Dylan Thomas Day - Mon 5 May

**ferneyhoughgeliebte** · 05-05-14, 15:04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XG1B_7r4y8

Dylan Thomas — Fern HillNow as I was young and easy under the apple boughsAbout the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,The night above the dingle...

**ferneyhoughgeliebte** · 05-05-14, 15:06

... on the other hand ...

T S Eliot reads his Four Quartets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga8tQrG4ZSw

Tommy Eliot!!!? From Saint Lou!!? THE Tommy Eliot!? Man, have youse changed.

**frankwm** · 05-05-14, 18:21

]... on the other hand

...Bob Kingdom's 'The Truman Capote Talk Show' (have 'archived', too) has the line: 'T.S.Eliot: which, btw, is almost Toilets, spelt backwards'....

You could also link the 65 seconds of YouTube's 'Return Journey' (less lively than the TX'd affair).

"The Beach of Felesa' screenplay was very uninteresting, and as 'cut up' as R4's 'Charge of the Light Brigade' a decade back (an unused John Osborne ditto).

**aeolium** · 05-05-14, 19:49

I think any way a poet reads his or her own poems is never wrong, however much some listeners may not like it. Pound, Yeats, Auden, Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Stevie Smith - all utterly individual and yet (to me) sounding right for their own poetry. When it comes to poets reading other people's poetry, then it's a different matter.

[And, as a rule, I would rather hear poets reading poetry than actors, though some actors like Alec Guinness and Alan Badel have been very good]

**MrGongGong** · 05-05-14, 20:07

Originally posted by Thropplenoggin View Post

Most of the poetry readings were appalling: why not let the great man read his own works? Plenty of recordings of him doing so.
.

Poetry reading is often awful
The "problem" (IMV) with Thomas is that he sounds so English
I've heard other (Welsh speakers) read his work so that it comes alive

but spare is from the Basil Brush Tennyson style
or worse still Roger (poetry no-thank-you) McGough

Johnny Clarke would be good though IMV

**aeolium** · 05-05-14, 21:50

Originally posted by MrGongGong View Post

Poetry reading is often awful
The "problem" (IMV) with Thomas is that he sounds so English
I've heard other (Welsh speakers) read his work so that it comes alive

I don't find Thomas' accent a problem at all. Quite a few Welsh poets of that generation would have sounded English - listen to R S Thomas reading his own poetry, or David Jones. Why should it be read in a Welsh accent - it's written in English and it's not poetry that's intended to be exclusively associated with Wales?

**ferneyhoughgeliebte** · 05-05-14, 22:07

Originally posted by aeolium View Post

... listen to R S Thomas reading his own poetry ...

Crumbs, yes! If MrGG finds Dylan "so English", what on earth would he make of R S's cut-glass English diction? Such an odd sound coming from one so commited to Welsh Nationalism, looking like a relic from the days of the Bards:

R.S. Thomas in 1995

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8v-uc-DI7g

This short portrait of R.S. Thomas (1913-2000) was shown in December 1995 by Bookmark after he had been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1996 ...

Never heard David Jones reading his own work - but both he and RS deserve their own "days" on R3: astonishing poetry.

**MrGongGong** · 05-05-14, 22:20

Originally posted by aeolium View Post

I don't find Thomas' accent a problem at all. Quite a few Welsh poets of that generation would have sounded English - listen to R S Thomas reading his own poetry, or David Jones. Why should it be read in a Welsh accent - it's written in English and it's not poetry that's intended to be exclusively associated with Wales?

yes I know why they sound English
But do think that the RP grates a little these days
yes, yes I know it was a different time and all that !

To my ears Thomas' poetry sounds a bit trite with the English accent that's all

**DracoM** · 05-05-14, 22:36

The odious, self-promoting Ian MacMillan.......crikey. Dylan Thomas deserved better than that.

**aeolium** · 06-05-14, 08:31

Never heard David Jones reading his own work - but both he and RS deserve their own "days" on R3: astonishing poetry.

I found this bit on the internet, ferney. I didn't know there were any recordings - David Jones was an extremely shy and reclusive man.

David Jones reading In Parenthesis(Part 7)

https://soundcloud.com/poetsreadingpoetry/david-jones-reading-in-parenthesis

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Parenthesis) In Parenthesis is an epic poem of World War I (or First World War) by David Jones first published in England in 1937. Although Jones had

And, yes, both R S Thomas and David Jones deserve their own "days" on R3. If the old Third programme recording of an abridged In Parenthesis (with Dylan Thomas, and produced by Douglas Cleverdon) is still available, then broadcasting that would be a wonderful way of celebrating DJ.

**DracoM** · 06-05-14, 09:09

RS Thomas a must. One of the truly great Brit poets.

**edashtav** · 06-05-14, 11:13

Did any boarders listen to this Concert in memorian D.T.?

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales celebrates Dylan Thomas Day on Radio 3 with a concert of music from Wales and America, conducted by Tecwyn Evans.

Daniel Jones: Dance Fantasy
Hoddinott: Clarinet Concerto
Mervyn Burtch: 4 Portraits of Dylan [world premiere]

8.20
Interval: Ian McMillan delves into the world of the Kardomah Boys, Dylan Thomas's circle of bohemian friends who gathered in Swansea's Kardomah Cafe in the 1930s.

8.40
Stravinsky: In memoriam Dylan Thomas
Copland: Appalachian Spring - ballet

Robin Tritschler (tenor)
Robert Plane (clarinet)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Tecwyn Evans (conductor)

So Far , I've listened to the first half .

Daniel Jones had a fine brain and wrote a lot of music - his extensive orchestral and chamber output put him in the class of a Welsh Myaskovsky. His forte was "variable metre" somewhat akin to Boris Blacher's techniques. The Dance Fantasy [/I]is probably his most frequently played orchestral work. Coming back to it after a gap of a decade or two, I was disappointed. Yes, there were some mildly interesting metrical patterns and the whole was very upbeat - a good "curtain-raiser, in fact. But... the music sounded like heraldic off-cuts from Willy Walton's Henry V. Bracing, out-going, bluff but also, I fear, cliche-ridden. Dylan Thomas "worried" his texts until they were fit for purpose. His friend, Daniel, didn't work as hard. Good ideas are let down by lazy pages, more "borrowed" than "thought through". Could have, should have done better : B-.

Hoddinott's early Clarinet Concerto was well played by Robert Plane and the BBC NOW strings under Tecwyn Evans. That passionate advocacy helped a work which is an apprentice piece but is consistently well-written both for the soloist and the orchestra. Hoddinott suffered from an enviable fluency but his works do share a clearly defined and personal idiom. THe quality of the themes and the way in which they were developed commanded attention and susained my interest. A-

I'm afraid that the new memorial piece by Burtch did very little for me. It's interest was very linear- much of the harmony was routine- but the quality of the melodies didn't capture my interest and outstayed their welcome. There was a "back to basics" quality about Burtch's invention a sort of 21st century Orff out of Janacek feel that felt very old hat. Was I alone in feeling that neither the orchestra nor its conductor felt that they had a wonderful new work to explore? C-

**Anna** · 28-12-14, 16:06

I thought we had a thread about the recent Under Milk Wood but I cannot find it. However, last night on S4C there was a brand new filmedl version which was billed as being surreal and erotic. And very good it was too I thought. Not as yet on normal BBC iplayer (it says coming soon) but it is on the S4C player here:

Clic

http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_level2.shtml?programme_id=521203984

Pre-release write up about it here:

Press | S4C

http://www.s4c.co.uk/e_press_level2.shtml?id=2255