Feature: Music and Machines

The industrial revolution of the 1830s heralded an era in which huge factories began to loom over city skylines, technology became more and more sophisticated, and trains would storm the length and breadth of the country! This was also a highly productive time for many composers including Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann, and their music often echoes and reflects upon the pace of change in society. From a listen to the pieces in this week's feature, it seems that the the work of the artisan and the engineer has always had a place in classical music. Play now 

Delibes: Coppelia
This famous 1870 ballet about an animated doll is typical of the period's fascination with all things mechanical and automated. This is a fine performance by the RPO under Carl Davis.  

Hubert Parry: Jerusalem
The 'dark Satanic Mills' mentioned in this well-loved hymn are not simply a reference to British industry but to the philosophy of William Blake, whose poem 'Milton' provided Parry's text.  Blake described to 'the mere workings of logic and reason' which hampered human creativity as 'the mills of Satan'. 

George Antheil: Second Sonata - 'The Airplane', Third Sonata - 'The Death of Machines'
Mechanical influences often occur in the work of this eccentric but mercurially creative 20th century composer, to the extent that he deserves two entries this week in the form of these two piano pieces. If you're new to his work, imagine Satie on some kind of very powerful stimulant! 

Leo Smit: A Train Went Through a Burial Gate
This song by the 20th century Dutch composer, who died in the Holocaust, presents a sombre take on a subject that occurs in many works including those of Honegger, Villa-Lobos and Michael Nyman. 

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Sea and Sinbad's Ship
Rimsky's enthusiasm for the wonders of sea-going vessels inspired him to train as a naval cadet and he would often compose at sea.  This background may well have influenced the nautical elements in his 'Scheherazade' orchestral suite, from which this is an excerpt. 

Paul Lansky: Hammer
A fairly delicate and subtle hammer wielded by the composer of some of the most approachable of all electronic/studio-based music.  Trivia: the CD cover depicts one of the label's directors at a slightly younger age! 

Verdi: The Anvil Chorus
After a hammer we need an anvil, or several.  This popular excerpt from 'Il Trovatore' ('Vedi!  le fosche noturne spoglie...') depicts gypsies working industriously at their anvils with all the rhythmic energy one might expect. 

JAZZ CHOICE
Duke Ellington: Take the 'A' Train
African-American music often celebrates the trains which were so essential to the culture's internal diaspora, but this Billy Strayhorn classic is slick and thoroughly urban. 

WORLD MUSIC CHOICE 
Sergio Endrigo: Il Treno che Viene dal Sud ('The Train Which Comes from the South').
Something Hispanic and harmonious to end with in the form of this lilting three-part song.