Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Islands

Kate Fleetwood and Dominic Mafham explore literary writings about islands from John Donne's famous Meditation No.17 to A. K. Ramanujam's take on the Donne, 'No Man is an Island', and Daniel Defoe to Derek Walcott. The music includes works by Rautavaara, Purcell and Otto Luening.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 1 Nov 2015 17:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Drumming

Next

Rules and How to Break Them

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

    Otto Luening

    Low Speed

    Performer: Otto Luening (electronics).
    • OHM CD3670.
    • CD1 T6.

  • Robert Louis Stevenson

    Fair Isle at Sea, read by Dominic Mafham

  • Gerald Manley Hopkins

    There is an island, read by Kate Fleetwood

  • Claudian, translated by Howard Mumford Jones

    The Lonely Isle, read by Kate Fleetwood

  • 00:03

    Richard Rodney Bennett

    Sea Change for chorus (Isle full of Noyses)

    Performer: Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (director).
    • COLLEGIUM CSCD521.
    • 1.

  • Shakespeare

    The Tempest (extract, 3.2.135-142), read by Dominic Mafham

  • 00:06

    Marin Marais

    Plainte (Suite en sol)

    Performer: Hille Perl (viola da gamba), Lee Santana (theorbo).
    • DHM 82876587912.
    • 11.
  • 00:09

    Bridge

    Moonlight (The Sea)

    Performer: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Groves (conductor).
    • EMI CDM 7 69870 2.
    • 3.

  • Neruda

    XVII: The Island, read by Kate Fleetwood

  • William Golding

    Lord of the Flies (extract), read by Dominic Mafham

  • 00:16

    Frédéric Chopin

    Nocturne in B major Op.32 No.1

    Performer: Maria Joao Pires (piano).
    • DG 447096-2.
    • 9.

  • John Keats

    Sonnet to Ailsa Craig, read by Kate Fleetwood

  • 00:21

    Rautavaara

    Isle of Bliss / Lintukoto

    Performer: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam (conductor).
    • ONDINE ODE 989-2.
    • 13.
  • 00:32

    Pierre Boulez

    Memoriale (... explosante fixe... Originel)

    Performer: Sophie Cherrier (flute), Soloists of Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez (conductor).
    • DG 480 6828.
    • CD7 T13.

  • Lucretia Davidson

    Sabrina. A Volcanic Island, Which Appeared Among the Azores, in 1811, read by Kate Fleetwood and Dominic Mafham

  • Seamus Heaney

    The Disappearing Islands, read by Dominic Mafham

  • Vachel Lindsay

    A Song in July, read by Kate Fleetwood

  • 00:39

    Henry Purcell

    Fairest Isle (King Arthur)

    Performer: Veronique Gens (soprano), Les Arts Florissants, William Christie (director).
    • ERATO 4509985352.
    • CD2 T10.

  • Robert Browning

    The IsleÂ’s Enchantress, read by Dominic Mafham

  • 00:44

    Edgard Varèse

    Density 21.5

    Performer: Jacques Zoon (flute).
    • DECCA 460 208-2.
    • CD2 T11.

  • Rin Ishigaki

    Island, read by Kate Fleetwood

  • John Donne

    Meditation 17 (extract), read Dominic Mafham

  • A. K. Ramunujam

    No Man is an Island, read Kate Fleetwood

  • 00:49

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Scherzo humoristique, Op.12 No.9, arranged for 4 bassoons from ‘10 pieces, Op.12’

    Performer: Martin Gatt, Meyrick Alexander, Melbon Mackie, John Orford (bassoons).
    • CONIFER CDCF173.
    • 13.

  • Hilda Conkling

    The Lonesome Wave, read Kate Fleetwood

  • 00:52

    Claude Debussy

    LÂ’isle joyeuse

    Performer: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano).
    • CHANDOS CHAN 10443.
    • 14.

  • Derek Walcott

    Islands, read by Dominic Mafham

  • 00:58

    György Ligeti

    Aventures (extract)

    Performer: Jane Manning (soprano), Mary Thomas (mezzo soprano), William Pearson (bass), Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez (director).
    • DG 423244-2.
    • 11.

  • Li Po, translated by Florence Ayscough

    Parrot Island, read Kate Fleetwood

  • Daniel Defoe

    Robinson Crusoe (extract from Chapter 4), read by Dominic Mafham

  • 01:02

    Anon / Leonhard Schmidinger (instrumental music)

    Ssequentia: Victimae paschali laudes

    Performer: Martin Grubinger & Leonhard Schmidinger (percussion), Schola Cantorum of the Benedictine Abbey Münsterschwarzach, Godehard Joppich (director).
    • DG 4778797.
    • 8.

  • Anonymous, translated by Michael Alexander

    Wulf and Eadwacer, read by Dominic Mafham

  • 01:05

    Gabriel Prokofiev

    Spheres

    Performer: Daniel Hope (violin), Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Simon Halsey (conductor).
    • DG 479 0571.
    • 9.

  • Sam Taylor

    The Island at the End of the World (opening extract), read by Kate Fleetwood

  • Longfellow

    Ultima Thule, read by Dominic Mafham

  • 01:09

    Sibelius

    Chorus of Winds (The Tempest, Suite No. 2)

    Performer: Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Joseph Swensen (conductor).
    • LINN CKD 220.
    • 15.

  • Andrew Young

    Islands, read by Dominic Mafham

  • C. P. Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

    Ithaka, read by Kate Fleetwood

  • George Barlow

    My Island, read by Kate Fleetwood

Producer's Note - Islands

Be not afeard.Ìý The isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.

Ìý

(Shakespeare: The Tempest)

Ìý

There is an extraordinary wealth of literary writings about islands, from Shakespeare’s Tempest to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and John Donne’s Meditation 17 to A. K. Ramanujan’s take on Donne’s famous words, ‘no man is an island’.Ìý Islands offer a scenic and romantic setting for escape or contemplation, and they are also clearly-delineated places on which a drama can unfold.

Ìý

This edition of Words and Music explores literary islands in their different guises and meanings.Ìý The programme beings with the names of fictional islands being layered over Otto Luening’s ground-breaking early tape composition, Low Speed, to create an ethereal seascape as we approach the firstÌý islands: Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Fair Isle at Sea’ and Claudian’s The Lonely Isle.Ìý Otto Luening’s Low Speed segues seamlessly into Richard Rodney Bennett’s Sea Change for Chorus, which sets Shakespeare’s famous words about the isle ‘full of noyses’ from The Tempest.Ìý Shakespeare’s Tempest takes place entirely on an island and its surrounding sea, and is iconic in the early literature of islands.Ìý The ‘pillars of light mournful and beautiful’ that open Neruda’s poem, The Island, match Caliban’s words, ‘I cried to dream again’, from the Shakespeare.Ìý I chose to set the Shakespeare and Neruda over a Plainte by Marin Marais paired with Bridge’s Moonlight as they capture the melancholic beauty and wonderment of the words.ÌýÌýÌý

Ìý

Some of the most popular novels of all time take place on islands and this programme next visits Ralph and Piggy as it dawns on them that they have arrived on an island in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.Ìý Later in the programme, Daniel Defoe’s solitary figure, Robinson Crusoe, is also newly arrived on a desert island and sets about orientating himself to find a proper place for his habitation there.Ìý

Ìý

Islands are born from volcanic explosions from deep on the sea bed and sometimes they disappear again.Ìý John Keats’ Sonnet to Ailsa Craig is a wonderful homage to the tectonic origins of the island: ‘Drown’d wast thou till an earthquake made thee steep, Another cannot wake thy giant size!’, while Lucretia Davidson’s poem Sabrina tells the tale of a volcanic island which appeared and then disappeared among the Azores in 1811.Ìý I have set Davidson’s poem to the explosive sounds of Boulez’s Memoriale (... explosante fixe... Originel).Ìý The programme also includes poems by Seamus Heaney and Vachel Lindsay on disappearing islands and Atlantis respectively.

Ìý

Perhaps one of the most famous literary references to islands is found in John Donne’s Meditation 17 and in the words, ‘no man is an island’.Ìý I explore the idea of man as an island first in the words of Rin Ishigaki, whose poem Island portrays a solitary figure looking at himself as ‘a dot, a small island’ standing in a mirror.Ìý The solitary sounds of a single flute in Varese’s Destiny 21.5 counterpoint Ishigaki’s words, and then John Donne’s Meditation 17 is paired with A.K. Ramunujam’s poetic take on the Donne, No Man is an Island, in which the difficulties of living in isolation are expressed.Ìý There is a slightly comical end to the Ramanujam poem, which is echoed in Prokofiev’s quirky Scherzo humoristique for four bassoons.

Ìý

Islands are places for love and Hilda Conkling’s The Lonesome Wave ends joyfully as golden waves fling themselves on the beach, leading into Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse.Ìý Derek Walcott claims in his poem Islands that ‘islands can only exist if we have loved in them’.Ìý

Ìý

Robinson Crusoe is the most famous inhabitant of a deserted island, but Li Po also wrote about the solitude felt by an official banished on Parrot Island as the parrots flew west to Dragon Mountain.Ìý The parrots are illustrated by the ambiguous sounds in Ligeti’s Aventures.Ìý The ancient English tale, or riddle, of Wulf and Eadwacer also places the speaker on an island separated from his lover and is characterized by the earthy sounds of Martin Grubinger and Leonhard Schmidinger playing a percussion descant to the chanting of Schola Cantorum of the Benedictine Abbey Münsterschwarzach.Ìý

Ìý

Mythical islands have also captured the imagination of writers, including Longfellow who sails for the Hesperides, tempest-haunted Orcades and then to the safe harbours of ‘Ultima Thule’.Ìý C. P. Cavafy’s poem Ithaka encourages us to make the most of the journey there for the purpose of Ithaka is entirely in making that journey.Ìý The programme concludes with a musical reference to Shakespeare’s Tempest in music from Sibelius’s incidental music for The Tempest.Ìý

Ìý

Elizabeth Arno (producer)

Ìý

Broadcast

  • Sun 1 Nov 2015 17:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ 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