Music and railways

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I came across this manuscript book in a job lot of papers I obtained a few years back. Sadly only a couple of pages were complete; what a fascinating project this would have been.

 

[Compound2632]

Carriage wheelbase as well as rail length affects the rhythm. Perhaps it was the realisation of this complication that led to the abandonment of the project. Though I suppose one could assume standard LMS bogie carriages, 9 ft wheelbase bogies at 40 ft 6 in centres; the bogies of adjacent carriages at 19 ft 6 in centres. The rhythm passing over a rail joint would be beats at intervals of 1 : 1.167 : 1 : 3.5; the ratio of the beat of a single wheelset on joints in 60 ft rail to the successive beats of the wheelsets of a 9 ft bogie over a single joint would be 1 : 6.67.

[sncf231e]

Arthur Honegger wrote the short symphony Pacific 231 and wrote about it: 'I have always loved locomotives passionately; for me, they are living beings and I love them as others like women or horses.'

 

Here is this music accompanied by pictures of Pacific locomotive models:

 

Regards

Fred

[The Johnster]

One hopes that you do not love horses in the same way as you love women, Fred.  Or locomotives for that matter…

 

Locomotives are of course far more important than women.