Making Tracks – End of Stage One

As mentioned in the previous blog post – we have been busy creating some exciting sounds. These workshops have enabled Zakyia to experiment with creating different sounds and to test the material.

The inspiration behind the final piece can be found on here –

https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/sound-tracks/

The order of the piece is:

Movement 1:

“Demolition” – Sounds of explosions to create instrumental references.

“Shovelling, Raking & Flattening” – Inspiration came from videos of railways being constructed in a documentary that is available online about the Woodhead tunnel to see what kinds of sounds would have been created during this construction phase.

“Laying and joining track sections (hammering & striking)” – Same as above

Movement 2:

“Ceremony, opening” – Considered ‘Pomp and Circumstance’, the very well-known piece that is somewhat contemporaneous to the opening of the line. Considered the musical timbres, textures and rhythms that would allow a musical reference to the time in history as well as the general feeling of excitement and ceremony around the opening of the line.

“Money” – Gathered together coins and tested the sounds they make on various surfaces and against each other. The idea of referencing money as a key element of this part of the history is that it was central in many ways – it costs money to make, it took money in, and only people with money could use it (at the time of opening there was no 3rd class service).

“Talking/chatter & excitement” – The opening of the line generated a lot of buzz, both in the press and within social groups. This part looks at the communication around this new enterprise. Considering the sounds of burbling chatter in a busy room full of excitement, there are lots of moving notes. Investigated extended techniques such as the lip smack on the French horn and tongue stop on the flute to direct attention to mouth sounds, as an allusion to the moving of lips and tongues that the excitement generated.

We hope you are looking forward to the final piece. As stage one draws to a close we would like to express our gratitude to REAlab and NWCDTP as sponsors which have enabled us to create and develop the project.

http://realab.org/

http://www.nwcdtp.ac.uk/

Over the duration of stage one, we have both learnt about the railways and Manchester, making and connecting with new audiences and the ways in which individuals can work together from different disciplines in a creative manner.

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Everyday Noise and Revolutionary Railroads – Part Three

The ‘revolutionary’ element is vital to this project – how the railway changed the world in some many ways!

Zakiya has been exploring the jazz era this week.

Jazz is of particular interest because of personal influences to Zakiya – she studied it at an undergraduate and played trumpet in a big band for many years. In addition, there are a significant number of pieces written with reference to railways by many great jazz composers.

What is your favourite Jazz piece?

We are looking at four notable pieces performed by the Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, Sleepy Town Train, Slow Freight, Chattanooga Choo Choo, and Tuxedo Junction.

Zakiya explains below the interest in each piece below –

Sleepy town train keeps the feel of a train journey by the steady four-in-the-bar beat of the rhythm section. Without the lilting rhythm the faster pieces we’ve seen before, the sound is less specifically descriptive but the rattling quality to the drum line (likely brushes on a snare) conjures the ambient sound of the puffing of steam and clattering of pistons as they move.

Slow freight is a slight step up in energy and tempo from Sleepy town train, and here the rhythm line has progressed to a more obviously identifiable representation of the distinctive train rhythm and timbre. This is achieved by the opening and closing of the hi-hat between a short-long percussive strike pattern.

Tuxedo junction combines some of the elements of the previous two pieces but with a distinctively evocative horn line. There is a steady walking bass beat accompanied by a rattling ambience of the brushes on the snare. The trombones provide a rhythm that, whilst it is a retrograde (mirror image) of the typical short-long rhythm of the trains, still evokes the feel of that uneven, continuous pulse. Together with the deep timbre of the longer tones, the trombone section sounds almost as if the sound of the trains had been slowed and we are hearing the whistle in a deeper bass tone.

Of course, we cannot overlook the Chattanooga Choo Choo, which was the first record ever to reach gold in the US. There are so many allusions to railway sounds both direct and indirect in this song. The ‘woo-woo’ of the horns and voices is particularly effective and evocative as a recurring allusion to the whistle. The entire opening is very well written to evoke the sounds of a train departing the station, the whistle sound played across both the trombones and then the trumpets, getting higher in pitch to describe an increase in speed whilst the scalic feature of the saxophones presents a ‘starting-up’ and ‘gaining momentum’ sound that reaches an energetic throbbing apex at the climax of the introduction depicting the train rolling out of the station.

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