Railway Music

[richard]

Belvoir: Look at the first reply in this thread...

(and Dvorak gets a heavy mention including BBC R3 link that is probably dead now, half way down the second page)

This thread goes Round like a circle, like a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning...

[Mr Bunt]

Belvoir: Look at the first reply in this thread...

(and Dvorak gets a heavy mention including BBC R3 link that is probably dead now, half way down the second page)

This thread goes Round like a circle, like a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning...

Apparently when he was on tour Dvorak used to give his valet a leather bound notebook and send him down to the local station to write engine numbers down for him. Then after a hard night at the orchestra he'd snuggle up in bed and read them!

On a more modern note, let's not forget "Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks as a railway theme. The anthem for a generation that witnessed the main line demise in 1967 of the most sophisticated steam locomotives ever built in Britain: "Mr Bulleid's Magnificent Machines".

[kudu]

To move slightly towards "serious" music -

Arthur Honneger's "Pacific 231" ( which I do not like very much !)

I believe I read that Antonin Dvorak was a most avid rail enthusiast - indeed I sometimes think I can hear snatches of "railway noises" in parts of the Symphonies 7, 8 and 9 as well as the "American" Quartet.

Serious music!!?

Is the implication that it is only possible to be serious about classical music?

If that is the case then perhaps anyone with that view should possibly speak with composers of music other than classical to enquire if they are serious about the music they have written!!

I expect the answers received would be less than musical!

Perhaps a more appropriate turn of phrase would be "a different type of music"

Phew! thats better, my safety valves have just reseated themselves!

KX6465

I understand the point you are making, but "a different type of music" is a bit non-specific. At least Belvoir put "serious" in quotes. As for your use of "classical", this is often used in a more restrictive sense to cover composers like CPE Bach, Haydn of course, and Mozart, to finish with Beethoven and Schubert, on the cusp of romanticism. So maybe no need to let off steam.

This needn't stop, let us say, "Waterloo Sunset" being a classic.

Kudu