Arthur Honegger - Pacific 231 Mouvement symphonique No. 1 (1923)

Arthur Honegger (10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les Six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which was inspired by the sound of a steam locomotive. Please support my channel: Pacific 231 Mouvement symphonique No. 1 (1923) Dedicated to Ernest Ansermet The Danish National Radio Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi Through his sources of inspiration, Honegger proves to us that he is a composer of the twentieth century. Violent sports, war, machines are often reflected in his music. “I’ve always loved locomotives passionately,“ he says, “for me they are living things ... What I’ve been looking for in“ Pacific “is not imitation of the sounds of the locomotive, but the translation of a visual impression and a physical enjoyment by a musical construction. It starts from objective contemplation: the quiet respiration of the machine at rest, the effort of starting, and then the progressive increase of speed, to the lyrical state, to the pathetic train of 300 tons, launched in the middle of the night at 120. As “topic“, I chose the locomotive type “Pacific“, symbol 231, for heavy trains of high speed. “ (“Pacific“ is an express, steam locomotive “231“ means: on each side 2 front wheels, 3-wheel drive, .1 rear carrier wheel.) Later, Honegger regretted, however, that one saw only the image of a locomotive in this work. “So many critics have so minutely described the rush of my locomotive through the great spaces that it would be inhuman to tell them the truth ... In truth, I pursued in“ Pacific “a very abstract and ideal idea , Giving the feeling of a mathematical acceleration of the rhythm, while the movement itself slows I have composed a kind of great varied chorale. “