Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

It's Not Dark Yet

Texts and music centring on how artists articulate tragedy and the human spirit, with readings by Malcolm Storry and Michelle Terry. With Blake and Yeats plus Messiaen and Bruckner.

As the nights begin to lengthen, It's Not Dark Yet.... takes us into the world of prophecy and doom, long despairing nights of the soul, war, loss of faith, our life-long fear of death and the saving brightness of those who do not yield. Malcolm Storry and Michelle Terry read from The Poetic Edda, William Blake, Dylan Thomas and W B Yeats, Shakespeare and Auden, Carol Ann Duffy, Kathleen Jamieson, Siegfried Sassoon and T H White and we hear the music of Messiaen and Janacek, Bruckner, Tavener, Judy Collins, Maria Callas, Liszt and Beethoven and Al Bowlly.

Readers: Malcolm Storry and Michelle Terry

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 9 Oct 2016 17:30
蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Sound Frontiers: Turning Points

Next

Violins

See all episodes from Words and Music

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Carl Nielsen

    Afflictus Sum \(Psalm XXXVII, 9; ATTB)

    Performer: Camerata Chamber Choir.
    • BIS CD131.
    • Tr13.

  • W. H. Auden

    聭In Memory of W. B. Yeats聮 read by Malcolm Storry

  • 00:01

    Anton Bruckner

    Aeterna fac.

    Performer: Munich Philharmonic, Sergiu Celibidache (conductor),.
    • EMI 5566952.
    • CD2 Tr6.
  • 00:04

    Wagner

    Gotterdammerung: Siegfried聮s Death and Funeral March

    Performer: Berlin Philharmoniker, Klaus Tennstedt (conductor).
    • EMI CDC7470072.
    • Tr3.

  • The Poetic Edda, translated by Carolyne Larrington

    Grimnir聮s Prophecy (extract) read by Malcolm Storry

  • The Poetic Edda, translated by Carolyne Larrington

    The Seeress Prophecy (extract) read by Michelle Terry

  • 00:11

    Irving Berlin

    Let聮s Face the Music and Dance

    Performer: Ray Noble & His Orchestra, Al Bowlly (vocals).
    • OLD BEAN DOLD14.
    • Tr16.

  • T. H. White

    The Once and Future King extract read by Malcolm Storry

  • 00:13

    Irving Berlin

    Let聮s Face the Music and Dance

    Performer: Ray Noble and His Orchestra, Al Bowlly (vocals).
    • OLD BEAN DOLD14.
    • Tr16.

  • William Blake

    Europe A Prophecy (extract) read by Michelle Terry

  • 00:16

    Anton Bruckner

    Symphony No 9: Scherzo

    Performer: Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Roger Norrington (conductor).
    • HANSSLER CLASSICS CD93273.
    • Tr2.

  • W. B. Yeats

    The Second Coming read by Malcolm Storry

  • Matthew Arnold

    Dover Beach read by Michelle Terry

  • 00:24

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Wellington聮s Victory, Op. 91

    Performer: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Erich Kunzel (conductor), North-South Skirmish Association (Cannons and Muskets).
    • TELARC CD80079.
    • Tr1.

  • Siegfried Sassoon

    Storm and Sunlight read by Malcolm Storry

  • 00:31

    Edward Elgar

    Sospiri, Op. 70

    Performer: English Northern Philharmonia, David Lloyd-Jones (conductor).
    • Naxos 8 552133 34.
    • CD1 Tr6.

  • Siegfried Sassoon

    Storm and Sunlight read by Malcolm Storry

  • 00:35

    Giacomo Carissimi

    The Story of Jephthah 聳 Coro a 6 (Tutti)

    Performer: Consortium Carissimi.
    • NAXOS 8557390.
    • Tr18.

  • Rudyard Kipling

    Recessional read by Malcolm Storry

  • 00:39

    Olivier Messiaen

    Abyss of the birds

    Performer: The Fibonacci Sequence, Jack Liebeck (violin), Julian Farrell (clarinet), Benjamin Hughes (cello), Kathron Sturrock (piano).
    • DEUX-ELLES DXL 1133.
    • Tr3.

  • Dylan Thomas

    Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night read by Michelle Terry

  • William Shakespeare

    Birds I聮 The Cage speech, Act V Scene III (extract) read by Malcolm Storry

  • 00:44

    John Tavener

    Tears of the Angels

    Performer: BT Scottish Ensemble, Clio Gould (Director & Solo Violin).
    • LINN CDK 085.
    • Tr3.

  • John Keats

    When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be, read by Michelle Terry

  • 00:48

    Giacomo Puccini

    Tosca, Act 2 聳 Aria: Vissi D聮arte聟

    Performer: Maria Callas (soprano), Victor de Sabata (conductor), Orchestra of La Scala Milan.
    • EMI CDS7471758.
    • CD2 Tr1.

  • William Blake

    Marriage of Heaven and Hell (extract) read by Malcolm Storry

  • John Masefield

    An Epilogue read by Michelle Terry

  • 00:53

    Leos Jan谩膷ek

    The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away

    Performer: Roland Pontinen (piano).
    • BIS CD 1326.
    • Tr7.

  • D. H. Lawrence

    Piano read by Malcolm Storry

  • Kathleen Jamie

    Glamourie, read by Michelle Terry

  • 00:59

    William Butler Yeats, Judy Collins

    Golden Apples of the Sun

    Performer: Judy Collins.
    • Elektra ?8122 73560 2.
    • Tr13.

  • Gerda Mayer

    Lieselott Among the Blackberries read by Michelle Terry

  • 01:03

    Franz Liszt

    Liebestraum no. 3

    Performer: Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano), Yutaka Sado (conductor).
    • CHALLENGE CC72371.
    • Tr4.

  • Edgar Allan Poe

    A Dream Within A Dream read by Michelle Terry

  • Alfred Tennyson

    Ulysses read by Malcolm Storry

  • 01:07

    John Tavener

    My Gaze is Ever Upon You

    Performer: BT Scottish Ensemble, Clio Gould (Director & Solo Violin).
    • LINN CDK 085.
    • Tr2.

  • Alfred Tennyson

    Ulysses read by Malcolm Storry

  • Alfred Tennyson

    Ulysses read by Malcolm Storry

  • Alfred Tennyson

    Ulysses read by Malcolm Storry

  • Carol Ann Duffy

    The Dark read by Michelle Terry

Producer's Notes: It's Not Dark Yet

The Autumn equinox has passed, the nights are drawing in and while It鈥檚 Not Dark Yet鈥� it鈥檚 certainly getting there so here鈥檚 to a good wallow in the way British, American and European composers and poets and writers have channelled a propensity to doom and despair into apocalypse or defiance.

We begin with the North and Carl Nielsen鈥檚 Afflictus Sum and then turn to W. H. Auden鈥檚 splendid lament for W. B. Yeats, a clarion call to poets to stand firm against dread.听 We鈥檒l hear from Yeats himself in different moods 鈥� despairing in The Second Coming and fey in The Song of Wandering Angus.

Then Anton Bruckner鈥檚 invocation of the Saints, utterly apocalyptic in tone, and later he鈥檒l give us one of the most terrifying chords in the whole of classical music.

Whether those of Nordic seer or British Blake - prophecies seldom end well while the ebbing of Matthew Arnold鈥檚 sea of Faith bodes no good.听 And so on through war, courtesy of Beethoven, Siegfried Sassoon, Rudyard Kipling and Edward Elgar to the wonder of Messiaen and those who managed to make music in the concentration camps.

Tavener, so tender and a violin note that pierces the soul; his lament for his father is echoed and challenged by Dylan Thomas while Lear and Maria Callas are on hand with words of exquisite pain.

Time to pull back before we plunge over the edge 鈥� John Masefield speaks of hope, there is magic and glamour from Kathleen Jamieson, the intensity of happiness in old age as Gerda Mayer鈥檚 old lady stubbornly picks fruit in Summer鈥檚 last brightness... while Tennyson鈥檚 old warrior-adventurer dreams of one last hurrah by the fire.

So don鈥檛 be afraid 鈥� It鈥檚 Not Dark Yet鈥� though it will be.

听
Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Broadcast

  • Sun 9 Oct 2016 17:30
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

The hidden history of plant-based diets

The hidden history of plant-based diets

Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.

Books website

Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.

Gallery