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The Trumpet

Poetry and prose about the trumpet, featuring the work of Victor Hugo, Langston Hughes, Alice Oswald and Kim Moore. Readings by Madeleine Potter and Joseph Ayre.

Poetry and prose about the trumpet, with readings by Madeleine Potter and Joseph Ayre.

The trumpet occupies a special place in the collective consciousness, a sonic presence throughout centuries of celebrations, ceremonies, wars and visions. Here is an instrument that brought down the walls of the city of Jericho, and whose β€œloud clangour excites us to arms'' in the words of John Dryden (encountered in this programme in a setting by George Frideric Handel). We hear a scene from Louis MacNiece’s ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ drama, The Dark Tower (first broadcast in 1946), a parable play on the β€œancient theme of the Quest” in which the protagonist is a young trumpeter, practising his fanfare as he prepares to meet his fate.

But the instrument has many lives beyond the battlefield: for Walt Whitman, it takes on the role of otherworldly messenger, inviting him into a mystical experience; it appears as a metaphor in Alice Oswald’s celebratory love sonnet, Wedding; contemporary jazz musician Ambrose Akinmusire explores its tender and fragile possibilities; and Langston Hughes reads Trumpet Player at the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ in 1962, his poetic ode to the instrument’s place in the history of African-American expression and memory.

Whether in the hands of apocalyptic angels, enthusiastic amateurs, mourners, or virtuosic improvisers, it seems that the trumpet is something of a summoner, calling us away from the everyday, towards another reality...

Readings:
Kim Moore - Teaching The Trumpet
John Steinbeck - Sweet Thursday
Louis MacNiece - The Dark Tower
Victor Hugo (trans Toru Dutt) - The Trumpets Of The Mind
Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Blow, Bugle, Blow
Walt Whitman - The Mystic Trumpeter, 1 - 3
Alice Oswald - Wedding
Walt Whitman - The Mystic Trumpeter, 5
Langston Hughes - Trumpet Player
Jackie Kay - Trumpet
The King James Bible - Book of Revelation, Chapter 8, Verses 7 - 13
Walt Whitman - The Mystic Trumpeter, 7 - 8
Eudora Welty - The Winds
Edward Thomas - The Trumpet

Produced by Phil Smith
A Reduced Listening production for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3.

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 13 Feb 2022 18:15
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • 00:03

    Johann Nepomuk Hummel

    Trumpet Concerto in E flat major (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Alison Balsom. Orchestra: The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

  • Kim Moore

    Teaching The Trumpet read by Joseph Ayre

  • John Steinbeck

    Sweet Thursday read by Madeleine Potter

  • 00:08

    Ella Fitzgerald

    The Music Goes Round and Round

  • 00:12

    George Frideric Handel

    The Trumpet's Loud Clangour (Ode for St Cecilia's Day)

    Singer: Ed Lyon. Ensemble: Ludus Baroque. Conductor: Richard Neville-Towle.

  • Victor Hugo

    The Trumpets of the Mind read by Madeleine Potter

  • 00:18

    Mahalia Jackson

    Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho

  • Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    The Princess The Splendour Falls on Castle Walls read by Joseph Ayre

  • 00:20

    Henry Purcell

    Canzona for Queen Mary's Funeral

    Ensemble: Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.
  • 00:23

    Domenico Scarlatti

    Sonata in E major Kk.380

    Performer: Yuja Wang.

  • Walt Whitman

    The Mystic Trumpeter 1 & 2 read by Madeleine Potter

  • 00:29

    Aaron Copland

    Quiet City

    Orchestra: Nashville Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Paul Gambill.

  • Walt Whitman

    The Mystic Trumpeter 3 read by Madeleine Potter

  • Alice Oswald

    Wedding read by Madeleine Potter

  • 00:38

    Azimuth

    Adios Iony

  • Walt Whitman

    The Mystic Trumpeter 6 read by Joseph Ayre

  • 00:44

    Miles Davis

    In a Silent Way/It's about that Time

  • Jackie Kay

    Trumpet read by Madeleine Potter

  • 00:49

    Roy Hargrove

    Strasbourg/St Denis

  • Jackie Kay

    Trumpet read by Madeleine Potter

  • 00:53

    Hayden Powell

    Wakeup Call

  • 00:55

    Olivier Messiaen

    Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum (5th mvt)

    Ensemble: Les Percussions de Strasbourg. Conductor: Pierre Boulez.

  • Walt Whitman

    The Mystic Trumpeter 7 & 8 read by Joseph Ayre

  • 01:03

    Joseph Haydn

    Trumpet Concerto in E flat major (3rd mvt: Allegro)

    Performer: Wynton Marsalis. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Raymond Leppard.

  • Eudora Welty

    The Winds read by Madeleine Potter

  • 01:10

    Ambrose Akinmusire

    The Beauty of Dissolving Portraits

  • Edward Thomas

    The Trumpet read by Joseph Ayre

Broadcasts

  • Sun 25 Apr 2021 17:30
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
  • Sun 13 Feb 2022 18:15
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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