Dan's Papers - July 11, 2008

You know in the "1812 Overture," when the cannons fire during the great grand finale?

Well, this Saturday evening, the Music Festival of the Hamptons will feature this weekend a performance of "Train and Tower" by noted composer Mark Petering, which features the sound of a passing railroad train at the very end as it rumbles by on the tracks, just 50 yards away.

It is something very special. Petering premiered this piece of classical music at the festival in 2005. Now it is being performed again, and again the Long Island Rail Road is providing an entire train to play the part of the train as the composition rises to its final climax. Petering will be present to enjoy his composition again, too. So will representatives of the Rail Road. And representatives of the town and the media, and as many as 500 classical music lovers.

The inspiration for the creation of this composition came because this writer attended a performance under the festival tent four years ago, when a Mozart concerto, conducted by festival director Lukas Foss, continued right on through as if nothing was happening when the 8:13 westbound for New York City came rumbling by.

The festival in 2004 was being held for the first time at Sayre Park, which is the little park that is exactly adjacent to the railroad tracks next to the Hampton Classic grounds. The railroad tracks, just 50 yards away, run parallel to the big festival tent, and though there is foliage between them, the tent offers no soundproofing for anything as loud as a train coming through so nearby. Foss just muddled through.

I thought, at that time, that perhaps there could be a way to have intermissions when the train was supposed to come through. They knew the scheduled time for it. They could complete one piece and then wait to begin the next. I'm on the board of the festival, so I thought I'd suggest it.

But then I thought, why not just incorporate the train into the piece? That fall, I presented this idea at a board meeting. We knew when the 8:13 was coming. We could have people on board with cell phones in touch with people at the festival on cell phones, and, at the appropriate moment, the train could come through. This idea was enthusiastically approved, and over the winter, we launched a contest. Just before Christmas, we sent fliers out to every music conservatory in the country, asking that the flier be posted and that students be asked to submit entries for a cash first prize and the right to have the piece's world premiere at the festival. Fifty-five young composers wrote back before the February 1 deadline, saying they would enter the contest. Immediately after February 1, we sent each of them a CD of the train roaring by sounding its horn, and in May, Lukas Foss, after reviewing the entries, declared a winner. It would be Mark Petering, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. His piece was called "Train and Tower."

The 300 people who packed the tent to enjoy this world premiere that night will never forget what happened. The Long Island Rail Road, instead of helping us coordinate the existing train by cell phone, brought out an entire separate train for the occasion. It was amazing. The piece got underway at 8:30, built to a small staccato semi-climax, sank back into an andante interlude and then, at the appropriate moment, built and built to a dramatic tumultuous climactic finale. The cymbals crashed, the bass drum sounded and then, with its horn blaring, the train came flashing through the darkness at 40 miles an hour, right on time.

It was so dramatic that everybody inside the tent, including all the members of the orchestra in their formal dress and Foss himself, leaped to their feet, cheering as if their team had just won the Super Bowl. What a night!

This coming Saturday, three years later, a special train for the festival will again come out from the Jamaica yards, thanks to the efforts of LIRR President Helena Williams and her public relations director, Sam Zambuto. The train will have two locomotives for maximum effect; it will have a motorman, an engineer and other officials on board, and it will arrive at the siding opposite the Bridgehampton station at 4 p.m. in time for two pre-performance rehearsals before the actual performance at 8:30.

Three years ago, several networks and cable TV stations sent crews out to film this remarkable event, and it also received much print coverage. Among other places, a story appeared in the Metro section of The New York Times the following day.

Why has there been a three-year hiatus in performing this piece again? The year after the competition, the festival was held on the lawn of the Hayground School, and the year after that at Wolffer Estate Vineyard. Now it is back at Sayre Park. It seemed an obvious thing to present "Train and Tower" once again.

The festival begins on Friday night with a grand gala performance by the Brussels Chamber Orchestra at 6 p.m. On Saturday night, besides the "Train and Tower" revival, there will be a performance of Haydn's "Cello Concerto in C Major," the Haydn "Symphony 45" ("The Farewell") and a selection of compositions from China. For other dates and times, go to their website at musicfestivalofthehamptons.com, or read our coming events pages.

As for "Tower and Train," it will be conducted by Michael Guttman, the new festival director, with director emeritus Foss and with Petering, now a professor of music at Carthage College, in attendance, brought into the Hamptons from Minnesota for the occasion by, well, an airplane.