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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: Passing the Time of Day

Passing the Time of Day

12/01/2014

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Texts and music about the duration of a day. Readers: Sally Phillips and Jonathan Keeble.

A sequence of poetry, prose and music on the theme of the duration of a day, with readings by Sally Phillips and Jonathan Keeble.

Today's Words and Music takes the duration of a day as its theme, with different times pinpointed as a snapshot into characters' literary lives. So Ralph from Stephen King's Insomnia is woken by birdsong at 5.15, Elizabeth Bennett takes an ill-advised early morning walk, and Jerome K Jerome's 3 Men have enormous trouble finding the 11.05 to Kingston. A big furry, stripy tiger unexpectedly comes to tea, and Henry James celebrates the agreeable time between mid-afternoon and dusk. By seven o'clock the evening is in full swing with a lavish party over at Jay Gatsby's, while Louisa May Alcott's Little Women are too distressed to go to bed. There is poetry too, with Rossetti's Silent Noon, Emma Saiko's evocative poem about waking from an afternoon nap, and a teacher in DH Lawrence's poem Last Lesson of the Afternoon who can't wait for the bell to ring. TS Eliot depicts dusk in his Preludes, and Dorothy Aldis' narrator quietly sets the supper table for her family.

The music also highlights different times of day, beginning with a dawn chorus from Janequin, and Strauss's Morning Papers. Bach's Coffee Cantata for mid-morning, and Arnold's Day Dreams for after lunch. The evening section features Strauss's Der Abend, Harbison's Remembering Gatsby and Purcell's One charming night from The Fairy Queen. The programme ends with Bridge's setting of Shakespeare's 43rd sonnet, which suggests that sometimes you can see most clearly when you are asleep. Extracts are read by Sally Phillips and Jonathan Keeble.

Producer - Ellie Mant.

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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