Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Hinterland

Olivia Williams and Michael Pennington with readings that explore hinterland, an area lying beyond what is visible or known. Music by Debussy, Dowland, Mendelssohn and Britten.

We travel to an area beyond what is visible or known, and to remote areas of a country away from the coast or the banks of major rivers in this evocation of hinterland.
Olivia Williams and Michael Pennington read poetry and prose from the travel writing of Bruce Chatwin about the lost mythical city of riches hidden in the Andes to the sinister underworld of Virgil鈥檚 Aeneid, via contemporary urban byways examined in the Edgelands project of Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, childhood dreams remembered by Australian poet Les Murray and the remote island which the sailor Enoch Arden ends up on in the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson - a poem which has given name to the principle in law that after being missing a certain number of years (typically seven), a person could be declared dead for purposes of remarriage and inheritance. The music includes John Luther Adams' environmentally inspired piece Under the Ice and Walking Song from Meredith Monk, Mussorgsky's Great Gate at Kiev from his Pictures at an Exhibition and Felix Mendelssohn's Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Producer: Felix Carey

Readings:
William Wordsmith - Tintern Abbey
Bruce Chatwin - In Patagonia
Virgil, translated by John Dryden - Aeneid, Book VI
Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett - Republic, Book VII
Christina Rossetti - Somewhere or Other
Les Murray - The Sleepout
Thomas Hardy - The Dead Drummer
Slavomir Rawicz - The Long Walk
Robert Byron - The Road to Oxiana
Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts - Edgelands
Rudyard Kipling - A Song for Travel
Judith Schalansky - Atlas of Remote Islands
Alfred Tennyson - From Enoch Arden
Robert Frost - Once by the Pacific

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 3 Jan 2021 17:30
蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Violins

Next

Treason and Plot

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

    Leos Jan谩膷ek

    They Chattered Like Swallows (from On an Overgrown Path)

    Performer: Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano).
    • Hyperion CDA68030.
    • 5.

  • William Wordsmith

    Tintern Abbey, read by Olivia Williams

  • 00:01

    George Butterworth

    The Banks of Green Willow

    Performer: Neville Marriner (conductor), Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
    • Decca 452 707.
    • 2.
  • 00:07

    John Luther Adams

    Under the Ice

    Performer: John Luther Adams.
    • Cantoloupe Music CA21112.
    • 2.

  • Bruce Chatwin

    In Patagonia, read by Michael Pennington

  • 00:10

    Alberto Ginastera

    Piano Sonata No.1: mvt Presto misterioso

    Performer: Gabriela Montero (piano).
    • EMI 6411442.
    • 19.

  • Virgil, translated by John Dryden

    Aeneid book VI, read by Olivia Williams

  • 00:13

    John Dowland

    In Darkness Let Me Dwell

    Performer: Dorothee Mields (soprano), Hille Perl (viola de gamba), Sirius Viols.
    • DHM 88697362132.
    • 14.

  • Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett

    Republic Book VII read by Michael Pennington

  • 00:20

    Steve Reich

    Nagoya Marimbas

    Performer: Bob Becker. Performer: James Preiss.
    • Nonesuch 7559-79430-2.
    • 1.

  • Christina Rossetti

    Somewhere or Other read by Olivia Williams

  • 00:24

    Christian Wallumr酶d

    A Year from Easter

    Performer: Christian Wallumr酶d Ensemble.
    • ECM 1801 982 4132.
    • 9.

  • Les Murray

    The Sleepout read by Michael Pennington

  • 00:28

    Felix Mendelssohn

    Midsummer Night聮s Dream - Scherzo

    Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor), German Symphony Orchestra Berlin.
    • Decca 440 296-2.
    • 2.

  • Thomas Hardy

    The Dead Drummer read by Olivia Williams

  • 00:33

    Claude Vivier

    Chanson d聮adieu 聳 from Cinq chansons pour percussion

    Performer: Christian Dierstein (percussion).
    • Kairos 0012472KAI.
    • 7.

  • Slavomir Rawicz

    The Long Walk read by Michael Pennington

  • 00:38

    Trad

    Peshnawazi from 3 raga Khamaj

    Performer: Khalde Arman (rubab).
    • Arion Arn 64681.
    • 1.

  • Robert Byron

    The Road to Oxiana read by Olivia Williams

  • 00:41

    Modest Mussorgsky

    Pictures at an Exhibition 聳 The Great Gate at Kiev

    Performer: Herbert von Karajan (conductor), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • DG 429 162-2.
    • 1.
  • 00:47

    Charles Amirkhanian

    Walking Tune 聳 A Room Music for Percy Grainger

    Performer: Charles Amirkhanian.
    • Starkland ST 206.
    • 5.

  • Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts

    Edgelands read by Olivia Williams

  • 00:51

    Meredith Monk

    Walking Song

    Performer: Meredith Monk.
    • Mercury 5369032.
    • 9.

  • Rudyard Kipling

    A Song for Travel read by Michael Pennington

  • 00:54

    Arthur Honegger

    Pacific 231

    Performer: Charles Dutoit (conductor), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
    • Erato ECD88171.
    • 1.
  • 01:01

    John Luther Adams

    Under the Ice

    Performer: John Luther Adams.
    • Cantoloupe Music CA21112.
    • 2.

  • Judith Schalansky

    Atlas of Remote Islands read by Olivia Williams

  • Alfred Tennyson

    From Enoch Arden read by Michael Pennington

  • 01:05

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Canon a 2 per Tonos from Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079

    Performer: Ton Koopman and members of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.
    • Challenge Classics CC72309.
    • 6.

  • Robert Frost

    Once by the Pacific read by Olivia Williams

  • 01:09

    Benjamin Britten

    Storm from Four Sea Interludes

    Performer: Edward Gardner (conductor), 蜜芽传媒 Philharmonic.
    • Chandos CHAN 10658.
    • 12.

Producer note

The texts and music in this programme relate to the idea of hinterland both as a geographical location - peripheral or remote - and hinterland as something beyond that which is immediately knowable or perceivable.

From Bruce Chatwin鈥檚 In Patagonia, we hear the tale of Trapalanda, the lost mythical city of riches hidden in the Andes, before the mysterious and skittering second movement of Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera鈥檚 Piano Sonata No.1.

John Dryden鈥檚 translation of the Aeneid takes us to Virgil鈥檚 underworld, at a murky fork in the road between the heaven and hell of Elysium and Tartarus, as Aeneas and the Sybil part ways with the ill-fated ghost of Deophobus.

Plato鈥檚 cave allegory outlines the notion that the world we experience through our senses is just a shadow of the real thing - a kind of philosophical hinterland - the shadows in the cave manifested musically in Reich鈥檚 phasing marimba duo.

Dreams could be said to occupy the hinterland of our everyday lives, and Les Murray鈥檚 poem describes the sensuality of childhood dreams, drawing on his own experience of sleeping on the verandah of his family dairy farm in New South Wales.

Hardy鈥檚 The Dead Drummer tells of a young life lost in a strange land - a West Country boy fighting in the Boer War. Buried unceremoniously in the remote plains of South Africa he becomes a part of his new surroundings. This poignant poem is paired with the sparse, exotic soundworld of Claude Vivier鈥檚 Chanson d鈥橝dieu.

The fearsome Gobi Desert is the backdrop for Slawomir Rawicz in The Long Walk, the Polish author's controversial account of his escape from a Siberian gulag and subsequent 4,000 mile journey through Asia to India.

Then in a passage from The Road to Oxiana, celebrated travel writer Robert Byron describes his arrival at the city Balkh in northern Afghanistan, 鈥渂alm to eyes bruised by the monstrous antiquity of the preceding landscape鈥�.

Topographical observations of a different kind come from Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts in their study of Edgelands, the urban hinterland of town planners. In it they make a link between the muddy desire paths of city parkland and the nomadic songlines of the Australian Aboriginals. Two contemporary songlines accompany this text: Charles Amirkhanian鈥檚 homage to Percy Grainger and Meredith Monk鈥檚 Inuit-like Walking Song.

With Tennyson鈥檚 Enoch Arden we return to the idea of hinterland as a place of solitude or remote isolation, with the stranded sailor immersed in the riches of the natural environment but longing for home.

Producer: Felix Carey

Broadcasts

  • Sun 23 Oct 2016 17:30
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
  • Sun 3 Jan 2021 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