Words and Music

Original version

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: Building and Sound

Building and Sound

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Building and Sound

Prose and poems inspired by architecture and music recorded for and in particular places.

With writings by Caleb Femi, Marwa al-Sabouni, Susanna Clark, Thomas Hardy, Andrew Marvell and Elizabeth Bishop and a soundscape ranging from Hildegard of Bingen to Iain Chambers.

According to Goethe, "Architecture is frozen music”.  If that’s the case, then today's programme will be putting some heat under that architecture and seeing what emerges. This exploration of buildings and sound features music written for specific places and music that incorporates the sounds of buildings - Hildegard of Bingen’s plainsong exploits the natural reverb of churches and cathedrals, an Iain Chambers composition uses the sounds of Brutalist architecture in Paris, while Valerie Coleman’s Clarinet Quintet evokes the shotgun house where she grew up in West Louisville, Kentucky. The readings by Marilyn Nnadebe and Henry Goodman take us to the soured utopia of a Peckham estate in the poetry of Caleb Femi; through a vast maze-like fantasy of a house in Susanna Clark's novel Piranesi; and to architect Marwa al-Sabouni’s reflections on the Great Umayyad mosque in Damascus.  

Readings:

Thomas Hardy - Architectural Masks
Emily Dickinson - The props assist the house
Susanna Clarke - Piranesi
William Golding - The Spire
Caleb Femi - Because of the Times
Mark Danielewski - House of Leaves
China Mieville - The Scar
Simon Armitage - Still For Sale
Elizabeth Bishop - Jeronimo's House
Andrew Marvell - Upon Appleton House
Marwa al-Sabouni - Building for Hope
Philip Larkin - Church Going
Peter Porter - Doll's House
John Gould Fletcher - Demolition of the Waldorf-Astoria

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

This episode is part of BBC Radio 3's programming reflecting the London Festival of Architecture which runs online and with events across June https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/ 
Music Matters has looked at buildings and music; Essential Classics is featuring five great pieces of music inspired by buildings in its regular daily slot “Five Essentials” at around 11.10 each weekday morning from 21st to 25th Jun;  and Free Thinking is looking each weekday evening at 10pm this coming week at aspects of design and architecture ranging from the development of London, to mid century modern design and the re-opened Museum of the Home, to the visions of World Fairs and the writing of Owen Hatherley.

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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