Jeremy Summerly on Carols

[ardcarp]

Anyone listening to these 15 min slots at 1.45pm on Radio 4 ?
Missed the first one but heard today's on the Medieval carol. Music extracts too short IMO, but I suppose this is R4.

[Nick Armstrong]

For those who don't find bite-sized chunks convenient, the week's programmes will be pulled together in an 'omnibus' on Friday at 21.00 this week (13th) and next (20th)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03kvd5f

[edashtav]

I thought Summerly's approach: mixing scholarship with live attempts to show how carol tunes may have been improvised was lively, fresh and informative.

[ardcarp]

Me too! No criticism of JS who is one of the best (sadly occasional) music presenters. Just wanted to wallow in a bit more music...bit I realise it wasn't practicable.

[DracoM]

Anyone listening to these 15 min slots at 1.45pm on Radio 4 ?
Missed the first one but heard today's on the Medieval carol. Music extracts too short IMO, but I suppose this is R4.

And what a pity it isn't running on R3?

[edashtav]

Me too! No criticism of JS who is one of the best (sadly occasional) music presenters. Just wanted to wallow in a bit more music...bit I realise it wasn't practicable.

What we want, and what JS needs, is the return of the broad acres of the Third Programme. I was grateful for his reference to Angelus ad Virginem which I scheduled in my choir's Advent Carol Service.

{My post and DracoM's crossed - both were informed by the zeitgeist}

[ardcarp]

I was quite surprised how un-dumbed down it was...referring to manuscript sources, etc. It seems a R4 audience is more highly regarded than a R3 ditto these days.

[Maclintick]

I thought Summerly's approach: mixing scholarship with live attempts to show how carol tunes may have been improvised was lively, fresh and informative.

Exactly.

[ardcarp]

Just heard the omnibus version (2100 on R4). The exploration of Hardy country (Under the Greenwood Tree and all that) was most interesting, especially the stuff with Tim Laycock of Dorset folk music fame.

[amateur51]

I caught this programme last evening and was delighted to find how informative it was in a light-handed way.

[Nick Armstrong]

Just heard the omnibus version (2100 on R4).

I wonder if this has the entirety of the week's programmes - there were 5 listed at 15 mns each, yet the omnibus is listed as 58 mns long - I wonder if once all the introductions etc are cut away, the 5 programmes equate to 58 minutes of actual substance - or whether they've edited them (e.g. compressed music examples) to get the omnibus down to under an hour. Any clues?

[DracoM]

There's another week of it.

In passing, a congrat to the producer Tom Alban. Tricky subject, dauntingly huge resources to pick from, and I thought he struck an ideal balance between music and chat. We need to hear how styles develop and you can only do that by examples.

Just a damn shame the prog wasn't on Radio 3!!!!!!

[amateur51]

Just a damn shame the prog wasn't on Radio 3!!!!!!

I agree Draco but ... was it down to a commissioning editor? Was it down to available budget? Was it about a lack of imagination?

I'd rather have it on R4 than not have it at all

[jean]

I love the way JS pointed out how the original folk musicians instinctively understood the significance of the modes they used...and how the Victorian composers homogenised them out when they got their hands on them!

And I never knew that those intrusive long notes that appeared when In Dulci Jubilo became Good Christian Men, Rejoice were the result of a mistranscription.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I note with some surprise that Jeremy S. states with absolute confidence that Thomas Arne wrote the tunes for "God Save the Queen" and "Rule Britannia". The latter may be true, but there is little evidence for the former. It's rather like those who assert that Mozart wrote the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" simply because he wrote a series of piano variations on a similar French tune.