Words and Music

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

Drama

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: Do Keep in Touch

Do Keep in Touch

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Do Keep in TouchClose menu

Emily Bruni and Paterson Joseph read literature about communication, ancient and modern.

We hear from letters by F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, from Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Carol Ann Duffy's poem about texting. With music by Gershwin, Fauré and Janáček.

From a texting poem to a novel written in letters and intimate letters for strings composed by Janáček.  This edition of Words and Music is about an increasingly frenzied international obsession: communication. 

Of course, communicating is nothing new and as we approach World Letter Writing Day on September 1st, we begin with readings from good, old-fashioned letters such as those exchanged by F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s; Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath in the 50s; and fictional, archly manipulative letters between the Viscount de Malmont and Marchioness de Merteuil in Laclos's Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Getting more up to date, the poet Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Text" highlights text messaging, today's most used, misused and disposable way to keep in touch.  Jonathan Franzen's Purity highlights the tendency of texting to lead to unfortunate, emotional gameplay.  We also have literature by JRR Martin, Keats, Hardy, Margaret Atwood and others. Music is by Gershwin, Janáček, Roy Harris, Laurie Anderson, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Tom Waits and Fauré. 

The words are read by the actors Emily Bruni and Paterson Joseph,

Producer: Paul Frankl

Readings:
Ernest Hemingway: Letter to F Scott Fitzgerald
F Scott Fitzgerald: Letter to Ernest Hemingway September 7 1922
PG Wodehouse - Right Ho, Jeeves!
Thomas Hardy: Moonlight
JRR Martin Song of Ice and Fire
LP Hartley The Go Between
John Keats: Letter
Ted Hughes: Letter to Sylvia Plath 5th October 1956
Sylvia Plath: Letter to Ted Hughes 6th October 1956
Carol Ann Duffy: Text 
Jonathan Franzen: Purity
Laclos: Les Liaisons Dangereuses Letters 33 and 34
Margaret Atwood: Postcards
Ernest Hemingway: Letter to Charles Scribener Jr.

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Words and Music

Do Keep in Touch

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3