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Nature of the British Isles

From Mendelssohn's Hebridean Fingal's Cave to John Ireland's Guernsey piece Sarnia, and with words from Virginia Woolf to the Orkneyinga Saga read by Georgie Glen and Tom Durham.

Island hopping around Britain, with readings by Georgie Glen and Tom Durham, takes us on our Words and Music journey today to:

A cavern on the Isle of Staffa which inspired Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave

Martin Martin, in A Late Voyage to St Kilda, describes life in 1698 in what was the most remote spot in the British Empire

Far to the south west Angeline Morrison sings, from the perspective of his mother, of the unknown African boy, washed up after wreck of a slave ship and buried on St Martin’s in the Isles of Scilly

In 1980 Lucy Rendall was the first child to be born at Rackwick in Hoy for 32 years. The chronicler of Orkney life, George Mackay Brown, wrote Lullaby for Lucy in celebration, and Peter Maxwell Davies set it. We learn of Hebridean life centuries earlier in the Orkneyinga Saga

Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, set in Skye, was inspired by Godrevy lighthouse, off St Ives

Shetland fiddler Aly Bain and squeezebox player Phil Cunningham pay tribute to their pianist friend in Violet Tulloch Queen of Lerwick

Brenda Chamberlain’s Tide Race is an account of her life on Bardsey – Ynys Enlli, the island in the current, in Welsh. We hear music by the triple harpist of Anglesey, Ynys Mon, Llio Rhydderch, from her album album, Enlli

Wordsworth wrote in praise of Grace Darling, tragic heroine of the Farne Islands, as has, in our time, Michael Longley

John Keats wrote wonderful letters and poems while staying on the Isle of Wight, where Brits winners Wet Leg are writing interesting words and music today.

Sarnia is the old name for Guernsey, inspiration for a piece of that name by John Ireland

Producer: Julian May

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 28 Apr 2024 18:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • Mairi Hedderwick

    The Second Katie Morag Storybook, read by Georgie Glen

  • 00:01

    Trad.

    Cock of the North

    Performer: Ness Melodeon Band.
    • Own.
    • Tr1.

  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Note to his sister Fanny, read by Tom Durham

  • John Keats

    On the Sea read by Tom Durham

  • Rudyard Kipling

    Seal Lullaby, read by Georgie Glen, and Seals singing, recorded at Holy Island

  • 00:08

    Peter Maxwell Davies

    Lullabye for Lucy

    Choir: The Sixteen. Conductor: Harry Christophers.

  • George Mackay Brown

    Lullaby for Lucy read by Tom Durham

  • Kenneth Steven

    The Small Giant, read by Tom Durham

  • Anonymous, from Historic England Research records

    1830 wreck of the English brig HOPE, read by Georgie Glen

  • 00:15

    Angeline Morrison

    Unknown African Boy (d.1830)

    Performer: Angeline Morrison.
    • Topic TSCD611.
    • Tr 1.

  • Seamus Heaney

    The Republic of Conscience, read by Tom Durham

  • 00:21

    Cosmo Sheldrake

    Numinous

    Performer: Cosmo Sheldrake.
    • RSPB Curlew Recovery Fund.
    • Tr 3.

  • Virginia Woolf

    To the Lighthouse, read by Georgie Glen

  • 00:24

    Peter Maxwell Davies

    The Lighthouse

    Singer: Neil Mackie. Singer: Michael Rippon. Singer: David Wilson‐Johnson.
    • Naxos 8.660354.

  • Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

    Flannan Isle, read by Tom Durham

  • 00:33

    John Casken

    Concerto for Orchestra

    Performer: Sophia JaffΓ©. Orchestra: HallΓ©. Conductor: Markus Stenz.
    • NMC NMCD189..
    • Tr 1.

  • Basil Bunting

    Briggflatts, read by Tom Durham

  • Michael Longley

    Grace Darling, read by Georgie Glen

  • 00:33

    Unknown

    Plainsong

    Performer: Unknown.

  • Simeon of Durham

    Account of the pillaging of Lindisfarne, 6th June 793, read by Tom Durham

  • 00:34

    Llio Rhydderch

    Llwybr-Y-Perenion

    Performer: Llio Rhydderch.
    • FflachTradd CD250S.
    • Tr 4.

  • Brenda Chamberlain

    Tide Race, read by Georgie Glen

  • 00:37

    Llio Rhydderch

    Llwybr-Y-Perenion

    Performer: Llio Rhydderch.
    • FflachTradd CD250S.
    • Tr 4.

  • Brenda Chamberlain

    Tide Race, read by Georgie Glen

  • 00:39

    Llio Rhydderch

    Llwybr-Y-Perenion

    Performer: Llio Rhydderch.
    • FflachTradd CD250S.
    • Tr 4.

  • Brenda Chamberlain

    Tide Race, read by Georgie Glen

  • 00:41

    Stephen Hall

    To the Sea

    Performer: Brenda Wootton and John the Fish.
    • Sentinel Sens 1006.
    • Tr 4.

  • Martin Martin

    A Late Voyage to St Kilda, read by Tom Durham

  • Unknown

    A Lament for a fallen cragsman in Gaelic and English

  • 00:47

    Anonymous

    Compilation of Gaelic praise and psalm singing in the traditional style led by a precentor

    Performer: Unknown.

  • Julian May

    The Ides of March, read by Georgie Glen

  • Verses by Earl Rognvald, Sigmund Fish-Hook and Oddi

    Orkneyinga Saga, read by Tom Durham

  • Seamus Heaney

    The Given Note, read by Seamus Heaney

  • 00:52

    Trad.

    Port na bPucai

    Performer: Liam O’Flynn.

  • John Keats

    Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds, April 17th and 18th, 1817, read by Tom Durham

  • 00:56

    John Ireland

    Sarnia, No 2 In a May Morning

    Performer: Royal Scottish Orchestra.
    • Dutton Epoch AW7628120.
    • Tr 2.

  • Iain Crichton Smith

    The Melodeon of the Spirit, read by Tom Durham

  • 01:01

    Trad.

    Cock of the North

    Performer: Ness Melodeon Band.
    • Own.
    • Tr1.
  • 01:01

    Ness Melodeon Band

    Cock of the North

  • 01:02

    Wet Leg

    Chaise Longue

    • Domino Β–Β RUG1232Β .
    • Single.
  • 01:07

    Phil Cunningham

    Violet Tulloch Queen of Lerwick

    Performer: Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham.
    • Whirlie CD5.
    • Tr2.

  • W. B. Yeats

    The Lake Isle of Innisfree, read by W. B. Yeats

  • Michael Morpurgo

    Why the Whales Came, read by Georgie Glen

  • George Mackay Brown

    The Island of Women, read by Georgie Glen

Broadcasts

  • Sun 26 Mar 2023 17:30
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
  • Sun 28 Apr 2024 18:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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