In Time to the Music is the story of a piece of music, song, an air or melody travelling through time as a folk tune, a theatre melody, a hymn, a composition, a symphony - reinterpreted across years, centuries or millennia through revival, musical revolution, social fashions or archaeological discovery. 

We examine why certain tunes have managed to reach out over time, across genres, class, race and continents, how some are reimagined by oppressors even though they were written by its oppressed, how melodies from earlier periods are borrowed by subsequent composers, and how these illusive musical engravings change genre - from hymn to reggae, from court song to rock and roll - all with the passage of time.

The third episode explores the journey of The House of the Rising Sun - was it based on a 17th-century broadside ballad that travelled from northern England to the Appalachian Mountains in the US? Some version of it or a similar ballad passed down through generations until it was captured in a recording by celebrated musicologist Alan Lomax in the 1930s. It was a key song in the folk revival of the 1960s before becoming a hit for The Animals in 1964. The programme also examines other music that has travelled through time.

Featuring musicologists Professor Laura Tunbridge, Professor Richard Dumbrill, singer Ian Shaw and pianist and educator Gareth Williams.

Hurrian Hymn No. 6 singer: Sevan Habib

Written and Presented by Andrew McGibbon
Assistant Producer: Saul Sarne
Producer: Nick Romero

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