Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

The Photograph

Texts and music inspired by photographs and photography, with readings by Geraldine James and Robert Powell. Includes Emerson, Hawthorne and Hardy, plus Ives, Janacek, Tom Waits.

Geraldine James and Robert Powell read poetry and prose inspired by photographs and photography - real and imagined - from the time of the earliest Victorian pioneers to the photojournalists and artists of today. Texts include extracts from the writings of British pioneer Fox Talbot and American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Paul Auster, and poetry spanning 150 years from Thomas Hardy and Walt Whitman to Leonard Cohen and Carol Ann Duffy. Music includes orchestral works by Charles Ives and Leos Janacek, an electronic fragment from Tod Dockstader and a pictorial song from Tom Waits, plus environmental sound recordings by Chris Watson and Peter Cusack.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 19 Jan 2014 17:30
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Reconciliation

Next

The Eternal City

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

    Art Tatum (piano)

    Have You Met Miss Jones?

    Composer: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

    • Art Tatum: the Complete Pablo Group Masterpieces.
    • Pablo 6PACD-44012(6).

  • Christopher Isherwood

    Goodbye to Berlin (excerpt), reader Robert Powell

  • 00:00

    Uri Caine Orchestra

    Sidewalk Story: Daisy Bell

    • The Sidewalks of New York.
    • Winter and Winter 910-038 2.
  • 00:00

    Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree

    Specification.Fifteen

    Composer: Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree

    • Line 027.
  • 00:00

    The Matthew Herbert Big Band

    Turning Pages

    • Goodbye Swingtime.
    • Accidentales 05CD-AC.
  • 00:00

    GyΓΆrgy Ligeti

    Artikulation for 4-track tape

    • Warner 2564-696735.

  • Robin Robertson

    Four Views from the Camera Obscura, reader Robert Powell

  • 00:02

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Sonata No. 1 in G minor BWV 1001 for violin solo

    Artist: Thomas Zehetmair (violin)

    • APEX 2564-64375-2.

  • Margaret Atwood

    Daguerrotype taken in old age, reader Geraldine James

  • 00:06

    Otto Clarence Luening

    Low Speed

    Artist: Otto Clarence Luening

    • Ellipsis Arts ELLICD 3670 A-C.

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne

    The House of the Seven Gables (excerpt), reader Robert Powell

  • 00:08

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Visions fugitives Op.22, arr. Walter Susskind

    Artist: Borodin String Quartet

    • Teldec 945-72.
  • 00:09

    Charles Koechlin

    Les Heures persanes for piano 16 pieces, after Loti

    Artist: Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam (conductor)

    • Naxos 8.-223504.

  • Walt Whitman

    Out from Behind this Mask (To Confront a Portrait), reader Geraldine James

  • 00:11

    Philip Glass

    North star - music for the film

    Artist: Philip Glass Ensemble

    • Nonesuch 7559-799469.

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Essays and Lectures (excerpt), reader Robert Powell

  • 00:16

    Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree

    Specification.Fifteen

    Composer: Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree

    • Line 027.

  • Fox Talbot

    The Pencil of Nature, reader Geraldine James

  • Henry David Thoreau

    Journal (excerpts)

  • 00:17

    Matmos

    Schluss recording

    • Matador Records OLE-380-2.

  • Paul Auster

    Leviathan (excerpt), reader Robert Powell

  • 00:18

    Max Nagl

    Horen

    • Super 8.
    • Rude Noises 002CD.
  • 00:18

    Charles Ives

    2 Contemplations K.V.23 for chamber orchestra

    Artist: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (conductor)

    • Deutsche Grammophon 423-243-2.
  • 00:25

    Tom Waits

    Watch Her Disappear

    • Alice.
    • Anti 6632-2.

  • Thomas Hardy

    The Photograph, reader Robert Powell

  • 00:30

    FrΓ©dΓ©ric Chopin

    3 Waltzes Op.34 for piano

    Artist: Alice Sara Ott (piano)

    • Deutsche Grammophon 477-8095.
  • 00:36

    Charles Amirkhanian

    Walking Tune (A Room Music for Percy Grainger)

    Artist: Charles Amirkhanian

    • Walking Tune.
    • Starkkland ST-206.

  • Seamus Heaney

    The Walk, reader Geraldine James

  • 00:37

    Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate

    Kala

    • In the Heart of the Moon.
    • World Circuit WCD-072.

  • Philip Larkin

    Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album, read by the author

  • 00:45

    Art Tatum (piano)

    Sweet Lorraine

    Composer: Burwell and Parish

    • Art Tatum 1934 - 1940.
    • CLASSICS, CLASSICS-560.

  • sound recording by Peter Cusack

    Cuckoo and Radiometer

  • Henry David Thoreau

    Journal (excerpts)

  • 00:48

    Mouse on Mars

    Auto Orchestra

    • Instrumentals.
    • Domino WIGCD88P.

  • Leonard Cohen

    The Photograph, reader Robert Powell

  • 00:51

    GyΓΆrgy Ligeti

    Artikulation for 4-track tape

    • Warner 2564-696735.

  • W. H. Auden

    I Am Not a Camera, reader Geraldine James

  • Raymond Carver

    Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year, reader Robert Powell

  • 00:54

    Bill Frisell

    Lonely Man

    Composer: Bill Frisell

    • Disfarmer.
    • Nonesuch 7559-799308.

  • William Carlos Williams

    The Red Wheelbarrow, reader Geraldine James

  • John Updike

    Camera, reader Robert Powell

  • 00:56

    Robert Schumann

    Quartet in E flat major Op.47 for piano and strings

    Artist: Samuel Rhodes (piano), Beaux Arts Trio

    • Philips 420-791 2.
  • 00:59

    Tod Dockstader

    Two Fragments from Apocalypse: First Fragment

    Artist: Tod Dockstader

    • Apocalypse.
    • Starkland ST-202.

  • Philip Gross

    Bead, reader Geraldine James

  • 00:59

    Tod Dockstader

    Traveling Music

    Artist: Tod Dockstader

    • Apocalypse.
    • Starkland ST-202.

  • Herman Melville

    On the Photograph of an American Corps Commander, reader Robert Powell

  • 01:02

    Leos JanÑček

    Sinfonietta

    Artist: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras (conductor)

    • Decca 448-255-2.
  • 01:07

    John Levack Drever (sound engineeer)

    Manaton, early morning, April 2002

    • Sounding Dartmoor.
    • I-DAT SPACEX.

  • Friedrich Nietsche

    quotation, reader Geraldine James

  • Carol Ann Duffy

    War Photographer, reader Geraldine James

  • 01:09

    Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree

    Specification.Fifteen

    Composer: Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree

    • Line 027.
  • 01:09

    Field Recording by Chris Watson

    Vatnajokull

    • Weather Report.
    • Touch TO-47.
  • 01:09

    Matmos

    Schluss recording

    • Matador Records OLE-380-2.

  • Ted Hughes

    Remains of Elmet, reader Geraldine James

  • Marcel Proust

    The Remembrance of Things Past - Swann's Way (excerpt), reader Robert Powell

  • 01:11

    Howard Skempton

    Quavers 5 for piano [1984]

    Artist: John Tilbury (piano)

    • Sony Classical SK-66482.

  • Margaret Atwood

    This is a Photograph of Me, reader Geraldine James

Broadcasts

  • Sun 14 Aug 2011 22:15
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
  • Sun 19 Jan 2014 17:30
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ 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.