinstein
Marietta Castle
Ida Kramer
Rev. Roger Butts
Some thoughts about why this is important, or why people have come together for this project:
**Rabbi Karp: More education events in the QCA about the holocaust. With a spring event—Yom HaShoah service and a fall event—Kristallnacht, we’ll hopefully build momentum for the other. Plus, it will be good to have an event that will not be the same as Yom HaShoah (i.e., a service).
**Bill Zessar: Committed to any event that relates to holocaust awareness.
**Allan Ross: Father was 26 years old when Kristallnacht took place. His big concern: How does Kristallnacht affect us today? What should we be doing today?
**Rabbi Michael Samuel: There is always talk of six million victims. He wants it known that there are more like 24 million victims of Nazi hatred. He also wants to bring to light the terrible loss—what scientists, philosophers, poets were killed before their time…
**Rev. Ron Quay—an American Baptist pastor (and head of Churches United of the QCA), he wants the church to wrestle with its historic role of anti-semitism. When you are a dominant cultural expression (e.g., the Christian church), there are many missed chances to see, notice and appreciate the other.
**Rick Weinstein—Increasingly sensitive to the idea that the generation of first hand witnesses are beginning to thin out. So we bear witness as we can. Yom HaShoah, which he chairs, gives voice to the aftermath—voice to the survivors of the carnage. Kristallnacht is an opportunity to give voice to the opening salvo in the Shoah.
**Marietta Castle. My late husband was born on the night of Kristallnacht, so while his parents were celebrating, in Europe there was crisis and chaos. She has a deep personal connection to this issue.
**Ida Kramer. Lost a cousin in the holocaust. Is deeply involved in these issues.
2. Is this worth doing?
Everyone agreed that this is worth doing.
3. Dates:
November 7-9.
Rabbi Karp explained that we wanted to do a whole weekend of events, culminating in a Sunday afternoon series of workshops about what to do now. Starting Friday at a Temple Emanuel service, including a Saturday evening showing of Bonhoeffer and concluding on Sunday.
Venues:
The Figge auditorium was mentioned as a possibility for showing the film. The Figge was also mentioned as showing a series of prints (10) by an artist Erwin Eisch, whose work covers Kristallnacht.
Temple Emanuel, Tri City Jewish Center, Schools
There was a long discussion about involving the public schools. It was decided that Marietta Castle would chair this subcommittee and that Ida, Art and others would be recruited to help. It was also mentioned that perhaps a consultant could be found who knows how to gain entrance into the school system, a kind of social studies coordinator.
5. Audience/Publicity. We did not talk much about this question. Other than the audience of the whole community and the school children.
During the conversation about having Victoria Barnett speak in Temple Emanuel as part of Friday night service and/or Tri City Jewish Center on Saturday morning, Rev. Quay mentioned that it might be intimidating for Christians to go to that site. It was suggested that we should provide another opportunity for Victoria to speak to a broader audience if she was agreeable to that. See below for more information.
6. Some possibilities:
Martin Doblmeier. Martin is the PBS documentarian whose movies Bonhoeffer and the Power of Forgiveness have been warmly received by critics, as well as the Quad Cities. More than a capacity crowd gathered to watch his movie the Power of Forgiveness at an auditorium at Augustana last year. A wide range of faith leaders were involved in that showing—including Rabbi Karp, Rev. Quay, Rev. Peter Marty, Rev. Becky David and others. It was a powerful experience. Martin has agreed to come to show his movie Bonhoeffer to the Quad Cities on Saturday, March 8, in the evening.
Victoria Barnett (invited). Victoria is a leading scholar on “Bystanders.” She is the director of church relations at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She is considering our invitation.
Allan Ross is in conversation with Sean O’Harrow, Ph.D. director of the Figge Art Museum to house a series of 10 prints by Erwin Eisch. (An example of his work can be found here...
http://www.turchincenter.org/exhibits.detail.php4?exhibitsid=54)
School outreach will be conducted by the education subcommittee, headed up by Marietta. This includes the possibility of a teacher workshop on kristallnacht, and a teacher’s kit. Rabbi Samuel discussed the possibility of an essay contest with prize.
Travel the exhibit at the Figge to the schools?
If we involve a teacher’s workshop, Allan suggested perhaps they could get continuing ed credit.
There is an outside shot at getting David Bowlin (Oberlin Conservatory; Director, Chamber Music Quad Cities) to put together a performance of Different Trains (See post on First Meeting Packet for additional information.)
8. Who else should be at the table:
Sean O’Harrow, Ph.D. (Marietta will invite.)
John Kiley, Catholic Diocese. Rabbi Karp will invite.
ACTION ITEMS
Allan Ross will work on grants from RDA and Scott County…
We need a secretary for the next meeting.
We need an education subcommittee.
We need to get a specific invitation to Art.
We need to have a focus for each meeting.
NEXT MEETING: April 17, 11:30 a.m., Unitarian Church Davenport (3707 Eastern Avenue).
First Meeting Packet (March 20, 2008)
KRISTALLNACHT 70th ANNIVERSARY
THE FIRST MEETING'S AGENDA
1. Introductions
2. Is this worth doing?
3. Dates November 7-9, 2008
4. Venues, Throughout the Quad Cities
5. Audience/Publicity
6. Some possibilities:
7. Other possibilities?
8. Who else should be at the table?
9. What have we missed?
10. What worked? What could we do better next time?
11. Action items.
INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN NOVEMBER...
Martin Doblmeier
President and Founder
Martin Doblmeier is president and founder of Journey Films in Alexandria, Virginia. Since 1983 he has produced and directed more than 25 award-winning films on subjects of faith and spirituality, including:
The Heart Has Its Reasons: the story of the L'Arche communities for men and women with mental handicaps.
Taize: That Little Springtime: a profile of the ecumenical monastic community in France.
Bernardin: the story of Chicago's Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
Final Blessing: a film about the spiritual issues of the terminally ill.
BONHOEFFER: the critically acclaimed, theatrically released documentary about the famed pastor and Nazi resister.
Martin combines a lifelong interest in religion with a passion for journalism. Over the years he has traveled on location to more than forty countries to profile numerous religious leaders, religious communities, heads of state and Nobel Laureates. His films examine how belief can lead individuals to extraordinary actions, how spirituality creates and sustains communities and how faith is lived out in the most challenging times.
In the last few years Martin has been a featured speaker or presented films and led discussions in some 100 churches, synagogues and theaters across America, and has been a guest on numerous national and international programs.
Victoria Barnett
Victoria Barnett is Staff Director, Committee on Church Relations. She is a graduate of Indiana University and Union Theological Seminary, New York (M. Div.). She is the author of For the Soul of the People: Protestant Protest against Hitler (Oxford University Press, 1992) and Bystanders: Conscience and Complicity during the Holocaust (Greenwood Press, 1999), and editor/translator of Wolfgang Gerlach’s And the Witnesses were Silent: the Confessing Church and the Jews (University of Nebraska Press, 2000) and Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography (Fortress Press, 2000), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on the churches during the Holocaust. She is also coeditor of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works project, the English translation series of Bonhoeffer’s complete works. She is also completing a doctorate in religion and conflict at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University.
WE ARE HOPING TO BRING DAVID BOWLIN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CHAMBER MUSIC QUAD CITIES TO PRESENT DIFFERENT TRAINS AS PART OF OUR WEEKEND OF EVENTS COMMEMORATING KRISTALLNACHT.
Here is a description of Different Trains
Different Trains
Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
The three mouvements have the following title :
• America-Before the War (movement 1)
• Europe-During the War (movement 2)
• After the War (movement 3)
Steve Reich's earlier work had frequently used tape, looped and played back at different speeds; however, Different Trains was a novel experiment, using recorded speech as a source for melodies. This followed Scott Johnson's John Somebody of 1978, an early attempt to construct directed melodic motion by harmonising recorded speech.
In Different Trains, after each melody in the piece is introduced, usually by a single instrument, a recording of the spoken phrase from which the melody derives is played. The melody is then developed for a while, with the instruments playing along with the recording of the phrase or part of the phrase. The music for the strings makes extensive use of paradiddles rhythms, with alternating pitches instead of alternating drum sticking. In addition to speech, the piece calls for recordings of train sirens.
Much of the recorded speech that forms the basis for Different Trains is among the first recordings made on magnetic tape. It is taken from interviews with people in the United States and Europe about the years leading up to, during, and immediately after World War II. In the first movement, America — Before the War, Americans speak about train travel in the US. American train sirens are heard in the background. In the second movement, Europe — During the War, Europeans, many Holocaust survivors, speak about the conditions in Europe during the war, in particular how trains were used to transport millions of civilians to concentration camps, and the sirens used are European train sirens. The third movement, America — After the War, features people talking about the years immediately following World War II, and a return to the American train sirens from the first movement.
During the war years, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his parents, who had separated. Years later, he pondered the fact that, as a Jew, had he been in Europe instead of the United States at that time, he might have been travelling in very different trains.
Reich developed his 'speech melody' work further with projects such as The Cave (1993) and City Life (1995).
Reich created these works by transferring his speech recordings into a digital sampling keyboard (a Casio FZ-1). Musicians in the pop, dance and electronica fields had been using samplers for years, but this was one of the very first 'classical' works to use sampling. City Life actually used sampling keyboards in performance (rather than using a backing tape) and the samples are notated and played in exactly the same way as the conventional instruments.
Here is a description of David Bowlin
David Bowlin, violin
Founding ICE violinist David Bowlin is active as a soloist and chamber musician, as a performer of music both new and old. As first-prize winner of the 2003 Washington International Competition for Strings, he presented a debut recital at The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. last year. Recent performances include recitals in New York, Illinois, Maine, Washington D.C., and Ohio, and concerto performances in New York and Washington, D.C. In addition to his ICE activities, he is a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, with whom he has toured extensively in the US and former Soviet Union. In 2007 he will present the world premiere of Mahagoni for violin and chamber orchestra at Weill Recital Hall, written for him by Bulgarian composer Alexandra Hermentin-Karastoyanova. As a chamber musician, David has performed in New York in most major venues, including Bargemusic, Alice Tully Hall, the Knitting Factory, Symphony Space, Miller Theater, the 92nd St. Y, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Zankel Hall. As a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, he will perform in a Musicians from Marlboro tour with Kim Kashkashian in 2008. Recordings for the Naxos, Albany, and Bridge labels. David was appointed to the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music this spring, after having served as teaching assistant to Ronald Copes at Juilliard from 2002-2005. Principal teachers include Roland and Almita Vamos, Ronald Copes, Philip Setzer, Ani Kavafian, Pamela Frank, and Stephen and Kimberly Sims. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and is a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University.
THE FIRST MEETING'S AGENDA
1. Introductions
2. Is this worth doing?
3. Dates November 7-9, 2008
4. Venues, Throughout the Quad Cities
5. Audience/Publicity
6. Some possibilities:
7. Other possibilities?
8. Who else should be at the table?
9. What have we missed?
10. What worked? What could we do better next time?
11. Action items.
INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN NOVEMBER...
Martin Doblmeier
President and Founder
Martin Doblmeier is president and founder of Journey Films in Alexandria, Virginia. Since 1983 he has produced and directed more than 25 award-winning films on subjects of faith and spirituality, including:
The Heart Has Its Reasons: the story of the L'Arche communities for men and women with mental handicaps.
Taize: That Little Springtime: a profile of the ecumenical monastic community in France.
Bernardin: the story of Chicago's Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
Final Blessing: a film about the spiritual issues of the terminally ill.
BONHOEFFER: the critically acclaimed, theatrically released documentary about the famed pastor and Nazi resister.
Martin combines a lifelong interest in religion with a passion for journalism. Over the years he has traveled on location to more than forty countries to profile numerous religious leaders, religious communities, heads of state and Nobel Laureates. His films examine how belief can lead individuals to extraordinary actions, how spirituality creates and sustains communities and how faith is lived out in the most challenging times.
In the last few years Martin has been a featured speaker or presented films and led discussions in some 100 churches, synagogues and theaters across America, and has been a guest on numerous national and international programs.
Victoria Barnett
Victoria Barnett is Staff Director, Committee on Church Relations. She is a graduate of Indiana University and Union Theological Seminary, New York (M. Div.). She is the author of For the Soul of the People: Protestant Protest against Hitler (Oxford University Press, 1992) and Bystanders: Conscience and Complicity during the Holocaust (Greenwood Press, 1999), and editor/translator of Wolfgang Gerlach’s And the Witnesses were Silent: the Confessing Church and the Jews (University of Nebraska Press, 2000) and Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography (Fortress Press, 2000), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on the churches during the Holocaust. She is also coeditor of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works project, the English translation series of Bonhoeffer’s complete works. She is also completing a doctorate in religion and conflict at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University.
WE ARE HOPING TO BRING DAVID BOWLIN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CHAMBER MUSIC QUAD CITIES TO PRESENT DIFFERENT TRAINS AS PART OF OUR WEEKEND OF EVENTS COMMEMORATING KRISTALLNACHT.
Here is a description of Different Trains
Different Trains
Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
The three mouvements have the following title :
• America-Before the War (movement 1)
• Europe-During the War (movement 2)
• After the War (movement 3)
Steve Reich's earlier work had frequently used tape, looped and played back at different speeds; however, Different Trains was a novel experiment, using recorded speech as a source for melodies. This followed Scott Johnson's John Somebody of 1978, an early attempt to construct directed melodic motion by harmonising recorded speech.
In Different Trains, after each melody in the piece is introduced, usually by a single instrument, a recording of the spoken phrase from which the melody derives is played. The melody is then developed for a while, with the instruments playing along with the recording of the phrase or part of the phrase. The music for the strings makes extensive use of paradiddles rhythms, with alternating pitches instead of alternating drum sticking. In addition to speech, the piece calls for recordings of train sirens.
Much of the recorded speech that forms the basis for Different Trains is among the first recordings made on magnetic tape. It is taken from interviews with people in the United States and Europe about the years leading up to, during, and immediately after World War II. In the first movement, America — Before the War, Americans speak about train travel in the US. American train sirens are heard in the background. In the second movement, Europe — During the War, Europeans, many Holocaust survivors, speak about the conditions in Europe during the war, in particular how trains were used to transport millions of civilians to concentration camps, and the sirens used are European train sirens. The third movement, America — After the War, features people talking about the years immediately following World War II, and a return to the American train sirens from the first movement.
During the war years, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his parents, who had separated. Years later, he pondered the fact that, as a Jew, had he been in Europe instead of the United States at that time, he might have been travelling in very different trains.
Reich developed his 'speech melody' work further with projects such as The Cave (1993) and City Life (1995).
Reich created these works by transferring his speech recordings into a digital sampling keyboard (a Casio FZ-1). Musicians in the pop, dance and electronica fields had been using samplers for years, but this was one of the very first 'classical' works to use sampling. City Life actually used sampling keyboards in performance (rather than using a backing tape) and the samples are notated and played in exactly the same way as the conventional instruments.
Here is a description of David Bowlin
David Bowlin, violin
Founding ICE violinist David Bowlin is active as a soloist and chamber musician, as a performer of music both new and old. As first-prize winner of the 2003 Washington International Competition for Strings, he presented a debut recital at The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. last year. Recent performances include recitals in New York, Illinois, Maine, Washington D.C., and Ohio, and concerto performances in New York and Washington, D.C. In addition to his ICE activities, he is a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, with whom he has toured extensively in the US and former Soviet Union. In 2007 he will present the world premiere of Mahagoni for violin and chamber orchestra at Weill Recital Hall, written for him by Bulgarian composer Alexandra Hermentin-Karastoyanova. As a chamber musician, David has performed in New York in most major venues, including Bargemusic, Alice Tully Hall, the Knitting Factory, Symphony Space, Miller Theater, the 92nd St. Y, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Zankel Hall. As a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, he will perform in a Musicians from Marlboro tour with Kim Kashkashian in 2008. Recordings for the Naxos, Albany, and Bridge labels. David was appointed to the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music this spring, after having served as teaching assistant to Ronald Copes at Juilliard from 2002-2005. Principal teachers include Roland and Almita Vamos, Ronald Copes, Philip Setzer, Ani Kavafian, Pamela Frank, and Stephen and Kimberly Sims. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and is a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University.
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