Poetry Extra: Lord Byron and the Hebrew Melodies

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Poetry Extra

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly opportunity for listeners to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A brand new poetry slot on Radio 4 Extra gives listeners a weekly opportunity to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

Lord Byron and the Hebrew Melodies

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Lord Byron and the Hebrew Melodies

Daljit Nagra selects the best programmes from the BBC's poetry archive.

Daljit Nagra selects Lord Byron and the Hebrew Melodies, presented by Michael Rosen featuring She Walks in Beauty. From 2016.

Daljit Nagra visits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Lord Byron and the Hebrew Melodies, featuring Byron’s best loved works, including She Walks in Beauty. 

In 1815, Lord Byron published one of his most famous pieces, She Walks in Beauty. But it didn’t appear as part of a collection of poems - in fact it was produced as one of a number of songs in the collection Hebrew Melodies. Byron, tiring of the formula that had brought him huge success in earlier works like Childe Harold’s Progress and The Corsair, was approached by Jewish composer Isaac Nathan, who asked him to write religious lyrics to musical settings that were a mixture of contemporary and ancient Synagogue tunes. 
 
Excited by the prospect of examining the Hebrew culture and putting his own deep knowledge of the Old Testament to good use, Byron took up the challenge. He was also keen to impress his future wife, a deeply religious woman who disapproved of his insalubrious lifestyle. 
 
Byron and Nathan struck up a strong relationship and, over the course of the collaboration, produced 29 songs. 
 
Unfortunately for Nathan, Byron’s standard publisher, John Murray, wasn’t keen to lose their grip on the poet whose work was funding their expansion and, as Michael Rosen discovers, took steps to minimise public recognition of the musical venture, leaving Nathan out of pocket and - for a long time - written out of the Byron story.

Producer:  Geoff Bird
 
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in March 2016.

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