Transport in Music

Introduction

The news of the release of music by Honegger of Pacific 231 (Naxos 8555974) reminded me of a conversation I has some time ago with an orchestra manager. The topic had come round to music with a travel theme and top of the list was the Honegger Pacific 231 We were sure that there must be other pieces of a similar ilk and together we came up with quite a little list.

Not every piece will be familiar to everyone; but one of my favourite pieces of "Railway music" is from Prokofiev's Winter Bonfire This is on a CD from Hyperion, at mid price. This was one of the best depictions of a little steam train in music. Watch out for CDH 55177 which features Peter and the Wolf, The Ugly Duckling, and Summer Day

Another well known piece is Coronation Scot by Vivian Ellis
I discovered recently that Vivian Ellis was born in 1904 in Hampstead. I suppose that for some people this music will be forever associated with the radio series Paul Temple, although I hasten to add that was before my time.

A recent CD from Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra includes this piece, along with many other famous signature tunes from television and - here I'm quoting from the poster in my window - wireless. I would think that many listeners would recognise several of the pieces featured on this CD, even if the programme names jump into the mind more readily than the pieces.
Also in this vein is a second CD along the same lines:
This includes such pieces as the Mexican Hat Dance, Bells across the Meadow and Jumping Bean.

The piece by Elgar - The Wagon passes from his Nursery Suite is another piece which springs to mind - it's on a new release from Regis along with the Enigma Variations. For a new theory on this work click here

Staying on the Light Music track brings us to another famous piece which has been heard by millions in this country. I refer to the music written for the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express by Richard Rodney Bennett. To my mind this is a mark of genius to portray the train as a gentle waltz. The Naxos CD Warsaw Concerto and other Piano Concertos from the Movies includes this (8554323).
Steam Train in Wales

Of course, these pieces evoke a bygone age when the trains always ran on time and you couldn't walk along a station platform without bumping into a railway porter because your eyes were filled with the smoke from the engine and as you journeyed along at the back of houses it seemed as if every garden had a row of tin cans along the fence to challenge the engine driver to lob a lump of coal at them to knock them off and you thought it was only the coalminers who received free coal?
Today, things are different. No-one writes for modern trains, do they? rail tracks in Wales

Oh yes they do!
Michael Nyman wrote a piece for the inauguration of the French TGV line north of Paris entitled Musique a Grande Vitesse recorded with the Piano Concerto on Argo.

Overture One-Two-Five. This piece can be found on a collection on the White Line label from Sanctuary Classics called British Light Overtures =2=There is some charming music on this CD including pieces by Richard Rodney Bennett and William Alwyn. The rest are by people who you may not have encountered before, but there are some wonderful discoveries to be made.