České Dráhy

This is a piece I was inspired to write from a trip I took pre-Covid to Europe. I spent three weeks traveling by train, including on Czech rail aka České Dráhy.

I wanted to capture the feel of being on a train, zipping through the countryside and cities. 

Really enjoyed the unexpected harmonic progressions in this piece.

Sounds like it was quite a scary train journey though: more like a ghost train! 💀

The oboe melody around 4:24 was my favourite part.

There's a piano work by Prokofiev that has a similar sense of dynamism, like a speeding train; but I can't remember which one.

Hi @BipolarComposer ,

I like the harmonic language in it! But I have the same feeling as Alex that the trip is quite a scary one! There are some simplistic moments but mostly is quite frightening! Does the trip give you a bad feeling?

4 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

There's a piano work by Prokofiev that has a similar sense of dynamism, like a speeding train; but I can't remember which one.

Is that Prokofiev's Toccata op.11? It's freakingly dynamic and difficult to play!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

20 minutes ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Is that Prokofiev's Toccata op.11?

Yes that's the one!

I was thinking of the first movement especially.

19 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Really enjoyed the unexpected harmonic progressions in this piece.

Thank you… When I was writing this, I wasn’t really thinking of what key it was in and just wrote with a free tonality feel.

19 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Sounds like it was quite a scary train journey though: more like a ghost train! 💀

15 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @BipolarComposer ,

I like the harmonic language in it! But I have the same feeling as Alex that the trip is quite a scary one! There are some simplistic moments but mostly is quite frightening! Does the trip give you a bad feeling?

I can see where you get a scary feeling from it, but for me it’s more of a propulsive ride, than a frightening one. 

I think many parts of this sound very heavy and belabored and more horrific, which is apparently not your intent.  But those sections are interspersed with more propulsive parts although very often I also feel that the piece lacks the drive and energy I'd associate with a train ride.  The opening contrabassoon (I think?) is quite characteristic of something big and heavy - more like a cruise-ship rather than a train.  Nice touch also ending on that same opening idea.  It certainly does make for quite interesting music of course which is by this point something expected from you.  Good job and thanks for sharing!

Btw - as an aside, I think Prokofiev liked trains in general and found them quite inspirational musically.  I think he composed quite a bit of his music while traveling on trains including his famous Symphony No.1 the "Classical" (if not the whole thing then at least the driving last movement).

I like trains too. I share the frightening feeling Henry, Alex and Peter hinted but there are stains of less dense but more flowing music, the section at around 4:25 sounds purely mysterious, and minding the train trip I naturally imagined the typical assassination case in a train.

I would say the fact we see or feel different with this piece enriches it more than impoverishes it, at least in my opinion. The drums also resemble a train clattering!  

The final section seems a bit "too much", like if the train were about to derail, but seems it didn't happen in the end.

In summary, I found this work solid, with many intense moments, many contrasts and stuff going on, just as one would expect of such a long trip.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

On 2/26/2023 at 1:54 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I think many parts of this sound very heavy and belabored and more horrific, which is apparently not your intent.  But those sections are interspersed with more propulsive parts although very often I also feel that the piece lacks the drive and energy I'd associate with a train ride.  The opening contrabassoon (I think?) is quite characteristic of something big and heavy - more like a cruise-ship rather than a train.  Nice touch also ending on that same opening idea.  It certainly does make for quite interesting music of course which is by this point something expected from you.  Good job and thanks for sharing!

Btw - as an aside, I think Prokofiev liked trains in general and found them quite inspirational musically.  I think he composed quite a bit of his music while traveling on trains including his famous Symphony No.1 the "Classical" (if not the whole thing then at least the driving last movement).

 

Thank you Sir.... I'll take "interesting" as the greatest compliment ever!

I did notice as I listened back the other day, that the recording is a little muddy in places, and loses some of the textures of the orchestration. I think that might be adding to the overly heavy feeling at places.

On 2/28/2023 at 11:50 PM, Omicronrg9 said:

I like trains too. I share the frightening feeling Henry, Alex and Peter hinted but there are stains of less dense but more flowing music, the section at around 4:25 sounds purely mysterious, and minding the train trip I naturally imagined the typical assassination case in a train.

I would say the fact we see or feel different with this piece enriches it more than impoverishes it, at least in my opinion. The drums also resemble a train clattering!  

The final section seems a bit "too much", like if the train were about to derail, but seems it didn't happen in the end.

In summary, I found this work solid, with many intense moments, many contrasts and stuff going on, just as one would expect of such a long trip.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

The basic concept I had, is the music starts off at the train station as departure time arrives. The train starts moving slowly through the city, picking up speed as it goes. As soon as the train makes its way into the country (2:12), it hits fool speed ahead, before making it's next stop at a small village station. The focus then shifts (4:00) to people at the station arriving for the train into town. Then the train begins (6:00) to make it's way back on the journey, racing through the countryside.

I do like that people can hear different things in it though... it's better than hearing nothing!