Le Chant des chemins de fer (The Song of the Railways) is a cantata in B major by Hector Berlioz for tenor solo, choir and orchestra composed in June 1846 on lyrics by Jules Janin and premiered 14 June 1846 for the inauguration of the Gare de Lille.
According to his correspondence, Berlioz composed it in a hurry in three nights, interrupting the writing of La Damnation de Faust.
Berlioz, who travelled on the inaugural train, spent eight days in Lille and conducted Le Chant des chemins de fer and at the same time the finale of his Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale leading a military orchestra of 150 wind instrumentalists and singers from the Conservatoire de Lille.
One of the performances is that of the symphony orchestra of the SNCF with the choirs of the Oratory on the occasion of a Congress of the "Association internationale du congrès des chemins de fer" (AICCF) in 1966.
[5][6] The work was performed for the opening ceremony of Lille 2004 "European Capital of Culture".