Whenever I travel on a tube train I am reminded of Mind the Gap. This song originated in a project with young people in the London borough of Hillingdon, Middlesex, in which they wrote poems and painted pictures on the subject of ‘travelling’ and later took part in the first performance of my cantata Travelling Tales, together with the Hillingdon Choral Society, director Peter J. Williams.
And Mind the Gap was one of the movements from this longer work, which is scored for SATB, optional youth choir, and piano (or piano duet) and optional percussion.
One of the young people involved wrote a poem about a crowded journey on London’s Underground, and I used some of the lines and added some more, though I can’t now remember which. The author of the poem was Emily Kilmartin – and if you are there, Emily, please get in touch!
It’s a delightful poem and inspired this upbeat setting which has been sung by quite a few choirs, both in its original version for youth choir and adult mixed choir, and in a version for young voices alone. The words ‘mind the gap’ provided a rhythmic hook which is echoed between the voices (except in the unison version), and in the middle of the song there is an element of nostalgic humour as the music slows down for ‘Back where I started, after all this time, Maybe that’s the problem with the Circle Line’ and, even more homely sentiment as our singers realise that they can’t quite cope with the pushing and shoving of London’s Circle Line, ‘I guess home’s where I want to be, Definitely the best place for me’. But the crowded train soon pulls away again for a final journey, though the coda is another station announcement: ‘Unattended luggage will be destroyed’.
The original version of Mind the Gap is for Youth Choir, SATB choir, and piano (or piano duet) and optional percussion. This version is in the complete Travelling Tales, but if you would like separate copies, please contact me.
Also on sale are versions of Mind the Gap for unison voices, upper voices in two parts, and three-part Mixed Choir SABar, all with piano.
Details of the different versions are here.
And here are a couple of recordings:
Upper voices (Bromley Youth Choir, recorded with each voice separately during the Covid Lockdown)
Mixed Voices (Leith Hill Festival Choir)
PS I know that you can no longer go round and round London’s Circle Line all day like you could before 2009 – but just imagine that you can. And there is still a gap between the platform and the train.