The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks for the time check, I made it 09.10...putting the kitchen clock right.

might well have been 09.10 . Took too long to think of a St Crispins day ref in my post that didn’t sound too over the top.

[kernelbogey]

I am warming to Tom M on Sunday Breakfast, having had it on for most of the programme.

En passant, I wonder if the shift to 'northern' voices, and (for example) letting go of Martin H is part of a deliberate policy aimed at shedding the old 'southern RP' persona, seen by the Suits as a hangover from the days of Cormac Rigby and co (more names elude me just now).

[Roger Webb]

Stop Press: Georgia Mann to appear at Glastonbury!

Edit. A dj set of 'classic' tunes according to the Express.....not as daring as the third act of Valkyrie I remember from ten or so years ago.

[french frank]

I am warming to Tom M on Sunday Breakfast, having had it on for most of the programme.

Nineteen separate pieces of music, and lots of single movements, in 150 minutes looks like same old, same old. I don't think even Cormac Rigby would redeem that for me. It's designed for people to mentally tune in and tune out of ("I'm sorry, what did you say, dear? Yes, I have fed the cat. What are we having for lunch?") Which is what most of R3's daily schedule is about.

[kernelbogey]

Nineteen separate pieces of music, and lots of single movements, in 150 minutes looks like same old, same old. I don't think even Cormac Rigby would redeem that for me. It's designed for people to mentally tune in and tune out of ("I'm sorry, what did you say, dear? Yes, I have fed the cat. What are we having for lunch?") Which is what most of R3's daily schedule is about.

Yes, agreed, I am having that kind of a Sunday morning, in which acute attention is not required, and I felt like seeing how Tom M suits me on such a day. The almost entire absence of complete works in the new format of R3 is dispiriting indeed. If Petroc can deliver 'Bach before seven', why not a Complete Symphony after eight'? There are, I believe, plenty of baroque and classical symphonies that last no more than 10-15 minutes....

[Ein Heldenleben]

Nineteen separate pieces of music, and lots of single movements, in 150 minutes looks like same old, same old. I don't think even Cormac Rigby would redeem that for me. It's designed for people to mentally tune in and tune out of ("I'm sorry, what did you say, dear? Yes, I have fed the cat. What are we having for lunch?") Which is what most of R3's daily schedule is about.

Must have been great being a R3 presenter in the seventies . The breakfast show then (Overture ) I see usually had three (yes just THREE works ) in a hour . Plenty of time to read the papers and hone those links - now it must be quite stressful.

Have to put in a word for Tom McKinney todays presenter - a talented professional classical musician and excellent presenter who brings a whole level of experience and knowledge that very few present or indeed past presenters can match.

He is also a knowledgable ornithologist. He’s just done a nice feature on nightingales before a syrupy version of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square sung by Voces 8 - a group that I managed to successfully guess by working out that they were English sounding (not Swingles ) , mixed (not Kings ) , and few in number (8?) . The point of this anecdote is to suggest that ANSIBS would never have appeared on the old R3 - even though it was partly written by a BBC producer. And that’s a big difference.

I don’t have quite the aversion to single movements that so many seem to have, if you look at how music has been performed throughout history plenty of concerts and amateur performances featured extracts. I would however like to see Afternoon concert return to complete works. That and the Lunchtime Concert was my line in the sand.

[LMcD]

I am warming to Tom M on Sunday Breakfast, having had it on for most of the programme.

En passant, I wonder if the shift to 'northern' voices, and (for example) letting go of Martin H is part of a deliberate policy aimed at shedding the old 'southern RP' persona, seen by the Suits as a hangover from the days of Cormac Rigby and co (more names elude me just now).

It may have more to do with the ongoing transfer of programmes from London to Media City in Salford. Young McKinney's fine with me.
I was convinced that the beautiful rendition of ANSINBS was my favourite version, by Manhattan Transfer!

[DracoM]

More McK than 'you can guess who..', please

[kernelbogey]

More McK than 'you can guess who..', please

I couldn't possibly comment...!

[french frank]

I don’t have quite the aversion to single movements that so many seem to have.

It's less an aversion to single movements as an almost total absence of anything longer than 10 minutes. Which cuts out an awful lot of classical music. I don't want a classical juke box.

It's not so much normal people v elitists as normal people v. an alien species which has extraordinary powers of concentration such as can hardly be imagined.

[Ein Heldenleben]

It's less an aversion to single movements as an almost total absence of anything longer than 10 minutes. Which cuts out an awful lot of classical music. I don't want a classical juke box.

It's not so much normal people v elitists as normal people v. an alien species which has extraordinary powers of concentration such as can hardly be imagined.

It’s a cultural paradox. People now listen to hour long podcasts, read 700 page novels , watch 2 hour 30 min films , and watch complex multi part dramas which have greatly more complex plots than Shakespeare but some one has decided that they won’t listen to a 20 minute symphony.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's less an aversion to single movements as an almost total absence of anything longer than 10 minutes. Which cuts out an awful lot of classical music. I don't want a classical juke box.

It's not so much normal people v elitists as normal people v. an alien species which has extraordinary powers of concentration such as can hardly be imagined.

If people were advised that listening to "quality" music with attention relaxed as opposed to forced can do wonders unmatched by narcotics of any kind, illegal or otherwise, it could become fashionable and even addictive!

[muzzer]

And yet there’s plenty of trance music and the like that goes on for, well, hours. This issue is all about rhythm. Mechanised music and blues based progressions are now so deeply embedded in people’s subconscious that anything else is considered alien. Change is fine by me. Dehumanisation is most certainly not.

[Serial_Apologist]

And yet there’s plenty of trance music and the like that goes on for, well, hours. This issue is all about rhythm. Mechanised music and blues based progressions are now so deeply embedded in people’s subconscious that anything else is considered alien. Change is fine by me. Dehumanisation is most certainly not.

Agree with you about dehumanisation, especially in terms of programming recipients to mechanised beats at overwhelming volume directed to the, ahem, lower frequencies - a ramped up or down version of the military beat for consciousness recruitment purposes, and we all know where that can lead! However when speaking of response-ability engagement I think in terms of more than just beats or drones on an assumption that music (along with our response to it) has advanced beyond that mediaeval stage to take in form, key relationships or the absence, narrative anticipations, continuities and so on. Unless one dualistically hives off the intellect involved as in some way antithetic to "natural spontaneity" when that same natural spontaneity was part of the game that evolved it ("evolution", folks) we cede to making commercially-dictated reductionism our default position - the very opposite pole from freely engaging with the richness on offer - that is, assuming we're encouraged to find it!

[french frank]

Was reading an article in The Guardian this morning about ultra-processed foods. "The contention of [Chris van Tulleken's] bestselling book Ultra-Processed People is that food engineered by corporations with additives and emulsifiers and modified starches essentially “hacks our brains”, disrupting the normal regulation of appetite. It tricks us into eating more by being softer, slicker, saltier, sweeter than whole foods ... "

Radio 3/Breakfast as the broadcasting equivalent of Coco Pops, using additives to persuade more and more people to consume more and more?