The Early Music Show

Original version

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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Music: Classical: Early Music

Performance and news from the world of early music.

An exploration of early music, looking at early developments in musical performance and composition in Britain and abroad. UK only: please note that not all episodes are podcast.

The Early Music Show: How Pleasing the Pain Is

Canada 150: La Nef

How Pleasing the Pain Is

BBC Radio 3 - The Early Music Show, How Pleasing the Pain Is

Hannah French explores musical links between pleasure and pain.

As part of the BBC's focus on disability this month, marking the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, Hannah French explores musical depictions of pain.

Pain, a near-universal experience in one way or another – from toothache and physical agony, to lovelorn loss, and searing grief.  We all have our own methods of relieving it....that's if we want to. It’s one of the building blocks of human emotion, of human expression, and to depict it in art, and especially music has been the artists obsession since time immemorial. Whether distilling emotion in tones when words fail or moving an audience to tears, we return to it time and again, because on some level we all experience the artistic beauty, the pleasure of pain, the need to feel the raw emotion laid bare.

As part of the BBC's focus on disability this month, marking the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, Hannah French explores musical depictions of pain from composers such as William Cornysh, Claudio Monteverdi, Thomas Crecquillon, Purcell, Biber and Handel.

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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The Early Music Show

How Pleasing the Pain Is

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