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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Kate Molleson

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: John Adams (1947-)

Composer of the Week: John Adams (1947-): Episode 2: My Father's Song

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Adams and Macleod

Episode 2

Episode 2: My Father's Song

John Adams (1947-)

My Father's Song

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, John Adams (1947-), My Father's Song

John Adams talks to Donald Macleod about the influence of Charles Ives on his music.

John Adams talks to Donald Macleod about the influence of Charles Ives on his music, and his upbringing in New England.

John Adams's father taught him clarinet and they played together in a local marching band. He mastered the instrument 'almost too quickly', and while studying at Harvard he found work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Elements of his upbringing were reminiscent of Charles Ives's, who also grew up in New England. Today, Adams talks to Donald Macleod about the influence of Ives on his music, including two works which reference his early life, and a work for choir, orchestra and pre-recorded sounds - On the Transmigration of Souls - written to commemorate the victims of September 11, 2001. Initally uneasy about writing a work in which he was called on to address national mourning, here too he drew inspiration from Ives's work, this time the The Unanswered Question, which Adams describes as a 'quiet spirit behind the piece'.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod talks to America's most frequently performed living composer, John Adams

Donald Macleod talks to America's most frequently performed living composer, John Adams, about his work

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Composer of the Week

John Adams (1947-)

Episode 2: My Father's Song

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