Words and Music

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, yes, up to a point, Lord Copper.
Listened to most: but IIRC no mention of Santiago de Compostela, arguably the biggest pilgrimage destination for medieval pilgrims apart from Jerusalem.

Graceland - yes, Monserrat - yes, Canterbury - yes...........but... see above.

Ah - haven't heard it all yet... Agreed, omission of SdC would be remiss.

[Nick Armstrong]

Fiona Shaw's reading is perfection



Robert Glenister ain't bad either. Great programme (you wouldn't know it was live from The R3 Fishtank, save for the faintest background chatter during the readings)

[DracoM]

Agree about Ws&M - fine readings, but from those two luvvies, you'd not expect anything less.

[ardcarp]

Words and Music

Still the best 'playlist' programme on R3 ?

A very helpful website for today's edition, including producer's thoughts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m4tp2

[Wychwood]

After this evening's programme, the announcer reminded us, as usual, that all the details of the readings and music were available on the R3 website.

Except that -- em -- unless I'm clicking all the wrong links, they're not (and not for the first time).

If ever a programme needed to post a playlist in advance, surely it's Words and Music. It runs for an hour and a quarter; couldn't the announcer have checked the website?

And a footnote: the announcer identified himself by name between the closing announcement and a trail before the Sunday Feature. Was that really necessary? In that slot, he or she is a continuity announcer, not someone presenting a programme or reading the news. I couldn't help making a comparison with Chris Aldrdge, R4's senior announcer, whom I heard the other morning opening his network at 5.20 with such modesty as not to give his name. Perhaps he realises that the important person in the relationship is the listener, rather than the broadcaster. R3 announcers and presenters, please take note!

[Nick Armstrong]

Excellent W&M on yesterday, on the subject of "Feasts"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001ptx

[gurnemanz]

Excellent W&M on yesterday, on the subject of "Feasts"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001ptx

Elisabeth Schumann's rendition of Schubert's beautiful, haunting and consolatory "Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen" inspired me to play a couple of other recordings - I have quite a few. Another singer from the past, Karl Erb, is also a favourite.

(A schoolmaster writes: On the website link the programme's playlist misspells Elisabeth as Elizabeth.)

[esmondo]

I like Words and Music a lot and its scheduling is perfect for me - it comes on around the time that I'm cooking the Sunday dinner (side note - "dinner time" is for me generally around one o'clock, but I make an exception for the Sunday evening meal).

I just realised this morning that one of the reasons it's so pleasing is the lack of presenters, so the words are well-chosen ones rather than off-the-cuff banter.

I generally abhor the "themed" playlist idea which is now so prevalent - "can you think of a piece of music that's got something to do with Autumn" etc ad nauseam - but I rather enjoy the challenge of trying to work out what the theme is, before giving up and looking at the info on my DAB radio. I like that they're not afraid of trotting out the bleeding obvious choices, for instance "Clair de Lune" when the theme is "the Moon" - when would you otherwise get the chance to hear that?

[french frank]

I like Words and Music a lot and its scheduling is perfect for me

Good to hear (welcome, by the way) - there was a bit of debate about the scheduling when it first changed from its late night slot. For some, it was the perfect reflective bedtime listening. Either way, the programme itself has usually had a good reception.

I just realised this morning that one of the reasons it's so pleasing is the lack of presenters, so the words are well-chosen ones rather than off-the-cuff banter.

No comment! For some of us there is never a good time for that early morning style of presenting, but the world moves on, and Radio 3 trails gamely after it.

[esmondo]

Thanks for the welcome, Frank - I was wondering if anyone would notice the new kid on the block!

I must have missed Words and Music in its late-night slot. My late-night listening was always Late Junction in its Sharp/Torkington incarnation c. 1995 (less keen on it these days) plus The Verb.

[LMcD]

I like Words and Music a lot and its scheduling is perfect for me - it comes on around the time that I'm cooking the Sunday dinner (side note - "dinner time" is for me generally around one o'clock, but I make an exception for the Sunday evening meal).

I just realised this morning that one of the reasons it's so pleasing is the lack of presenters, so the words are well-chosen ones rather than off-the-cuff banter.

I generally abhor the "themed" playlist idea which is now so prevalent - "can you think of a piece of music that's got something to do with Autumn" etc ad nauseam - but I rather enjoy the challenge of trying to work out what the theme is, before giving up and looking at the info on my DAB radio. I like that they're not afraid of trotting out the bleeding obvious choices, for instance "Clair de Lune" when the theme is "the Moon" - when would you otherwise get the chance to hear that?

I'm not sure, but I seem to recall that, on the one occasion that I listened to Words and Music on Freesat through my TV, details of the piece being broadcast appeared on the screen if I pressed the red button.

[AuntDaisy]

I see that Sunday's Words and Music is on Dante.

Dante - Words and Music

The visions of heaven and hell set down in the Divine Comedy by Dante have inspired music by composers including Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Radiohead and Soweto Kinch.

"Father of the Italian language": the writing of Dante Alighieri c. 1265 – 1321 has given us Beatrice - symbol of divine love, the visions of heaven, purgatory and hell set down in his Divine Comedy, a use of vernacular language and Tuscan dialect when most poetry was written in Latin and a three-line rhyme scheme or terza rima. Today's Words and Music features readings from his key works taken from a range of different translations (and some excerpts in Italian). These are set against music inspired by his words.
...

From the description & duration, it doesn't look to be repeat of the 6/5/2007 "Words and Music - A Dante Sequence" with Heathcote Williams, Claire Higgins, John Shrapnel, Anton Lesser, and Bob Peck (3 of whom are, sadly, no longer with us).

I thought I'd post the 2007 listing for comparison (when R3 post the new playlist.)

Words & Music
A Dante Sequence
Sunday 6 May 2007 22:15-0:00 (Radio 3)

Dante's journey from the infernal underworld to Paradise in The Divine Comedy has inspired writers and composers through the ages.
In this sequence, poems by WH Auden, Samuel Beckett, TS Eliot and Stevie Smith are interwoven with translations of the original by Benedict Flynn and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and music by Liszt, Messiaen and Salvatore Sciarrino.

Readers: Heathcote Williams, Claire Higgins, John Shrapnel, Anton Lesser, and the late Bob Peck.
...
22:15:00 The Divine Comedy - Canto 1; Read by Heathcote Williams; From CD: Naxos NA 431712
And trans. Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Read by Claire Higgins
22:18:30 Liszt: Dante Sonnet ('Tanto gentile e tanto onesta'); Leslie Howard (piano); Hyperion CDA 67004
22:25:00 Dante: The Divine Comedy - Inferno; Read by Heathcote Williams
22:27:30 Thomas Damett: Salve porta paradis (Old Hall MS); Hilliard Ensemble; EMI CDC 7 54111-2 T 24
22:29:00 Dante: The Divine Comedy - Inferno (3 extracts over music); Read by Heathcote Williams
22:29:50 Salvatore Sciarrino: Lo spazio inverso
22:33:00 Monteverdi: Possente spirto (from Orfeo); Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor); English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner; DG 419 251-2
22:41:10 Milton: "Beyond this flood" from Paradise Lost; Read by Anton Lesser; Naxos NA 935012
22:43:40 William Lawes: Pavan in G minor; Rose Consort of Viols; Naxos 8.550601
22:43:20 Dante: The Divine Comedy - Inferno; Read by Heathcote Williams
22:50:30 Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time - 2nd mvt; Bell/Isserlis/Mustonen/Collins; Decca 452899-2 T 5 2'40
22:53:00 Dante: The Divine Comedy - Inferno; Read by Heathcote Williams
22:57:00 Sciarrino: L'orizzone luminoso; Mario Caroli (flute); Stradivarius STR 33598 T6
22:59:00 Stevie Smith: Francesca in Winter; Read by Claire Higgins
23:01:00 TS Eliot: Little Gidding (extract); Read by John Shrapnel
23:06:00 Anon. (13th-century Italy) Lamento di Tristan (extract); The Dufay Collective
23:07:40 WH Auden: 'In the Year of my Youth' (extract); Read by John Shrapnel
23:09:10 Benjamin Britten: String Quartet no. 3 (last mvt); Amadeus Quartet; London 425 715-2 T8 8'23
23:18:00 Sciarrino: Omaggio a Burri (extract)
23:18:05 Dante: The Divine Comedy - Inferno Canto XIII; Read by Heathcote Williams
23:19:10 Sciarrino: Omaggio a Burri (extract, cont.)
23:19:30 Robin Robertson: The Woods of Suicides (after Dante Inferno, Canto XIII); Read by John Shrapnel
23:22:00 Samuel Beckett: Alba; Read by Claire Higgins
23:23:00 Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (7th mvt); Bell/Isserlis/Mustonen/Collins; Decca 452 899-2 Tr 11 6'50
23:29:40 Milton: Paradise Lost - "At last the sacred influence of light"; Read by Anton Lesser
23:31:00 Nicholas Lanier: 'Like hermit poor'; Paul Agnew (tenor), Christopher Wilson (lute)
23:34:10 Dante: The Divine Comedy - Inferno Canto XXXIV; Read by Heathcote Williams
23:35:30 Anon. (14th century): Pearl - "My soul forsook that spot in space"; Read by the late Bob Peck; BBC archive recording DAT OLN 814/98BB0923
23:36:50 Anon. De ce que fol pense (after Pierre des Molins); Andrew Lawrence-King (harp)
23:39:30 Dante: The Divine Comedy - Paradise(extract); Read by Heathcote Williams
23:41:30 Forest: Qualis est dilectus (Old Hall MS); The Hilliard Ensemble
23:45:00 Milton: Paradise Lost - "They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld of Paradise"; Read by Anton Lesser
23:45:50 William Lawes: Consort set in A minor for viols; Rose Consort; Naxos 8550601
23:48:50 Ezra Pound: Canto CXVII - "I have tried to write Paradise"; Read by John Shrapnel
23:50:15 Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time - last movement; Bell/Isserlis/Mustonen/Collins

I love the timings, accurate to the second (or five).