Late-evening pleasures on Radio 3

[oddoneout]

Quite appropriately, Late Junction* in the days of Fiona and Verity had the tease of 'everything in between' can't off-hand remember between what - from something to post-modern. LJ is now 'Journeys in music, ancient to future. The home for adventurous listeners'. Calling something on offer 'adventurous' is just designed to flatter these days. I was adventurous in going to Tesco instead of the Co-op this morning.

It's all marketing to increase consumption. Give people addictive junk, then feed their addiction. Sorry to say it, but help for addictions is available on the NH...........

* How insulting! - I typed Late Unction. Nooooo .... we're really thinking outside the box, pushing the envelope, with it.

Late Unction made me laugh. Less happily my brain then jumped to Last Rites...

[Ein Heldenleben]

Late Unction made me laugh. Less happily my brain then jumped to Last Rites...

It’s never too late
…. “they always come back in the end.I’ve seen it a thousand times.”

[Nick Armstrong]

Interesting mention of the new R3 internet station, whatever it’s called, in this edition of Free Thinking:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0024x56?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

The reaction echoed my own prejudice about the station (not having listened to a millisecond of it)

[french frank]

Interesting mention of the new R3 internet station, whatever it’s called, in this edition of Free Thinking:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0024x56?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Why is this programme on R4 rather than R3? Mmm? Sam?

I gave up listening when they got to the Waitrose Christmas ad so can't be sure: I didn't hear a specific reference to R3u but that was clearly subsumed in the discussion. The interesting point was that the pointy-heads were in agreement and sought to explain the attraction of this kind of 24-hour craving. Comforting, familiar, safe. Cosiness v challenge. I found Hugo Drochon particularly interesting. I've never read Also Sprach but intend to at least embark on it. Can't promise I shall be intellectually up to finishing it, though.

I found the ideas interesting in relation to myself. I don't think I particularly value comfort or familiarity or habit or routine. I like to go where my curiosity leads me. I did find my (mentioned elsewhere) lunchtime listening unsatisfactorry to the extent that it opposed listening to food and food tended to win.

[eighthobstruction]

aye, you can switch r3£ off but you [unless very drastic] cannot switch yourself off....(I'm off to R3£u to randomly try it out)....

[french frank]

aye, you can switch r3£ off but you [unless very drastic] cannot switch yourself off....(I'm off to R3£u to randomly try it out)....

Will R3 Unravel?

[french frank]

Ha! Accidentally discovered the R3u section is at the end. Just begun. Must make a transcript. 'Swat happens when you move Free Thinking off Radio 3

[Ein Heldenleben]

Ha! Accidentally discovered the R3u section is at the end. Just begun. Must make a transcript. 'Swat happens when you move Free Thinking off Radio 3

Thanks for saving me the effort.
Has there ever been a time in human history where so much time and effort has been put into making things of so little value ?
you can tell Black Friday is looming …

[Bella Kemp]

Getting back to that Listing page found by Aunt Daisy - yes, my first reaction was to lament for Times Past; but then today, not finding the morning schedule on Radio 3 to my taste, I scrolled through BBC Sounds to find something for my headphones whilst walking the pooches. Dear Forumites, I'm sure you know, really, but it is incredible. Numerous essays, plays, operas, symphonies. Today I listened with great pleasure to a couple of the Record Review podcasts. Tomorrow, I might choose an episode of Through the Night where the tendency is not to play bleeding chunks. Back in 1976, Radio 3 was all we had, like it or lump it, but now the choice is endless. The station had to change. I rarely tune in during the morning now, but from 2 p.m. it's still generally pretty good. Probably nothing can replace the intense pleasure I had in my youth when I listened on my tinny transistor and heard so much for the first time - the sheer thrill on hearing my first Mahler! (The 3rd symphony). And the desperation to catch every note because goodness only knew when I might hear it again - my family was very unmusical and we did not possess a record player But that was a special aesthetic and can never be recreated. Oh, and as I type this, I'm listening live to the always excellent In Tune. Fings aint what they used to be, they're just the same but different.

[french frank]

Today I listened with great pleasure to a couple of the Record Review podcasts. Tomorrow, I might choose an episode of Through the Night where the tendency is not to play bleeding chunks ...

And getting back to the Free Thinking programme again, one of the guests was asked whether she was a 'linear listener' - a term she hadn't known, but, yes, linear radio was what she liked: she was a 'wireless listener'. Of course linear radio could be replaced completely by recorded material but it's only because of linear radio that any of the other stuff exists at all.

The station had to change.

It has always changed. It's not that 'listeners don't like change': it's how it changes.

As it turned out there were only a couple of views on Radio 3 Unwind on Free Thinking. I find the 'chat' format a bit hard as I don't always know who's speaking, but the key phrases, slightly edited (about 42mins in) were:

Matthew Sweet: Radio 3 has introduced a new station and, oh ...[guffaws] Radio3 Unwind said it’s aiming to enhance wellbeing and help them – that’s the audience – escape the pressures of daily life. I’m looking at you Susannah, I’m seeing a mask of scepticism …
Susannah Clapp: I’m afraid that sigh was mine. There are two things I resent. I accidentally tuned into it and I will tune in at some point and try to give it a fair shot. But what I resent about it is this idea that classical music is somehow relaaaxing, that it’s going to make you tune out when what it should do is make you tune in. That’s one thing and also I slightly resent the therapisation of absolutely everything.
MS: Who else has a view on this. Who else uses music to escape or relax or …
??: [Inaudible … ] I like Shostakovich I like to be jerked out of my complacency I don’t want it to lullaby me
??: I thought classical music was supposed to help you to concentrate So it’s the opposite of what it’s supposed to do and you can concentrate better with classical music …

I wonder how long Matthew Sweet will be allowed on R3.

[hmvman]

I wonder how long Matthew Sweet will be allowed on R3.

Clearly Susannah Clapp won't be...

[Ein Heldenleben]

And getting back to the Free Thinking programme again, one of the guests was asked whether she was a 'linear listener' - a term she hadn't known, but, yes, linear radio was what she liked: she was a 'wireless listener'. Of course linear radio could be replaced completely by recorded material but it's only because of linear radio that any of the other stuff exists at all.



It has always changed. It's not that 'listeners don't like change': it's how it changes.

As it turned out there were only a couple of views on Radio 3 Unwind on Free Thinking. I find the 'chat' format a bit hard as I don't always know who's speaking, but the key phrases, slightly edited (about 42mins in) were:

Matthew Sweet: Radio 3 has introduced a new station and, oh ...[guffaws] Radio3 Unwind said it’s aiming to enhance wellbeing and help them – that’s the audience – escape the pressures of daily life. I’m looking at you Susannah, I’m seeing a mask of scepticism …
Susannah Clapp: I’m afraid that sigh was mine. There are two things I resent. I accidentally tuned into it and I will tune in at some point and try to give it a fair shot. But what I resent about it is this idea that classical music is somehow relaaaxing, that it’s going to make you tune out when what it should do is make you tune in. That’s one thing and also I slightly resent the therapisation of absolutely everything.
MS: Who else has a view on this. Who else uses music to escape or relax or …
??: [Inaudible … ] I like Shostakovich I like to be jerked out of my complacency I don’t want it to lullaby me
??: I thought classical music was supposed to help you to concentrate So it’s the opposite of what it’s supposed to do and you can concentrate better with classical music …

I wonder how long Matthew Sweet will be allowed on R3.

I completely agree with Susannah and indeed have expressed the same opinion for the benefit and no doubt tedium of the members of this forum.
Music is not an analgesic and everyday life is not a mental illness.
That said music does have a therapeutic use in the treatment of mental illness and indeed music therapy dates back to the Ancient Egyptians at Alexandria. Elgar wrote pieces for the wind band at Powicke Mental hospital in Worcs. The old City of London Asylum at Stone House in Kent even had a minstrel’s gallery .
We should not trivialise this use with music as an everyday soother / security blanket.

[eighthobstruction]

Getting back to that Listing page found by Aunt Daisy - yes, my first reaction was to lament for Times Past; but then today, not finding the morning schedule on Radio 3 to my taste, I scrolled through BBC Sounds to find something for my headphones whilst walking the pooches. Dear Forumites, I'm sure you know, really, but it is incredible. Numerous essays, plays, operas, symphonies. Today I listened with great pleasure to a couple of the Record Review podcasts. Tomorrow, I might choose an episode of Through the Night where the tendency is not to play bleeding chunks. Back in 1976, Radio 3 was all we had, like it or lump it, but now the choice is endless. The station had to change. I rarely tune in during the morning now, but from 2 p.m. it's still generally pretty good. Probably nothing can replace the intense pleasure I had in my youth when I listened on my tinny transistor and heard so much for the first time - the sheer thrill on hearing my first Mahler! (The 3rd symphony). And the desperation to catch every note because goodness only knew when I might hear it again - my family was very unmusical and we did not possess a record player But that was a special aesthetic and can never be recreated. Oh, and as I type this, I'm listening live to the always excellent In Tune. Fings aint what they used to be, they're just the same but different.

....that's lovely Bella Kemp....yes look for the bright spots, they are not so difficult to find (just not necc' in the place they used to be)

[eighthobstruction]

<<<"Matthew Sweet: Radio 3 has introduced a new station and, oh ...[guffaws] Radio3 Unwind said it’s aiming to enhance wellbeing and help them – that’s the audience – escape the pressures of daily life.">>> Surely they tried this with a Radio One Relax mix stream....a quick look, and does not seem to exist now....

[french frank]

....that's lovely Bella Kemp....yes look for the bright spots, they are not so difficult to find (just not necc' in the place they used to be)

The question for those who enjoy a substantial amount of Radio 3's easy listening is: Do you also feel Radio 3 is getting better?

I found the first part of Free Thinking (the Nietzschean section) much more interesting. It dealt more, in this context, with the idea of challenge in the arts. In other words, the very opposite of much that has been introduced on Radio 3 in recent decades, the complete antithesis of what the Third and R3 were set up to do.

Immersive, wallowing, mindless - not for me. Much that is similar to what is still good on Radio 3 will be available in multiple other sources, so why bother with Radio 3?