Linking music, place and heritage: Anthonie Tonnon's Rail Land

Abstract

AbstractI investigate intersections between music and mobilities as manifested in songwriter and musician Anthonie Tonnon's Rail Land tour of 2019–20. These concerts celebrated New Zealand's passenger rail heritage through not only performance but also by mobilising the audience to travel by train to the concert venue. The curation of both journey and destination amounted to a subtle activism. In influencing the way people travelled to his shows, Tonnon effectively remobilised a consideration of train travel in which the journey was arguably as memorable as the destination. As such, the artist was contributing to a re‐entwining of music, identity and place.