Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Selfless Love

Music by Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gluck and Bill Withers and readings performed by Pearl Mackie and Matthew Tennyson include Oscar Wilde, Noel Streatfield, William Golding.

From Princess Scheherazade who offers to marry a murderous king in order to save her father, to Tinkerbell drinking poison to save Peter Pan, today鈥檚 Words and Music explores themes of selfless love and sacrifice.

For centuries, writers and composers have been inspired by biblical examples of selfless love, from the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), to King David pleading to have died in place of his son. The Crucifixion becomes a metaphor in Oscar Wilde鈥檚 The Happy Prince and Benjamin Britten鈥檚 Corpus Christi Carol, sung by Jeff Buckley.

Families make everyday sacrifices, giving up their wages in Noel Streatfeild鈥檚 Ballet Shoes, while Bill Withers sings of his grandma, whose hands tended unwed mothers and picked him up when he fell.

Elsewhere, Iphigenia is sacrificed to the gods in Gluck鈥檚 opera about the Trojan war, while the boys in Lord of the Flies plan a much darker sacrifice. In Kazuo Ishiguro鈥檚 futuristic novel Never Let Me Go, three young friends who were bred to be organ donors contemplate their approaching deaths.

And selfless love can be political. Nelson Mandela vows that his is a cause for which he is prepared to die, while Wilfred Owen deplores the empty words that sent so many to their deaths in the trenches. In an archive recording from the Second World War, John Gielgud read a letter from a young RAF pilot to his mother. And diary entries from Captain Scott describe the selfless bravery of a dying man on the doomed 1912 mission to the Antarctic.

The readers are Pearl Mackie and Matthew Tennyson.

Producer: Hannah Sander

READINGS:
Scheherazade traditional tale translated by NJ Dawood
January 22nd, Missolonghi Byron
If I can stop one heart from breaking Emily Dickinson
Peter Pan and Wendy JM Barrie
The Sacrifice George Herbert
Lord of the Flies William Golding
If We Must Die Claude Mckay
Off the Record Curtis Sittenfeld
The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde
Rivonia trial speech Nelson Mandela
Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen
Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild
A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
Diaries Cpt Robert Falcon Scott
Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare
Meditation XVII John Donne
A Shropshire Lad A E Housman

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 9 Mar 2025 18:00
蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Hotels, Hostelries and Town Halls

Next

1920s Ireland

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

    Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    Scheherazade 鈥� symphonic suite (Op.35), The Sea and Sinbad's Ship

    Performer: Christopher Warren-Green (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor).
    • Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade: Philharmonia/Ashkenazy.
    • Decca 417301-2.
    • Tr1.
  • 00:01

    Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    The Sea and Sinbad's Ship (Sheherazade Op.35)

    Performer: Christopher Warren鈥怗reen. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy.
    • Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade: Philharmonia/Ashkenazy.
    • Decca.
    • 1.
  • 00:10

    Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

    Agnus Dei from Missa Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La

    Ensemble: Huelgas Ensemble. Conductor: Paul Van Nevel.
    • La Quinta Essentia.
    • Harmonia Mundi HMC901922.
    • Tr13.
  • 00:11

    Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

    Agnus Dei - super ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la (for 6 and 7 voices)

    Ensemble: Huelgas Ensemble. Director: Paul Van Nevel.
    • DEWDR.
  • 00:13

    Benjamin Britten

    Corpus Christi Carol

    Performer: Jeff Buckley.
    • Grace.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd 074645752822-CK 57.
    • Tr8.
  • 00:15

    Benjamin Britten

    Corpus Christi Carol

    Composer: Jeff Buckley. Performer: Jeff Buckley.
    • Grace.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.
    • 8.
  • 00:16

    Art Blakey, Louis Martinez

    The Sacrifice

    Performer: The Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble.
    • Art Blakey Milestones of a Legend Vol2.
    • Documents 4053796003584.
    • S2 Tr2.
  • 00:18

    The Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble

    The Sacrifice

    • Art Blakey Milestones of a Legend Vol 2.
    • Documents.
    • 2.
  • 00:20

    Christoph Willibald Gluck

    Iphigenia in Aulis arr. Wagner: Overture mit Konzertschluss

    Music Arranger: Richard Wagner. Music Arranger: Richard Wagner. Orchestra: Das Neue Orchester. Orchestra: Das Neue Orchester. Conductor: Christoph Spering. Conductor: Christoph Spering.
    • Gluck:Iphigenia in Aulis.
    • Oehms OC 953.
    • S2 Tr22.
  • 00:23

    Christoph Willibald Gluck

    Overture mit Konzertschluss from Iphigenie en Aulide

    Music Arranger: Richard Wagner. Orchestra: Das Neue Orchester. Conductor: Christoph Spering.
    • Gluck: Iphegenia in Aulis.
    • Oehms.
    • 22.
  • 00:29

    Bill Withers

    Grandma鈥檚 Hands

    Performer: Bill Withers.
    • The Essential Bill Withers.
    • Columbia / Legacy.
    • 88883715720.
    • Tr4.
  • 00:31

    Bill Withers

    Grandma's Hands

    • The Essential Bill Withers.
    • Legacy.
    • 4.
  • 00:33

    George Butterworth

    On the Idle Hill of Summer from A Shropshire Lad

    Singer: Robin Tritschler. Performer: Malcolm Martineau.
    • No Exceptions No Exemptions Great War Songs.
    • Signum Classics.
    • SIGCD401.
    • Tr2.
  • 00:35

    George Butterworth

    Bredon Hill (On the Idle Hill of Summer)

    Performer: Malcolm Martineau. Singer: Robin Tritschler.
    • Songs of 1914.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 2.
  • 00:38

    Flying Officer Vivian Allen William Rosewarne

    An Airman's Letter To His Mother

    Performer: Sir John Gielgud.
    • Our Finest Hour.
    • Memory Lane.
    • GLMY 108.
    • Tr5.
  • 00:39

    Thomas Tomkins

    When David Heard that Absolom was Slain

    Performer: Stile Antico.
    • Tune thy Musicke to thy Hart: Tudor & Jacobean music for private devotion.
    • Harmonia Mundi HMU 807554.
    • Tr14.
  • 00:40

    John Gielgud

    An Airman's Letter to his Mother

    • Our Finest Hours.
    • Memory Lane.
    • 5.
  • 00:41

    Thomas Tomkins

    When David heard that Absalom was slain

    Choir: Stile Antico.
    • Tune Thy Musicke to Thy Hart.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • 14.
  • 00:46

    Ella Fitzgerald

    I Can't Give You Anything But Love

    • Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs from "Let No Man Write My Epitaph.
    • Verve Reissues 839 839-2.
    • Tr4.
  • 00:48

    Ella Fitzgerald

    I Can't Give You Anything But Love

    • Ella Fitzgerald sings songs from "Let No Man Write My Epitaph" film soundtrack.
    • Verve Reissues.
    • 4.
  • 00:51

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Sinfonia Antarctica (Symphony no.7): 1st mvt, Prelude (Andante maestoso)

    Orchestra: Hall茅. Conductor: John Barbirolli.
    • Sinfonia Antarctica.
    • EMI Classics 724356643.
    • Tr7.
  • 00:53

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Sinfonia Antarctica (Symphony no.7): 1st mvt, Prelude (Andante maestoso)

    Orchestra: Hall茅. Conductor: John Barbirolli.
    • Sinfonia Antarctica.
    • 7.
  • 01:01

    L. Viola Kinney

    Mother's Sacrifice

    Performer: Maria Corley.
    • Soulscapes:Piano Music by African American Women.
    • Albany TROY857.
    • Tr1.
  • 01:03

    L. Viola Kinney

    Mother's Sacrifice

    Performer: Maria Corley.
    • SOULSCAPES: PIANO MUSIC BY AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN.
    • Albany.
    • 1.
  • 01:04

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2: Romeo at Juliet's tomb

    Orchestra: 蜜芽传媒 National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Thomas S酶nderg氓rd.
    • Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet.
    • Nimbus NI5306.
    • Tr7.
  • 01:06

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Romeo and Juliet - suite no. 2 Op.64b: no.7 - Romeo at Juliet's tomb

    Performer: 蜜芽传媒 National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Tadaaki Otaka.
    • Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet.
    • 7.
  • 01:10

    Gerald Finzi

    Amen from Lo, the full, final sacrifice

    Choir: Choir of New College Oxford. Conductor: Edward Higginbottom.
    • Bluebird 鈥� Music of Contemplation.
    • Decca 4668702.
    • Tr7.
  • 01:12

    Gerald Finzi

    Amen from 'Lo, the Full. Final Sacrifice'

    Choir: Choir of New College Oxford. Conductor: Edward Higginbotham.
    • Bluebird: Music of Contemplation.
    • Decca.
    • 7.

Broadcast

  • Sun 9 Mar 2025 18:00
    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.