Written for English National Ballet's "Choreographics" Project. Recorded at Angel Studios, London, March 2013.

Aisha Orazbayeva, Violin I; Sophie Mather, Violin II, Jennifer Ames, Viola; Colin Alexander, Cello.

Broken Soliloquies

Stop, Locomotive! is a string quartet that explores the concept of train-stopping by drawing on two sources – a Russian chanson song Постой паровоз! (Postoi parovoz! - Stop, Locomotive!) and a common trait of all trains – stopping according to a timetable.

The material is an original arrangement of the chanson that is split into nine equal segments numbered 1 to 9. The train timetable (Ockley to London) is then articulated using these segments. A zero is translated into a 4-second pause.

Stop, Locomotive! was premiered at the 840: New Music for String Quartet on 06/05/2017 by the Manon Quartet.

Stop, Locomotive!

Andrew Baldwin (b.1986) is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, London under the tutelage of Alison Kay and Kenneth Hesketh, and the New Zealand School of Music, Wellington under the tutelage of Michael Norris, John Psathas and Dugal McKinnon. He was the recipient a Parnassus Award from the RCM for his collaboration with English National Ballet at The Place in Euston, London in May 2013.

His music has been widely commissioned, performed and recorded throughout New Zealand by established ensembles including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, New Zealand Youth Choir, Southern Sinfonia and the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir, and by ensembles in Australia, Japan, UK, USA, and Germany. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Trusts Young Composers Award, the NZSSC Choral Award and the Edgecumbe Choral Award, and his music has been heard notably in Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral London, Brussels Cathedral and Paris’ Cathédrale de Notre-Dame as well as regularly broadcast on radio and TV. Recently his work Dawn: May 11, 1915 was announced one of the winning works in the Gallipoli Songs Competition and was broadcast by ABC Classic FM and Radio NZ Concert on the 100th Anniversary of ANZAC Day, and his combined orchestral & choral work O Te Pouri was commissioned and premiered by the London Mozart Players and Portsmouth Grammar School.

Andrew worked recently with members of the Britten Sinfonia as part of their composers’ scheme, OPUS2016.

Broken Soliloquies

Andrew Baldwin

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