Words and Music

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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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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: Canada: From Sea to Sea to Sea

Canada 150: From Sea to Sea to Sea

Canada: From Sea to Sea to Sea

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William Hope and Jane Perry with music and words reflecting settlers travelling to Canada.

Canada captured in words and music, from Tundra songs and Inuit mythology through Joni Mitchell's lyrics and the viewpoint of an American poet laureate.

William Hope and Jane Perry with readings that reflect how Canada has been shaped by the arrival of settlers from all parts of the world through the ages. The writers featured include Margaret Atwood, Wayne Keon, Alice Munro, Émile Nelligan and Rita Joe and the music includes the sound of ice, an old Toronto Klezmer suite, Buffy St Marie singing about Now That the Buffalo's Gone and the work of composers including Violet Archer, Marjan Mozetich, John Greer, Joni Mitchell and Talivaldis Kenins.   

A Mari usque ad Mare – From Sea to Sea – is the official motto of Canada, but in recent years it has been suggested that this should be changed to From Sea to Sea to Sea to reflect the significance of its Arctic as well as Pacific and Atlantic regions. Just over a thousand years ago, the Inuit arrived in Canada’s Arctic regions having moved eastwards from Siberia via Alaska.  In Inuit mythology, Sedna is the goddess of the sea. We hear an excerpt from Derek Charke’s Tundra Songs, while Tanya Tagaq tells the tale of Sedna’s creation.  Charke travelled to Iqaluit, capital of Nunavut, in 2007 and recorded sounds of the ice creaking and the region’s wildlife which he then incorporated into the piece.    

Shanawdithit was the last known living member of the Beothuk people of Newfoundland.  Born in 1801, she died of tuberculosis in 1829 after spending some time living in the household of a Scottish emigrant -  Joan Crate imagines the last months of Shanawdithit's life.  

The majority of those seeking a new life in Canada will put their feet on Canadian soil for the first time at Toronto Pearson International Airport.  The airport code is YYZ which is also the title of an instrumental piece by Canadian prog rock trio Rush.  The opening motif repeats the airport’s code in Morse: -.--/-.--/--..  While Joni Mitchell’s song Chinese Café/Unchained Melody is a nostalgic look back at her teenage years in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

READINGS
Margaret Atwood       Death of a Young Son by Drowning
Alootook Ipellie          How Noisy They Seem
Joan Crate                   Shawnadithit (Last of the Beothuks)
Emile Nelligan (Marc di Saverio - translator)    The Golden Ship
Alice Munro                 The View From Castle Rock
Michael Ondaatje         Wells
Elizabeth Bishop           The Moose
Billy Collins                   Canada
Thomas King                Coyote Goes To Toronto
Wayne Keon                 I'm Not In Charge Of This Ritual
Rita Joe                         I Lost My Talk
Margaret Noori            N'gii Zhibiiamaag Niijaanisag Chigamigong

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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