City Rail and Nightingale – Submission to the YCF 2026 Spring Competition

Dear fellow composers, I’m pleased to present you today my submission to the YCF 2026 Spring Competition!

Here is the picture showing a historic city rail (S-Bahn) train and a nightingale capturing the sounds of spring in Berlin.

The idea behind the piece is to describe the contrast between the noise of the big city and the tranquility of nature. I know that some of you, especially if you’re from Asia or the U.S. will smile when I refer to a city with not even 4 million inhabitants as a “big city.” And yes, that’s actually the case: Berlin is indeed a “huge village” with a surprising number of green and quiet areas.

The piece tells the story of a journey with the city rail from the crowded city center to a suburb where are allotment garden communities are located. Since modern trains are more or less „sterile“ and lack their unique sound, I imagined taking this trip on a historic train, like the ones that ran in Berlin from the 1920s through the 1990s and were known for their characteristic noises, such as the slamming of doors and the typical hissing sound when compressed air escapes.

Once you’ve arrived in the suburbs—so the story goes—you leave the station and head to the allotment garden complex. As you stroll along the garden paths, you’re surprised to notice nightingales giving their evening concert. And yes, it’s actually true that throughout Berlin, from April through June, you can hear many nightingales every evening and every night. The nightingales are really loud and have a distinctive song, so I’m very surprised that there are so many people who tell me they’ve never heard a nightingale before.

The piece is a string quintet featuring a violin, a viola, and a cello, accompanied by two pianos. I have decided to use two pianos so that they can share the extensive tremolo and trill passages, which improves playability.

It has an A–B–A form, with the A sections representing the S-Bahn ride. I’ve chosen the unusual 13/16 time signature—initially as a challenge to myself— but while working on it, I realized that the 13/16 time signature can be considered as a compound meter of 3 + 4 + 6, which evokes the idea of acceleration (of the train), and, when reversed to 6 + 4 + 3, that of deceleration (as the train enters the station).

The B-part is in 12/8 time signature with a lovely, lulling siciliano rhythm, thus emphasizing the calm scenario while walking through the gardens.

I hope you’ll enjoy the piece as much as I enjoyed working on it (although I somewhat underestimated the effort needed …).

The YouTube video is coming soon. Thus, stay tuned!

Praeludium-XVII-A-flat-major-quintet-with-coversheet.pdf

Entry: City rail and Nightingale

Average Score: 8

Review:

I definitely could hear the imagine you were trying to capture in this piece.

As promised yesterday, here is the YouTube-video of the piece which I suggest to watch, since it automatically pages thru the score (sorry for the advertisement).

For more background, here are a few YouTube-links with scenes from the Berlin S-Bahn in the 1980s which are characteristic for that time and have inspired me for the A-part of the piece:

Scene on the platform, closing the doors and departure of the train:

https://youtu.be/F-oexAoylmI?t=1461

„With a jolt, the train starts moving.“ … „The train is passing a railroad crossing.“

https://youtu.be/F-oexAoylmI?t=736

„The train stops and makes its typical hissing sound when the compressed air escapes.“

https://youtu.be/F-oexAoylmI?t=486

As a kind of „non-AI proof“ I also attached my „working score“ from which the MIDI is generated. It is nearly unreadable and of cause not intended for playing but shows in detail all dynamics, articulations, agogics etc. I applied to achieve the final recording.

Finally, there is an audio of the „concerto“ by a number of nightingales in a park I recorded in April 2025.

WORKING-SCORE-P17.pdf