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The Messenger

Poetry, prose and music, with readings by Ewan Bailey and Clare Perkins. Including Holst, Orff and John Adams, plus texts by Robert Browning, Anne Bronte and Vera Brittain.

From the message of the Angel Gabriel to the Go-Between and Juliet's nurse in Shakespeare's play - today's programme looks at the bringing of news, of assignations, birth and death and defeat on battlefields. With music from Gustav Holst and Carl Orff to John Adams, and poems and prose from Robert Browning and Anne Bronte to Vera Brittain. The readers are Ewan Bailey and Clare Perkins.

Readings
The Go-Between - LP Hartley
Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare
The Burial at Thebes - Seamus Heaney
Mary and Gabriel - Rupert Brooke
Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain
The Messenger - Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Gabriel - Adrienne Rich
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bront毛
Understanding Media - Marshal McLuhan
How They Brought the Good News from Aix to Ghent - Robert Browning
The Electric Michaelangelo - Sarah Hall

Producer: Robyn Read.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Christmas Eve 2019 18:15
麻豆约拍 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Gustav Holst

    The Cloud Messenger Op.30 聳 Adagio 聳 Moderato maestoso

    Performer: Della Jones (Mezzo Soprano), London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Richard Hickox (Conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHAN 8901.
    • Tr1.

  • L. P. Hartley

    The Go Between, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:05

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Romeo & Juliet - Act Two Scene 3 - No. 26 - The Nurse: Adagio Scherzoso

    Performer: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (Conductor).
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4232682.
    • CD2 Tr1.

  • Shakespeare

    Romeo and Juliet 聳 the nurse delivers her letter to Romeo, read by Clare Perkins and Ewan Bailey

  • 00:07

    Bob Dylan

    The Wicked Messenger

    Performer: Bob Dylan.
    • COLUMBIA ?COL 463359 2.
    • Tr10.

  • Seamus Heaney

    The Burial at Thebes a version of Sophocles聮 Antigone, read by Ewan Bailey and Clare Perkins

  • 00:10

    Carl Orff

    Antigone 聳 "Ich, liebe Frau, sag' es, als Augenzeuge"

    Performer: Bavarian Radio Chorus, Members of the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra with the Messenger sung by Kim Borg.
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMAPHON 4377212.
    • CD3 Tr9.
  • 00:13

    Cole Porter

    Blow, Gabriel, Blow from Cole Porter聮s musical Anything Goes

    Performer: Patti LuPone and Company.
    • RCA Victor 09026-61987-2.
    • Tr2.

  • Rupert Brooke

    Mary and Gabriel, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:19

    Johann Sebastian Bach, Charles Gounod and Christopher Charles Hazell

    Ave Maria

    Performer: Bryn Terfel (Bass-Baritone) and Sissel Kyrkjeb酶 (Soprano).
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 474 703-2.
    • Tr11.

  • Rupert Brooke

    Mary and Gabriel, read by Clare Perkins

  • 00:26

    Traditional (Eliza Carthy & Martin Carthy arrangers) "The tune comes from the Mr聽Robert Hughes, who was in Buckingham Workhouse, and the words, for the most part, from a Mr聽Thomas in Camborne in Cornwall and the two sit next to each other in Maud Karpel

    The Cherry Tree

    Performer: Norma Waterson (vocals, triangle), Eliza Carthy (vocals, fiddle, mandolin), Martin Carthy (vocals, guitar), Tim van Eyken (vocals, melodeons).
    • Topic Records聽TSCD562.
    • Tr7.

  • Vera Brittain

    Testament of Youth, read by Clare Perkins

  • 00:32

    Richard Mark Frost, Steven James Bennett and Peter Frederick Yeadon

    The Messenger

    Performer: A New Funky Generation.
    • MANIFESTO 564 861-2.
    • Tr3.
  • 00:36

    Richard Strauss

    Ariadne Auf Naxos 聳 Es ist alles vergebens聟 Es gibt ein Riech

    Performer: Barry McDaniel, Leontyne Price, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti (Conductor).
    • DECCA 4303842.
    • CD2 Tr1.

  • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

    The Messenger, read by Clare Perkins and Ewan Bailey

  • 00:44

    Basque Traditional, Edgar Pettman (arranger), Sabine Baring-Gould (Lyrics)

    Gabriel聮s Message

    Performer: Emmanuel College Chapel Choir.
    • ASV DIGITAL ?CD WHL 2104.
    • Tr4.

  • Adrienne Rich

    Gabriel, read by Clare Perkins

  • 00:48

    Joseph Patrick Moore聮s Drum and Bass Society

    Groove Messenger (The Story of Jazztronica)

    Performer: Joseph Patrick Moore聮s Drum and Bass Society.
    • Blue Canoe 1004.
    • Tr3.

  • Anne Bront毛

    Passages from 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall', read by Ewan Bailey and Clare Perkins

  • 00:52

    Gustav Holst

    Mercury, The Winged Messenger

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan (Conductor).
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 439 011-2.
    • Tr3.
  • 00:55

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Romeo & Juliet - Act Two Scene 3 - No. 27 - The Nurse Delivers Juliet's Letter To Romeo: Vivace

    Performer: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (Conductor).
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4232682.
    • CD2 Tr2.

  • Marshall McLuhan

    A passage from 'Understanding Media', read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:57

    John Adams

    "News has a kind of mystery."

    Performer: James Maddalena (Richard Nixon), Sanford Sylvan (Cho En-Lai), Orchestra of St. Luke's, Edo de Waart (Conductor).
    • NONESUCH 9791772.
    • CD1 Tr6.

  • Robert Browning

    How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 01:07

    Christie Hennessy

    Messenger Boy

    Performer: Christy Moore.
    • EAST WEST ?9031 753512.
    • Tr9.

  • Sarah Hall

    A passage from 'The Electric Michelangelo', read by Ewan Bailey

  • 01:10

    Joni Mitchell

    Blue

    Performer: Joni Mitchell.
    • REPRISE K244128.
    • Tr6.

Producer's Note: The Messenger

The idea for this for this programme came from seeing a theatre production of Antigone soon after re-watching the Joseph Losey film of L.P. Hartley鈥檚 The Go Between, with its script by Harold Pinter. The significance of messengers in both works started me thinking about how the delivery of information often changes the course of a story.聽 That thought led me to operatic settings by Strauss and Carl Orff; the comedy and tragedy of mixed messages explored in Shakespearean dramas such as Romeo and Juliet; and nineteenth century novels in which characters rely upon the sending of letters - explored here in two readings set side by side from Anne Bronte鈥檚 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

I was interested to discover Gustav Holst鈥檚 The Cloud Messenger, based on the "Meghaduta," an epic by the Indian poet, K膩lid膩sa.聽 A Biblical emissary, the Angel Gabriel, who brought the Virgin Mary the news that she was to be mother of the son of God - an event much featured in painting, music and poetry - is represented here by part of a poem by Robert Browning, the Christmas carol and Martin Carthy singing the Cherry Tree Carol, which imagines Joseph鈥檚 reaction.

The tension of waiting for news from war is heard in a poem by the American Ella Wheeler Wilcox (who is responsible for the lines 鈥渓augh and the world laughs with you, weep, and you weep alone鈥� in her poem Solitude) and the writing of Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth.聽 Robert Browning鈥檚 poem How They Brought the Good News From Aix To Ghent and Christy Moore鈥檚 Messenger Boy come from a time where data was transported on horseback.聽 Now we are in a society saturated by news - where - as the cultural analyst Marshall McLuhan argued, 鈥渢he medium is the message鈥� - and where more and more people are choosing to mark their bodies with messages to the world and - as Joni Mitchell sings 鈥� music itself can be the message - 鈥渟ongs are like tattoos.鈥�

Robyn Read

Broadcasts

  • Sun 12 Mar 2017 17:30
    麻豆约拍 Radio 3
  • Christmas Eve 2019 18:15
    麻豆约拍 Radio 3

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