2013 – for solo piano – 14:10

Sheet Music

Score (pdf)

Performances

World Premiere:
September 23, 2013
Lisa Tahara (piano)
Music Mondays, Toronto Canada
» View Video

Other Performances:
June 15, 2014
Lisa Tahara (piano)
Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto

Dec 10, 2014
Lisa Tahara (piano)
Arts & Letters Club, Toronto

Recording

Album: The Current Agenda
Buy Piece: iTunes
Date: September 19, 2017
Location: Canterbury Studios, Toronto
Musicians: Lisa Tahara (piano)
Producer: Frank Horvat and Jean Martin
 

Programme Notes

This composition chronicles the tragic series of events that took place in July 2013, in a small Quebec town, when a train derailed and exploded. This piece tells the story through the tone of the piano, from ominous mechanical sounds of a train out of control, to the massive explosion, to the healing that took place afterwards as a town had to come to grips with the awful event that changed everything. Each of the five sections captures key moments in the story.

– Frank Horvat

Part 1: Freight train is heading east when engineer stops to rest for the evening.
Part 2a: Train is parked for the night in a tranquil area near Nantes, QC. The engineer checks into a hotel in Lac-Mégantic.
Part 2b: A Nantes resident notices a fire starting on the parked train and calls 911. Crews are dispatched and extinguish the fire. The train is left alone again to the quiet of a summer evening.
Part 3: The unmanned train very gradually starts moving down the track. It picks up tremendous speed as it approaches Lac-Mégantic.
Part 4: The high-speed train enters Lac-Mégantic and derails. Cars of crude oil explode causing immense devastation to the town.
Part 5: Friends & family of the victims along with citizens of Lac-Mégantic mourn.

Commissioned by Lisa Tahara.

LT#072