Description
Book SynopsisWhen the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in 1825, it was the first steam-powered railway to carry passengers. Since then there has been no shortage of music connected with trains and railways: orchestral pieces and popular songs describing railway journeys; those that celebrate the opening of a new line; worksongs and blues describing the hardship of building the railroads, even the first use of sampled music used railway sounds as its source. From the pastoral serenity of the Flanders and Swann song ‘Slow train’ to the shrieking horror of holocaust trains in Steve Reich’s Different Trains, the railway has inspired countless pieces of music. This is the first book to give a comprehensive coverage of music connected with the railways, it describes over 50 pieces of classical music and covers more than 250 popular songs.
Table of Contents• Railway music in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century • Music hall and the railway • Railway works bands, choirs and musical societies • Gilbert and Sullivan and the railway • The coming of the railways to Austria, the Strauss family and railway music • The coming of the railways to Scandinavia, Hans Christian Lumbye and others • The coming of the railways to France, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz • The coming of the railways to Belgium, Gioachino Rossini • The coming of the railways to Russia, Mikhail Glinka • British railway pieces from the 1930s, Night Mail, The Way to the Sea and Coronation Scot • Railway music in Paris between the wars • Four pieces by Percy Grainger and Charles Ives • Railway music after World War II • A more experimental approach • The coming of the railroads to North America: work songs, hoboes, gospel music and the blues • Heroes and villains of the American railroads: John Henry, Casey Jones, Railroad Bill and Jesse James • Trains, lines and wrecks on the early American railroads • Sounds of the railroad in boogie-woogie, bluegrass, blues and jazz • A medley of popular songs
