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The composer's inspiration for this work was the Turner painting of the same name which depicts a broad gauge engine steaming across Maidenhead Viaduct. Rather than follow a programmatic development of the title, Cecilia McDowall conveys a feeling of wide open spaces and pastoral repose in the opening section. In Turner's painting the 'iron horse' emerges in the distance, pressing powerfully forwards. To portray this in sound from out of the calm a clear rhythmic motif, pianissimo at first, rattles to a full orchestral crescendo, then gradually disappears from view.
