'The Stopping Train' was written by two of the Yorkshire's most renowned artists, composer Gavin Bryars and poet Blake Morrison for the 2016 Yorkshire Festival, designed initially to be experienced on the train journey from Goole (Bryars' birthplace) to Hull (or vice versa).
Composed as a series of movements to be heard as the stopping train leaves each station between Goole and Hull and on its return journey, it is scored for viola, cello, bass, electric guitar and spoken voice. Morrison's poetry refers to the personal history of Bryars in the area as well as to topographical and historical material. Blake Morrison reads his own lyrics while Gavin Bryars plays double bass together with members of his Gavin Bryars Ensemble.
"This journey has strong links to the area of East Yorkshire where I grew up," notes Bryars, "and the piece allowed me to engage creatively with this environment for the first time. I have long admired Glenn Gould's remarkable train journey-related 'The Idea of North' and this project with Blake gave me the chance to make my own train music at last."
Morrison says: "The Stopping Train was site-specific, composed for headphone-wearing passengers as they gaze out of a train window. But the music transcends those confines: it can be enjoyed by anyone, anywhere, anytime. I've not tried to publish the poems; they're meant to be heard, in my voice, not read on the page. But this CD will give them an afterlife, as the backdrop to Gavin's music, and I'm pleased about that."
