Sacred River: Six hours of continuous sacred music Sunday 26 November

[oddoneout]

The playlist has now been paralysed for best part of 30 minutes - bit misleading for those not familiar with Holst's Rig Veda and hearing the subsequent pieces.....Possibly twitbook is more clued up.

[jean]

From what I've heard (not much, admittedly) there's been a fair amount of Western Christian music, and I suppose 'spiritual' can be made to cover the contemplative, the penitential, the joyful and the downright triumphalist. I'm never quite sure about the Song of songs, though.

[MrGongGong]

There is, but also there are times when language, whether spoken or written, can add to the sound alone through greater understanding of such things as historical context and composing conventions, adding other layers to the initial 'gut' reaction to the sounds heard. Sometimes it's useful to have that input before listening, other times it can wait until later. A recent example for me is learning, courtesy of Lucy Worsley's recent opera programmes, about the significance of Nabucco to the Italians, which has made me rather more tolerant of having to bash through the slaves' chorus yet again for a concert.

Indeed there are
But (and, as I said earlier, I don't know whether this is being done very well or not?)
I do think there re interesting things to be gained by focussing on listening, not to more words BUT to music/sounds

[french frank]

Thought-provoking:

"We may be able to think without language, but language lets us know that we are thinking."

[eighthobstruction]

....I vote it a success....by far the best Sunday morning (as of my turning on at noon) in living memory....utter success (well, as good as likely)....OK Wallpaper....far better than - doorstop - plaster bust - bookend - chipped portmanto - stuffed armadillo....

sorry I missed you thurs gong gong....

[eighthobstruction]

...BUT....why did they just fade out the Islamic (koran?) chant after less than 30secs?????

[doversoul1]

Bruckner 5 minutes
Elgar 7 minutes
Messiaen 6 minutes
Rachmaninov 3 minutes
Britten 4 minutes
Liszt 4 minutes
….
…..

Do we take this seriously? Presenter-less Sunday brunch?

[jean]

Thought-provoking:

"We may be able to think without language, but language lets us know that we are thinking."

We're getting the whole of the plainsong Dies Irae just now. Which is good.

But how can we know what we're supposed to be thinking if we can't hear the words properly?

[jean]

...Liszt 4 minutes

That's quite enough for me.

I've decided that my preferred sequence would be long stretches of sacred monophonic chant, from as many traditions as could be found.

[french frank]

Do we take this seriously? Presenter-less Sunday brunch?

Again, who is 'we'?

Email received a few moments ago (copied and pasted as written):

"I give hearty thanks to whoever decided that a yak-free Sunday.I can hear the shrieks of dissenting voices however."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

"Out walking?
"Putting the tree up?
"Lazing in bed?
"stroking the cat?

"Let us know what you're up to when you're listening to Sacred River."


That's what Radio 3 thinks of its listeners. It's official.

(unless they assign their Facebook page to a troll . . . )

[doversoul1]

Again, who is 'we'?

Rephrased:
Which we are supposed to be taking this seriously?

[eighthobstruction]

....but a lot of 'us' we[sic] don't necessarily want anything serious....just good....uninterupted by fallible human voice....

[mercia]

perhaps they're testing the waters. If this gets enough thumbs-ups, perhaps a presenter-less Breakfast programme, which could potentially add an extra hour's music ?

[oddoneout]

....but a lot of 'us' we[sic] don't necessarily want anything serious....just good....uninterupted by fallible human voice....

On that basis it fulfilled the brief. Unfortunately I was expecting something approximating to its mission statement, and for me the exploration part was completely missing. Where were the other faiths/belief systems? Not so much 'vignettes' 'peppered' as specks lost in the furnishings. I had been expecting to hear music from rituals other than christianity although I accept that music which other cultures find inspiring spiritually was probably a hope too far. 95% white, anglo-saxon, christian, european,male,(just look at the faces on the playlist) is unimaginative and unnecessary.