Deserts
Samira Ahmed explores how the idea of the desert has been used in literature and spiritual texts. There are poems and music from desert adventurers and dwellers.
Samira Ahmed explores how the idea of the desert has been used in literature and spiritual texts.
Often, in Western literature, the desert is a place of self-discovery for a single, romantic explorer or is used as a place to test ideas and fears about the end of the world. But Samira's first encounter with a desert story was that of Hagar and Ishmael. Ishmael, the first son of the Biblical Patriarch, Abraham, is cast out into the desert with his mother, Hagar. Thirsty and abandoned they are saved by an intervention from God and a promise that Ishmael will go on to found a great nation.
Harsh and difficult places to live, yes, but the desert regions of the world are not the unpopulated wastelands of the Western literary imagination. In this programme we hear music and poetry from people who live in deserts and find great beauty there.
There's music from Steve Reich, Tinariwen and Brian Eno, along with poems and prose written by Laurie Lee, Elana Bell and the pre-Islamic Arabic poet, Shanfara.
The readers are Joe Armstrong, Sirine Saba and Emily Taaffe.
Producer: Natalie Steed
A Whistledown production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4.
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Samira Ahmed blogs on desert worlds
Music Played
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Maurice Jarre
First Entrance To The Desert/Night And Stars/Lawrence And Tafas
Performer: Philharmonia Orchestra. Performer: Tony Bremner.- Lawrence of Arabia.
- Silva Screen.
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Steve Reich
The Desert Music: III. Pt. 1, Slow
Performer: Alarm Will Sound. Performer: Alan Pierson & Ossia.- Steve Reich: Tehillim & The Desert Music.
- Canteloupe.
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Robin Jeffrey, Roddy Skeaping
Night in the Desert
- Sounds Of The Jewish World.
- KPM Music.
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Johnny Cash
Cool Water
- American VI: Ain't No Grave.
- American Recordings / Lost Highway.
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Robin Jeffrey & Roddy Skeaping
In the Wilderness
- Sounds Of The Jewish World.
- KPM Music.
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Zakir Hussain
Nomads
- Soundscapes: Music of the Desert.
- Music Today.
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Tinariwen
Amassakoul 'N' T茅n茅r茅
- Amassakoul.
- IRISLIGHTRECORDS.
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R. Carlos Nakai
Anasazi Visions
- Sundance Season.
- Celestial Harmonies.
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Brian Eno
Dune: Prophecy Theme
- The No 1 Sci Fi Album.
- PolyGram TV.
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Natacha Atlas and Jocelyn Pook
Adam聮s Lullaby
Performer: Natacha Atlas.- Something Dangerous.
- Beggar聮s Banquet.
Readings
Title: Scot in the Desert
Author: Laurie Lee
Publisher: John Murray Pub
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Title: The story of Hagar and Ishmael - scripture quotations taken from the New English Bible
Publisher: Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press
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Title: The story of Hagar and Ishmael - scripture quotations taken from the New English
Publisher: Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press
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Title: What Else God Wanted
Author: Elana Bell
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
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Title: Children of the Sun and Wind
Author: Mohamed Ebnu (literal translation Tom Boll, final translation by the Poetry Translation Workshop)
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Title: Arabian Ode 鈥淟鈥�(extract)
Author: Shanfara, translated Michael A Sells, from Desert Tracings
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
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Title: Ozymandias
Synopsis: The ultimate poem of desert hubris
Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Title: The End of Civilisation as we know it
Author: Michael Symmons Roberts
Publisher: Cape Poetry
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Title: The Atrocity Exhibition
Author: JG Ballard
Publisher: The Fourth Estate
Broadcasts
- Sun 19 Apr 2015 06:05蜜芽传媒 Radio 4
- Sun 19 Apr 2015 23:30蜜芽传媒 Radio 4