Words and Music

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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: Portraits of Suffolk

Portraits of Suffolk

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Portraits of Suffolk

As the Aldeburgh Festival marks 75 years, a playlist of readings and music from Suffolk.

Readings by Michael Maloney and Miranda Raison from works including Ronald Blythe's Akenfield and novels by Esther Freud and Melissa Harrison, music from Britten to Brian Eno.

Benjamin Britten founded the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in 1948. This year sees the 75th (with one unfortunately cancelled in 2020 because of coronavirus). To mark the occasion, Words and Music takes as its theme the county of Suffolk. The items are all linked to Suffolk and the Festival with music featured in the very first concert, compositions about the county or by musicians associated with it; and prose and poetry, old and new, describe Suffolk life and landscape from writers born or resident there.

Musically the prime mover behind the Festival, Lowestoft-born Benjamin Britten, of course looms large but there are also other Suffolk composers like the eighteenth century Joseph Gibbs and the contemporary Magnus Fiennes, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian and Alan Bullard.  Plus Michael Tippett, who composed the music for  Peter Hall's 1974 film based on the book Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe. Traditional Suffolk folk songs and tunes sit alongside modern pop performers like Ed Sheeran and Nik Kershaw and Brian Eno’s ambient sounds reflect the county of his birth.

The rivers, coast and even Sizewell’s nuclear power station have inspired poets like Stevie Smith, John Betjeman, Blake Morrison and Deryn Rees-Jones while prose writers including Brendan Behan, Esther Freud and Melissa Harrison have explored the lives of the people of Suffolk.

The readings are by Orford’s Miranda Raison and Bury St Edmunds’  Michael Maloney.

Producer: Harry Parker 

You can find a series of programmes recorded at this year's Aldeburgh Festival being broadcast on Radio 3 including The New Music Show and a series of concerts. 

READINGS:
Alun Lewis   Dawn on the East Coast
Stevie Smith    The River Deben  
W G Sebald   Benacre Broad from The Rings of Saturn 
Esther Freud     from The Sea House
Ronald Blythe    William Russ, Gravedigger from Akenfield   
Deryn Rees-Jones  Midnight Beach at Sizewell B   
George Crabbe    Peter Grimes from The Borough Letter XXII
Bernard Barton  Dunwich   
Edward Thomas  Dunwich January 15th 1908  from a letter to Gordon Bottomley  
Melissa Harrison from All Among the Barley  
Trad.   Black Shuck (Bungay) 
Brendan Behan   from  Borstal Boy  
John Impit Lushington (Quill)  Gleaning Time in Suffolk  
Emily Howes   from The Painter’s Daughters  
John Betjeman   Felixstowe or The Last of Her Order
Jean Ingelow   The Waveney   
Maggie Hemingway  from The Bridge   
Blake Morrison   Covehithe

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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