I remember everyone losing their shit doing the “shhhhhhh” sounds at the beginning good times

Robert Smith to-do list: Make band sound like train: Check..

Why is nobody talking about that killer mallet percussion and the chimes that sound like a warning bell? THEY'RE AMAZING!

Song: pick a note Me about to play a very loud high b on trumpet: I’m gonna do a pro gamer move

Measure 111 anybody? THATS WHAT GOES DOWN IN THE TROMBONE SECTION

That trombone part tho. Even as a trumpet, I love it to death.

**everyone starting to clap at **3:03**** The band kids: *but wait...there’s more

1:40 There’s a part in this where my band director tells us that we should act like a ballerina with a knife- STAB STAB *pretty music and twirling* STAB STAB STAB *more twirling*

Things I love about this freakin song: • The poor snaredrum but DAMN IT SOUNDS SO COOL • the freaking flute cords omg it sounds exactly like a train horn!!! •the trills!!!!!!!! • the fact that trombone has a melody for once! PLUS it sounds freaking awesome • The endingggggggg That's not all I love about this song but those are my favorites

All you had to do was follow the damn train CJ!

I found this song to play while I rob trains in read dead redemption 2 and seeing all these band kids talk about it makes me feel like I've stumbled somewhere I shouldn't be

I'm speechless... learning that Robert W Smith has passed is just so sad and hard to process. I had the opportunity to be conducted by him in the IB School Band Festival in 2016. I'm so sad. Rest in Peace 🙏

I remember getting the sheet music for this as a sophomore and being like “Woah, THREE pages?! IT BARELY FITS ON A MUSIC STAND!”

**Ding ding ding ding** "Hahhhhh" **Audience goes wild**

This song basically got me kicked from band, true story. I LOVED the trombone's lines in the song and noticed something I'd NEVER seen in musixc before: PICK ANY NOTE with a fff dynamic (fortisisisimo). I had THE HIGHEST range out of everyone in the section and I went for broke. (Highest note I could possibly hit, slide all the way in) The next day I was called into the director's office for "not producing a band sound" 😂😂😂😂 it was well worth it

I don’t think anyone has pointed this out, but the snare drum starts building speed, you can just barely hear little screeches in the background, like wheels on a train beginning to move. Add that to the list of why I love this song. Just the little details.

I played the "drunk" version of this. *cough cough* The Great Steamboat Race *cough cough*

Think back to your reaction when you first got the THREE PAGES OF MUSIC FOR THIS IT WAS TERRIFYING AND IT LOOKED SO HARD but hey it sounded FRICKIN GR8

Omfg nostaligia just hit me like a train. I played this in middle school for region band I think.

As a band geek, train enthusiast, and historian, this song makes me all too happy 😁

R.I.P. snare player lol

Those trills! I remember I was dying when playing them! Our motto: You died playing, no breathing!

in eighth grade i was literally obsessed with this song. i tried so hard to convince my teacher to let us play this song lol. one day i was absent and that day we were getting our sheet music for the annual spring concert. before band class, i asked a classmate what we did that day, and he told me we got sheet music for a song about trains. i was so ecstatic and then i found out we were just playing engines of resistance. i still like it though, unfortunately we weren't able to play anything because of covid :( edit: currently a junior and YALL WE’RE PLAYING IT THIS YEAR edit2: my teacher lied :( he chose into the storm instead

This song sounds like it belongs in the beginning of a movie. It also proves percussion is the best. It also proves the rest of the band is pretty damn important

Robert W. Smith sure loves those trills...

Band is love. Band is life.

we don't have a lot of percussion where i go to school so our director had me switching between marimba, xylophone, and chimes the whole song. it was brutal but it sounded absolutely amazing

3:20 Its impossible to not bop your head to this. As a trumpet player i always smile at the trombones playing. It was sick, and i really wanna play this again hopefully my senior year-

GODDAMN YOU EXPECT ME TO TRILL FOR 7 MEASURES IN A ROW

Does anyone else love the french horn solo as much as I do!? I play french horn so I loved playing it 😉

If anyone is struggling with the train whistle on the flute I recommend rolling the flute inwards it work very well.

As a trombonist playing this song, my favorite part was always when the sheet music literally says “Play any note”

I like the clicking and clacking effect to make it sound like a train on track. Badass

Robert W. Smith and his wife directed our district bands this year. It was a great experience

Playing the chime part in this is so much fun. The last couple of measures it’s just chaos. Sure you only play 2 notes but you get to smack it as hard as you want.

2:36 - This is such a beautiful section. The way the booming low brass harmonizes with the rest of the band SO WELL, the melodies produced are so awesome and they fit well with the piece too. All around amazing.

I like trains.

Listening to this song as I do my social studies homework about the industrial revolution. 👌

Our band was going to the adjudication at carowinds when I was told one of the judges was Robert W. Smith. Truly epic, and it made me think about this song.

When I was in 9th grade I did an essay on the great locomotive chase which took place during the Civil War. I'm 70 now so I don't remember all the details but I believe it took place in Tennessee.

Our director turned this into a marching show with the help of another composer and drill writer, we did fantastic with the piece in our marching show season a couple of years ago and everyone in the band loved marching and playing it! It is by far one of my favorite pieces of music because of our show!

3:21 Dang, Low Brass!

One of my most favorite pieces of music, Rest In Peace Robert W. Smith

all the clarinet trills in this piece are worth it 😩😩

UGH the trombones are astounding!!

sounds like a background song for mission impossible train chase scene.

This is one of the greatest pieces I’ve ever played in all honesty. I had the pleasure of playing the French Horn for this and that was probably the most fun I’ve had in a while in band. Our entire group was 14 people including percussion and this piece is designed for ~35. We managed to score a superior on this and the joy all of us felt from that was indescribable. As a final note, we were down a few percussion members so I was given the train whistle and I remember how funny it was to place that thing in between two slots on my horn and quickly getting that part in between breaths

My band group was going to play this, but corona hit. And I tried to convince my director to let us play it this year. ... We don't have enough players in person to pull it off... But this is a amazing piece. I recommend trying to convince a band director to let you play it. Edit: we did play it as a full band before I moved to high school and my director moved States. It was wonderful and brings tears to my eyes all the time

MY LEGIT FAV BAND ARRANGEMENT EVER!!! Loyal floutist here🎼

Who else just dies of love at 3:32 for the trombone part?

Rest in peace Mr. Smith It was an honor to be able to meet him. This piece was my favorite to play with my school's concert band, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

When you hear that low note and your spine shakes cause you love that sound and feeling

The first time my band played this, at the part where you make a sound like steam at 0:29, one of the percussionists actually said, "HA!" XD

In the end, the snare has the hardest part. Props to you, percussion.

As a euphonium player the solo at 0:40 is absolute amazing

my old band director had IMMACULATE taste in pieces 👌 i love this to this day

Trombone glissando is real!

those saxophone trills was satan for 7th grade me

My favorite genere of music is getting instruments to sound like trains

Feeling nostalgic played this in eighth grade for our last middle school concert and now I’m in my last year of college time flies

This song is dedicated to a staple in Civil War history. picture this: a Confederate train, the General, stops at a town called Big Shanty. "Next stop Big Shanty! 10 minutes for breakfast!" yells the conductor. 5 minutes later, the General takes off, full speed, hijacked by Union spies! A small group of Confederate men find a trolley on the track... And the Great Locomotive Chase begins! How do I know so much about this? I used to live in Big Shanty, or as it's called now: Kennesaw, GA

I play the flute...but snare is the best part of this song. But my favorite is when the flutes do the train whistle effect😍

You can almost picture the story: 0:08 to 0:54 The engineers of a locomotive train get stuck due to an incorrectly aligned switch, so they go out to manually push it back into place... 0:55 The Engineers manage to re-align the track, but there's one problem: they forgot to apply the brake! As the locomotive pulls away without them, they panic and race to the nearest telegraph office... 1:03 The locomotive begins to accelerate without anyone to stop it... 1:17 The RR's telegrah line recieves a distress signal about the runaway locomotive, and the word is sent out... 1:27 The radio stations soon broadcast the emergency of the locomotive barreling towrds the big city, as warning lights light up along every crossing along the line... 1:59 Switchtrack operaters move quickly to divert oncoming trains to alternate lines to clear the path for the runaway locomotive... 2:14 The operators manage to divert the train to a different line, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with the speeding runaway, howling through the night like a bat out of Hell towards the city... 2:26 In an emergency meeting, railroad employees and rescue workers (with members of the press listening in) devise a daring but risky plan: Run a second locomotive on a parallel line to the runaway, have a volunteer jump over to the runaway, and pull the brakes before it crashes into the station terminal in the middle of the city. If the locomotive isn't stopped in time, it will crash into the barrier in the station full force, and it's boiler will rupture with the force of a bomb, causing untold destruction and possible killing hundreds in the busy station... 3:00 The "Chaser" locomotive begins leaving it's station and begins to pick up speed as it's connected to a track parallel to Runaway... 3:20 And the chase is on! Chaser speeds after Runaway, it's smokestack billowing like the breath of a great dragon as is slowly closes the distance to Runaway, the sound of it's whistle piercing the night as the lights of the big city grow ever closer... 3:44 The two locomotives are neck-and-neck as the cross the city limits and rapidly approach the tunnels leading to the station; the fire department is on red alert as they evacuate the station... 3:50 With almost no time left, the heroic volunteer leapes from Chaser into the cab of Runaway as Chaser is forced to apply it's brakes. The station fills with the screech of steel on steel as the volunteer pulls on Runaway's brake lever, the locomotive slowing as the barrier comes closer... closer... 4:25 The locomotive hits the barrier at low speed, breaking halfway through but finally coming to a halt, mostly intact, having only caused minimal damage.

At 2:18 is the only time I hear my own instrument which is Bass Clarinet

When people say percussion is easy... "Just hit a drum with a wood stick!" Me: BOY! You try playing constant paradiddles in 4/4 time signature in a Vivacé tempo. If you take that as faster/advanced allegro. It's as hard as it sounds. If that doesn't sound hard to you, then you either have some talent or just insane.

I'm the snare drum in my band, this is one of my favorite songs that I've played.

My school band JUST played this song!! I can't belive I found this in my recomenddd

I’m not necessarily a classical music guy, but my friend was going to do a concert on this, and I wanted to listen to it. This was really good. Solid. 🔥

I just remember that when I was learning the end of this piece where every person in the band plays a note really loud, I looked at my director and I said “make it gross?” And he said “as gross as possible.” As a flute player, someone who plays melodies and the pretty stuff, being told to purposely blow a note out to it’s disgusting height made me so happy. I love this piece

I love the “pick a note” in this song, makes it sound so good!

Because high schoolers are high schoolers, we call this marvelous piece "Choo choo" or "Thomas the dank engine". It is beautiful.

I still hum the main melody regularly, by far my favorite song from middle school band so I come back to this video every once and awhile

Oboes!!!!!! so underappreciated

I sure *WISH* my band would play this!! This piece is *beyond words.* I cannot explain how *absolutely AMAZING* this sounds! *masterpiece!!*

YESSS OUR TEACHER IS CHOOSING THIS TI PERFORM FOR OUR SPRING CONCERT (unless it gets cancelled) WOOOO

I had the absolute fortune of playing the French horn to this song in the 8th grade. SO FUN!!!!! Amazing piece 💖

Gotta love that trumpet solo at the beginning.

Played this for my Junior High concert, gotta love those flute trills! 😣 I really wish we could play this again, but our High School band has only 12 members... Oh well. Still a great song!

Just found out that Robert W. Smith passed away, so I came here. May he RIP

For my fellow french horn players; main horn solo from measure 76-98 starts at the time stamp 2:27 :)

here comes choo choo

Without band life would B flat Pun intended

playing an actual train whistle as a percussionist who has never done breathing exercises was fun for this

That melody at 1:28 MMMMMM

Playing the clarinet for this song is intense! It was a workout for my fingers AND my face lol

"flute fam" "sick saxes" "Drum dudes" uhm... what about Piccolo people? None? I'm not surprised

This is where I got my fascination with trains and train history

Where my percussionists at??

I remember playing this in grade 6... Now I'm a senior in the high school band... Oh how time flies!

Just played this today at a concert, loved it. Alto sax y'all

2:27 gives me chills everytime, I close my eyes and I’m back in the band room. With the baritones giving it their all! Amazing piece of art

Why is no one talking about the horn lines???? They sound freaking amazing!!!

CLARINETS UP IN HERE

And the audience goes wild every time the only time Robert W.Smith got low brass right #trombonesquad

Rest in peace to Robert W. Smith, an absolute GOD at composing. He will be missed forever.

We played this song for our Fall concert. It was the first piece I had ever gotten a solo on. I was a French horn, and I studied for months to get both of the solos down. That’s right. There were two which meant I was only allowed one. The day before the concert, I auditioned for the solos, and I’ll never forget what my band director said that day: “Dane, you got both the solos.”

This was so fun to play on the Euphonium

3:20 I LOVE THIS PART. I get goose numbs every time. Same with 2:36 This is my favorite band song I’ve ever played.

I remember playing this my freshman year on tenor sax.....as a freshman who never played music before this was extremely difficult at first but now that I look back this is a piece of cake!

I played this in my band at Disney because my band director thought it went with big thunder mountain railroad at magic kingdom