Honneger's "Pacific 231"

I have read that some European countries classed locomotives by the number of axles, which would explain the 231. 

HEY TOM,

Yes, the Euros count the Axles.

Bad Order

Funny you mention this. Just last week, I performed the Villa Lobos Bachianas Brasilieras No 2 in which the final movement represents a steam train chugging through the countryside, here's one of the London Orchestras:

Oh, I play trombone with the Chicago Sinfonietta. Our tympanist is also a huge O-gauge guy, but for some reason is not in the forum.

Back when I was considering getting a Doctorate, one of my ideas for a thesis was  the effect of the industrial age on music. Not just these pieces where we imitate machines as above, but the effect of mass production of band instruments, the increase in environmental noise in our city and suburban lives has changed music.

Another track is how the steam locomotive changed music. The blues shuffle, gave birth to all sorts of genres, especially rock and roll whose steady motoric drive, grinding harmonies and blocky chord progressions are undoubtedly influenced by machinery. Think of a "bend" in a guitar note, or a wailing saxophone or Duke Ellington's horn sections doing wah-wahs. Think of a steam whistle, the Doppler effect of a passing locomotive etc.

These machines are in deep in our very minds.

HEY NODEWARRIOR,

It's good to meet someone who plays Symphonic music! 

Do you play Tenor or Bass trombone?

About Duke Ellington...a jazz musician once said that there are 2 sax sections in the Duke's band:  The regular sax section and Harry Carney. (Bari sax)

My favorite conductor is now the Russian Valery Gergiev, but I always thought the late Leonard Bernstein was tops.

Bad Order Hal

Reminds me of some of the music in Hitchcock films..

Thanks for posting that.  I can never seem to catch the title when WFMT plays it.

Rusty

Gee for a minute  i thought that was Stan Getz or Zoot Simms. Nope it's bad order Hal.

HA HA!

Thanks, Gregg... I never recorded "Four Brothers", but Stan and Zoot are certainly among my favorite tenormen from the "cool school", and I'm not forgetting J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding either!

BAD ORDER (In Bb) HAL

I play tenor/alto trombone. Unlike Tom Malone (Blues Bros movie) my doulbing pretty much ends there. I rarely play jazz any more which is a shame, but the Sinfonietta does so many crazy-ecclectic programs, it makes up for it. Even thought I own a bass trombone (no George Roberts here), and played a ton of it in HS, I have too many friends who are much better at it 'round here.

I'm familiar with Pacific 231, of course.  Music that attempts to mimic  real life is called "programmatic" music.  Other great examples are Beethoven's Symphony #6 Pastoral, Tchaikovsky's "Overture 1812," and Rimsky Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."  There is one other truly great railroad programmatic work that I'm betting few if any of you know about.  It was created by the great Nigerian composer Babatunde Olantunji, about 1959.  It's called, "Akiwowo", or "Chant to the Train Man."  Akiwowo was a conductor on the Nigerian Railroad who was famous for his kindness.  Imagine a steam train heading down European style tracks (the joints are even with each other instead of staggered--womp.....womp....womp....) as it crosses the great African savannah.   Happy villagers see the train coming and begin to sing, "Akiwowo!"

The original 1959 version:

The lyrics:
"Akiwowo (Chant to the trainman)

Akiwowo Oloko ile

Akiwowo Oloko ile

lowo Gbe Mi Dele
lowo Gbe Mi Dele
Ile Baba Mi

Akiwowo Oloko lle

Chorus:
Oloko ile

O Se O

Akiwowo conductor of the train

Akiwowo conductor of the train

Please take me home

Please take me home

To my father's house

Akiwowo conductor of the train

Chorus:

Conductor of the train,

Thank you!"

Hear the thump of the wheels against the rail joints?   Hear the train going over the trestles, and the hiss of the steam?  It's all in there.

Give it a chance, maybe listen a couple of times.  It's very different from Western music, but I think once you've heard it a time or two you'll come to see what a truly great railroad song this is!


Kent in SD

Yeah Kent, that was amazing. The cross-rhythms really invoke crossing a trestle there! Very cool.

HEY KENT:

Program (programmatic) music pieces are also known as "Tone Poems".

(Les Preludes, Capriccio Italien, Marche Slav, Romeo & Juliet Overture, etc.)

Cheers,

BAD ORDER

To me, Ravel's BOLERO always conjures up the scene of a heavy steam locomotive battling a steep grade.  

I love this piece!  I suggested Pacific 231 several times when I was in the Williamson County Symphony Orchestra (I play the tuba ), but it never happened.  We did play a few other train-related pieces though, including The Polar Express, The Great Locomotive Chase, and Tour und Retour (a Josef Strauss piece).  My orchestra director, who was also one of my high school band directors, also liked trains, and his father was actually a watch inspector for the Baltimore & Ohio.

Aaron