
Poetry, prose and music on the theme of home with words by Marilynne Robinson, Emily Dickinson, Yeats, Thom Gunn and DH Lawrence and music by Dvorak, Butterworth, Schubert and Jerome Kern. The readers are Adjoa Andoh and Robert Glenister.
Producer: Fiona McLean.
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
00:00
Toru Takemitsu
Toward the Sea III Cape Cod
Performer: Auréole.- KOCH 374492.
- Tr9.
-
William Carlos Williams
Nantucket read by Adjoa Andoh
John Clare
The reeking supper waits the labourer home read by Robert Glenister
00:04Ralph Vaughan Williams
The Water Mill
Performer: The Duke Quartet with Anthony Rolfe Johnson.- NAXOS 8557114.
- Tr4.
Emily Dickinson
Tho I get home so late read by Adjoa Andoh
00:09Aaron Copland
Letter From ѿý
Performer: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.- EMI CDC7497662.
- Tr3.
D.H. Lawrence
Piano read by Robert Glenister
00:16Robert Schumann
Kinderszenen - Traumerei
Performer: Daniel Barenboim.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4311672.
- Tr7.
00:19Peter Maxwell Davies
Seven Songs ѿý - ѿý
Performer: The Choir of St Marys Music School.- UNICORN DKPCD9070.
- Tr9.
Robert Crawford
Cambuslang read by Robert Glenister
00:21Sir James MacMillan
From Ayrshire
Performer: Nicola Benedetti and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4763159.
- Tr 8.
John Burnside
The Man who was answered by his own self read by Robert Glenister
00:27Kurt Weill
Lonely House
Performer: Teresa Stratas and the Y Chamber Symphony.- NONESUCH 9791312.
- Tr 9.
Thomas Hardy
At Tea read by Adjoa Andoh
00:32Franz Liszt
Romance oubliée
Performer: Hüseyin Sermet.- NAÏVE V4873.
- Tr2.
Philip Larkin
ѿý is so Sad read by Robert Glenister
00:36The Beatles
She's Leaving ѿý
- PARLOPHONE PCS72112.
- Tr19.
Marilynne Robinson
ѿý read by Adjoa Andoh
00:41Antonín Dvořák
Goin ѿý
Performer: Art Tatum.- PROPERBOX60.
- Tr1.
Richard Wilbur
Boy at the Window read by Adjoa Andoh
00:45Claude Debussy
The Snow is Dancing
Performer: Pascal Rogé.- DECCA 4430212.
- Tr 8.
Thom Gunn
A ѿý read by Robert Glenister
00:49Mark-Anthony Turnage
Twice Through the Heart China Cup
Performer: Sarah Connolly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.- LPO0031.
- Tr 9.
00:54Paul Ben-Haim
Berceuse Sfaradite
Performer: Itzhak Perlman and David Garvey.- RCA82876625172.
- Tr 4.
Seamus Heaney
ѿýcomings read by Adjoa Andoh
00:59John Dowland
My Lord Willoughbys Welcome ѿý
Performer: Jakob Lindberg.- BIS CD824.
- Tr16.
W.B. Yeats
The Lake Isle of Inisfree read by Robert Glenister
01:00Bedrich Smetana
From my ѿýland - Moderato
Performer: Itzhak Perlman and Samuel Sanders.- EMI CD7473992.
- Tr 5.
Michael Longley
ѿýcoming read by Adjoa Andoh
01:05Jean Sibelius
The Swan of Tuonela
Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4495152.
- Tr 6.
00:00Toru Takemitsu
Toward the Sea III Cape Cod
Performer: Auréole.- KOCH 374492.
- Tr9.
William Carlos Williams
Nantucket read by Adjoa Andoh
John Clare
The reeking supper waits the labourer home read by Robert Glenister
00:04Ralph Vaughan Williams
The Water Mill
Performer: The Duke Quartet with Anthony Rolfe Johnson.- NAXOS 8557114.
- Tr4.
Emily Dickinson
Tho I get home so late read by Adjoa Andoh
00:09Aaron Copland
Letter From ѿý
Performer: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.- EMI CDC7497662.
- Tr3.
D.H. Lawrence
Piano read by Robert Glenister
00:16Robert Schumann
Kinderszenen - Traumerei
Performer: Daniel Barenboim.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4311672.
- Tr7.
00:19Peter Maxwell Davies
Seven Songs ѿý - ѿý
Performer: The Choir of St Marys Music School.- UNICORN DKPCD9070.
- Tr9.
Robert Crawford
Cambuslang read by Robert Glenister
00:21Sir James MacMillan
From Ayrshire
Performer: Nicola Benedetti and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4763159.
- Tr 8.
John Burnside
The Man who was answered by his own self read by Robert Glenister
00:27Kurt Weill
Lonely House
Performer: Teresa Stratas and the Y Chamber Symphony.- NONESUCH 9791312.
- Tr 9.
Thomas Hardy
At Tea read by Adjoa Andoh
00:32Franz Liszt
Romance oubliée
Performer: Hüseyin Sermet.- NAÏVE V4873.
- Tr2.
Philip Larkin
ѿý is so Sad read by Robert Glenister
00:36The Beatles
She's Leaving ѿý
- PARLOPHONE PCS72112.
- Tr19.
Marilynne Robinson
ѿý read by Adjoa Andoh
00:41Antonín Dvořák
Goin ѿý
Performer: Art Tatum.- PROPERBOX60.
- Tr1.
Richard Wilbur
Boy at the Window read by Adjoa Andoh
00:45Claude Debussy
The Snow is Dancing
Performer: Pascal Rogé.- DECCA 4430212.
- Tr 8.
Thom Gunn
A ѿý read by Robert Glenister
00:49Mark-Anthony Turnage
Twice Through the Heart China Cup
Performer: Sarah Connolly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.- LPO0031.
- Tr 9.
00:54Paul Ben-Haim
Berceuse Sfaradite
Performer: Itzhak Perlman and David Garvey.- RCA82876625172.
- Tr 4.
Seamus Heaney
ѿýcomings read by Adjoa Andoh
00:59John Dowland
My Lord Willoughbys Welcome ѿý
Performer: Jakob Lindberg.- BIS CD824.
- Tr16.
W.B. Yeats
The Lake Isle of Inisfree read by Robert Glenister
01:00Bedrich Smetana
From my ѿýland - Moderato
Performer: Itzhak Perlman and Samuel Sanders.- EMI CD7473992.
- Tr 5.
Michael Longley
ѿýcoming read by Adjoa Andoh
01:05Jean Sibelius
The Swan of Tuonela
Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4495152.
- Tr 6.
Producer Note
This edition of Words and Music looks at the idea of home - the domestic, memories of childhood, feelings of being alone at home, exile and homecoming.
The programme begins with William Carlos Williams’ short poem, ‘Nantucket’, evoking a summer’s day on the island off Cape Cod, with the bed at the heart of the room. It’s heard alongside Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea - Cape Cod. Then comes John Clare’s ‘The reeking supper waits the labourer home’ which, like Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Water Mill’, tells the story of a happy, busy, family home.
Childhood memories are heard in D.H. Lawrence’s poem, ‘Piano’, with the adult poet recalling the sound of a woman singing ‘taking me back down the vista of years’. Peter Maxwell Davies’ ‘Seven Songs ѿý’ is a sequence telling of an hour in a child’s life as they make their way back from school in the Orkneys. Here, you’ll hear the lovely final song, ‘ѿý’, in which the aroma of a bacon sandwich welcomes the child. Robert Crawford’s poem, ‘Cambuslang’, tells of his parents still living in the childhood home that he left long ago heard alongside James MacMillan’s ‘From Ayrshire’, his musical evocation of Robert Burns’ ‘Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes’, itself an expression of coming home. Franz Liszt’s ‘Romance oubliee’ accompanies Thomas Hardy’s ‘At ѿý’, a short poem in which a young wife makes tea in her new home for a woman, unaware to her, is her husband’s first love and for whom he still yearns.
The American novelist Marilynne Robinson, heard recently on Free Thinking on Radio 3, was the starting point for this programme. Her masterpiece, ‘ѿý’, tells the story of a prodigal son returning to his Congregational minister father’s house in Iowa. You’ll hear it with the Beatles’ ‘She’s Leaving ѿý’, the story of another child and her bewildered parents and Art Tatum’s version of Dvorak’s ‘Going ѿý’.
Another aspect of home is heard in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Twice Through the Heart’, a musical setting of Jackie Kay’s poems about a woman convicted of the murder of her husband after years of domestic abuse. Now, in ‘China Cup’, sung by Sarah Connolly, she remembers her old home and her new, a prison cell.
‘ѿý’ ends with Michael Longley’s ‘ѿýcoming’, the story of Odysseus’ return and Sibelius’ beautiful ‘The Swan of Tuonela’, evoking his Finnish home in a tale of a man leaving home to venture into the underworld.
Broadcasts
- Sun 7 Dec 2014 17:30ѿý Radio 3
- Sun 11 Oct 2015 17:30ѿý Radio 3
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