The Trumpet
Poetry and prose about the trumpet, featuring the work of Victor Hugo, Langston Hughes, Alice Oswald and Kim Moore. Readings by Madeleine Potter and Joseph Ayre.
Poetry and prose about the trumpet, with readings by Madeleine Potter and Joseph Ayre.
The trumpet occupies a special place in the collective consciousness, a sonic presence throughout centuries of celebrations, ceremonies, wars and visions. Here is an instrument that brought down the walls of the city of Jericho, and whose 鈥渓oud clangour excites us to arms'' in the words of John Dryden (encountered in this programme in a setting by George Frideric Handel). We hear a scene from Louis MacNiece鈥檚 蜜芽传媒 drama, The Dark Tower (first broadcast in 1946), a parable play on the 鈥渁ncient theme of the Quest鈥� in which the protagonist is a young trumpeter, practising his fanfare as he prepares to meet his fate.
But the instrument has many lives beyond the battlefield: for Walt Whitman, it takes on the role of otherworldly messenger, inviting him into a mystical experience; it appears as a metaphor in Alice Oswald鈥檚 celebratory love sonnet, Wedding; contemporary jazz musician Ambrose Akinmusire explores its tender and fragile possibilities; and Langston Hughes reads Trumpet Player at the 蜜芽传媒 in 1962, his poetic ode to the instrument鈥檚 place in the history of African-American expression and memory.
Whether in the hands of apocalyptic angels, enthusiastic amateurs, mourners, or virtuosic improvisers, it seems that the trumpet is something of a summoner, calling us away from the everyday, towards another reality...
Readings:
Kim Moore - Teaching The Trumpet
John Steinbeck - Sweet Thursday
Louis MacNiece - The Dark Tower
Victor Hugo (trans Toru Dutt) - The Trumpets Of The Mind
Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Blow, Bugle, Blow
Walt Whitman - The Mystic Trumpeter, 1 - 3
Alice Oswald - Wedding
Walt Whitman - The Mystic Trumpeter, 5
Langston Hughes - Trumpet Player
Jackie Kay - Trumpet
The King James Bible - Book of Revelation, Chapter 8, Verses 7 - 13
Walt Whitman - The Mystic Trumpeter, 7 - 8
Eudora Welty - The Winds
Edward Thomas - The Trumpet
Produced by Phil Smith
A Reduced Listening production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 3.
Last on
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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00:03Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Trumpet Concerto in E flat major (3rd mvt)
Performer: Alison Balsom. Orchestra: The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. -
Kim Moore
Teaching The Trumpet read by Joseph Ayre
John Steinbeck
Sweet Thursday read by Madeleine Potter
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00:08Ella Fitzgerald
The Music Goes Round and Round
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00:12George Frideric Handel
The Trumpet's Loud Clangour (Ode for St Cecilia's Day)
Singer: Ed Lyon. Ensemble: Ludus Baroque. Conductor: Richard Neville-Towle.Victor Hugo
The Trumpets of the Mind read by Madeleine Potter
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00:18Mahalia Jackson
Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Princess The Splendour Falls on Castle Walls read by Joseph Ayre
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00:20Henry Purcell
Canzona for Queen Mary's Funeral
Ensemble: Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.![]()
00:23Domenico Scarlatti
Sonata in E major Kk.380
Performer: Yuja Wang.Walt Whitman
The Mystic Trumpeter 1 & 2 read by Madeleine Potter
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00:29Aaron Copland
Quiet City
Orchestra: Nashville Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Paul Gambill.Walt Whitman
The Mystic Trumpeter 3 read by Madeleine Potter
Alice Oswald
Wedding read by Madeleine Potter
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00:38Azimuth
Adios Iony
Walt Whitman
The Mystic Trumpeter 6 read by Joseph Ayre
![]()
00:44Miles Davis
In a Silent Way/It's about that Time
Jackie Kay
Trumpet read by Madeleine Potter
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00:49Roy Hargrove
Strasbourg/St Denis
Jackie Kay
Trumpet read by Madeleine Potter
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00:53Hayden Powell
Wakeup Call
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00:55Olivier Messiaen
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum (5th mvt)
Ensemble: Les Percussions de Strasbourg. Conductor: Pierre Boulez.Walt Whitman
The Mystic Trumpeter 7 & 8 read by Joseph Ayre
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01:03Joseph Haydn
Trumpet Concerto in E flat major (3rd mvt: Allegro)
Performer: Wynton Marsalis. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Raymond Leppard.Eudora Welty
The Winds read by Madeleine Potter
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01:10Ambrose Akinmusire
The Beauty of Dissolving Portraits
Edward Thomas
The Trumpet read by Joseph Ayre
Broadcasts
- Sun 25 Apr 2021 17:30蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
- Sun 13 Feb 2022 18:15蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
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