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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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A journey of discovery, weaving music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

A weekly journey of discovery, weaving together a range of music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

Words and Music: Goodbye to All That

Goodbye to All That

17/03/2013

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A sequence of poetry, prose and music saying farewell to all things old.

A sequence of poetry, prose and music saying farewell to all things old. With texts by Robert Graves, Shelley and Shakespeare, plus music from Mozart, Strauss and Ravel.

Goodbye to All That: words and music saying farewell to all things old: the collapse of old orders; the end of a relationship; or a farewell to one's old life. With words from Hermann Hesse, Cicely Fox Smith, Graham Greene and Shakespeare and music from Bach, Strauss and Benjamin Britten.

Robert Graves wrote that his autobiography 'Goodbye to All That' was 'a bitter leave-taking' of England. It was published after the First World War and described the collapse of society as he saw it. Taking Graves's title, this edition of Words and Music threads together different coloured goodbyes, which are very much on my mind at the moment as I bid my own farewell to Radio 3.

Although for Graves it was bitter, the end of something can offer hope, as Hermann Hesse explains in 'Stages', the opening poem of the programme. With an end comes a new beginning and the poet urges us to 'Be ready bravely and without remorse'. Hope runs through this programme like thread through a needle, finding its expression in the music of Haydn's The Creation, Parry's Songs of Farewell, and even Durufle's hymn Sanctus from his Requiem.

But of course farewells can be woven with sadness especially when marking the end of a relationship, as Alun Lewis, Graham Greene and Cole Porter evince. Strauss takes us by the hand, through sorrow and joy, to say one final goodbye to the day in 'Im Abendrot' ('At Sunset') which brings the programme to a close.

Producer: Gavin Heard.

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.

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