Catalogue of Trees
As spring approaches, Emma Fielding and Julian Rhind-Tutt read a selection of texts inspired by trees. Authors include Edmund Spenser, John Clare, Amy Levy and Roger Deakin, with music from Grieg to Sibelius, Art Tatum to Radiohead.
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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David George Haskell
Balsam Fir, from The Songs of Trees, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
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00:00John Luther Adams
Four Thousand Holes
Performer: Stephen Drury, piano; Scott Deal, percussion; John Luther Adams, electronics.- Cold Blue Music CB0035.
- 1.
John Clare
The Sycamore, read by Emma Fielding
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00:00Edvard Grieg
Arietta (Lyric Pieces Op.12 no.1)
Performer: Stephen Hough, piano.- Hyperion CDA 68070.
- 1.
W.S.Merwin
The Fig Tree, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
Alfred Tennyson
In Memoriam A.H.H., read by Emma Fielding
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00:00Igor Stravinsky
Double Canon (Raoul Dufy in Memoriam)
Performer: Chilingirian Quartet.- Catalyst 82876642832.
- 5.
William Wordsworth
Yew-Trees, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
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00:00Brian McNeill
The Yew Tree
Performer: Dick Gaughan.- Greentrax.
- 1.
Heinrich Heine, translated Edgar Alfred Bowring
A Lonely Fir Tree, read by Emma Fielding
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00:00Town and Country
Give Your Baby a Standing Ovation
- Thrill Jockey.
- 1.
Thomas Hardy
To a Tree in London (Clement聮s Inn), read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
Amy Levy
A London Plane, read by Emma Fielding
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00:00Sergey Rachmaninov
Prelude Op.32 No.12 in G sharp minor
Performer: Steven Osborne, piano.- Hyperion CDA 67700.
- 23.
David George Haskell
Callery Pear, from The Songs of Trees, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
Katherine Gallagher
The Year of the Tree, ready by Emma Fielding
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00:00Glenn Kotche
Clapping Music Variations
Performer: Glenn Kotche.- Nonesuch 7559 79929-2.
- 1.
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00:00Bradley Kincaid
Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow
Performer: The Carter Family.- Disky Communications USA 370959295.
- 22.
Alfred Tennyson
The Oak, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
John Clare
The Shepherd聮s Tree, read by Emma Fielding
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00:00Franz Schubert
Der Lindenbaum, from Winterreise
Performer: Matthias Goerne (baritone); Graham Johnson (piano).- Hyperion CDJ33030.
- 5.
Edward Thomas
The Cherry Trees, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
Siegfried Sasson
The Hawthorn Tree, read by Emma Fielding
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00:00John Williams
On Willows and Birches: On Willows
Performer: Boston Symphony Orchestra; Ann Hobson Pilot (harp); Shi-Yeon Sung (conductor).- BSO Classics.
- 1.
Seamus Heaney
The Poplar, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
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00:00Lewis Allan
Strange Fruit
Performer: Billie Holiday.- Verve.
- 5.
Amy Levy
The Birch Tree at Loschwitz
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00:00Jean Sibelius
Symphony No.5, third movement
Performer: CBSO, Sakari Oramo (conductor).- Erato 8573858222.
- 3.
Robert Frost
A Young Birch, read by Emma Fielding
William Stanley Merwin
Elegy for a Walnut Tree, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
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00:00Radiohead
Treefingers
Performer: Radiohead.- Parlophone CDKIDA1.
- 5.
Dorothy Parker
The Apple Tree, read by Emma Fielding
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00:00Ann Ronnell
Willow Weep for Me
Performer: Art Tatum.- Capitol CDP7928662.
- 1.
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00:01John Luther Adams
聟and bells remembered聟
Performer: Callithumpian Consort.- Cold Blue Music CB0035.
- 2.
John Clare
The Maple Tree
John Updike
Maples in a Spruce Forest
Thomas Lynch
Loneliest of Trees, The Winter Oak
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00:01Tom Waits
The Last Leaf on the Tree
Performer: 11.- Anti USEP41122011.
- 11.
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00:01Ravel
Quartet in F major, second movement
Performer: Belcea Quartet.- EMI 574020-2.
- 18.
Edmund Spenser
The Fairie Queene
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00:01Frank Bridge
There is a Willow Grows aslant a Brook
Performer: 麻豆约拍 National Orchestra of Wales.- Chandos.
- 4.
Ted Hughes
A Tree
Roger Deakin
Wildwood
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00:01Gillian Welch
Winter's Come and Gone
Performer: Gillian Welch.- WEA 504666873 2.
- 11.
Words and Music: Catalogue of Trees
Producer鈥檚 Note
With Easter comes spring, and a good time to reflect on the ancient living structures that provide food and shelter, hope and solace, grimly persisting in the harshest conditions. Trees have been a constant source of inspiration for English language poets, as illustrated here in writing from Edmund Spenser to Seamus Heaney. Most of the texts focus on individual trees, covering a range of species including fir, yew, elm, plane, cherry, oak, birch and maple. There are just three passages of prose: two are from David George Haskell鈥檚 The Songs of Trees, a study in bioacoustics which includes one attempt by the author to wire a callery pear in the busy streets of Manhattan; the other is from the closing pages of Roger Deakin鈥檚 Wildwood in which the writer describes in detail the spring regeneration of the ash tree by his home in Suffolk.
Trees provide the imagery for some of the songs: Schubert鈥檚 lime tree, a setting of Wilhelm M眉ller鈥檚 Der Lindenbaum from the Winterreise cycle, the East Lothian yew tree of Dick Gaughan鈥檚 historical ballad, and Billie Holiday鈥檚 powerful recording of Strange Fruit in which the victims of lynchings hang from the poplars of the American south. Other music reflects the mood of the texts: the slow, interweaving lines of Stravinsky鈥檚 Double Canon follows an excerpt from Tennyson鈥檚 In Memoriam A.H.H.; the title and otherworldly texture of Radiohead鈥檚 Treefingers resonates with the 鈥渃urled sleeping fingers鈥� of W.S.Merwin鈥檚 Elegy for a Walnut Tree; the 鈥減assionate wind of spring鈥� in Amy Levy鈥檚 The Birch Tree at Loschwitz is echoed in the third movement of Sibelius鈥檚 Symphony No.5, said to have been inspired by a spring-time sighting of swans in flight through the Finnish countryside; finally the plucked and bowed sounds of Ravel鈥檚 String Quartet in F become the woody bed for Spenser鈥檚 expansive catalogue of trees from the Fairie Queene.
Producer, Felix Carey
Broadcast
- Sun 1 Apr 2018 17:30麻豆约拍 Radio 3
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