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

BBC Radio 3

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Words and Music

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Music: Classical

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: Rules and How to Break Them

Rules and How to Break Them

08/11/2015

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For Free Thinking 2015, texts and music on the theme of 'tearing up the rulebook'.

Live from St Mary's Church in Gateshead for Free Thinking 2015, texts and music on the theme of 'tearing up the rulebook', with readers Patricia Hodge and Stephen Tompkinson.

From St Mary's Church in Gateshead, a special live edition of Words and Music as part of this year's Free Thinking Festival on the theme 'Tearing Up The Rule Book'. Patricia Hodge and Stephen Tompkinson read texts and poetry about Rules and How to Break Them, accompanied by live music from members of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, choir Voices of Hope, and pianist John Reid.

There are literary characters who railed against the rules, such as Winston in Orwell's 1984, and the unfortunate boys in Golding's Lord of the Flies, real life people like Charles Darwin and Emmeline Pankhurst who dared to challenge the status quo, and writers who broke the rules with their writing style or content. Musically there has been a long tradition of rule-breakers, from Byrd and Shostakovich using their music to subvert religious or political laws, to innovators such as Beethoven, Schoenberg and John Cage who changed the musical direction for all who followed them.

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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