Details

The London Chamber Orchestra wanted to explore ways of incorporating a piece of music into the fabric of the games. In consultation with Hugh Sumner, Director of Transport at the ODA, it was agreed that the journey of the Olympic Javelin Train could be celebrated through a musical commission not dissimilar to the 1936 Britten / Auden Post Office commission, Night Mail. Excitingly, one of the 20 New Music 20x12 commissions was awarded to the orchestra. Glyn Maxwell (writer)and Graham Fitkin (composer) travelled together on the train and recorded the journey. Their material was sent to children participating in LCO's Music Junction education project, who in turn provided initial motifs to composer and poet. The resulting work is a miraculously literal and hauntingly symbolic musical representation of the train, its journey and the journey of the athletes towards the greatest stage of all.