Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 280,032 playable programmes from the BBC

' Six Types of Tudor Prose
V, The Literature of Travel,' by Mr. T. S. ELIOT
FOR the Elizabethans the world was, in a sense it is not today, their oyster. From the comparatively narrow confines of Europe (with occasional expeditions, such as the Crusades provided, into remoter regions) the popular imagination was suddenly invited to widen out to new continents, new seas, new peoples. The effect of such a stimulus on the thought and literature of the time is incalculable. Only by the use of the most fantastic facts (and fictions) can the travel writer of today hold the popular interest in the world outside our ken ; it was enough, in Tudor days, however, to set before the reader the simple facts themselves. To this simplicity must be added the native dignity of Elizabethan prose.
For his fifth talk Mr. Eliot takes this literature travel as his illustration of Tudor prose, emphasizing especially Raleigh's account of the Revenge and Hakluyt's famous Travels.

Contributors

Unknown:
Mr. T. S. Eliot

IN the fifth of his talks on this engrossing subject of the foundations of human character Mr. Willis considers some of the critical periods in the achievement of character and some of the common faults-with attention to their origin and remedy. Day-dreams also-those delightful indulgences that all flesh is heir to-are considered for their value and for their danger. Finally, the talk embraces the functions of knowledge, endurance, growth and ideals.

by MYRA HESS (Pianoforte) and JELLY D'ARANYI (Violin) playing. The soloist is often inclined, and very naturally, to forget that he, or she, is for the moment not an individual, but a member of a team. The two distinguished artists who are to give this recital, however, play together with that complete mutual understanding which is born of real sympathy and frequent practice together.
The listener knows by now that Bach's music for even one instrument is very seldom strictly in one part, but that it is built up on melodic threads which run side by side to form a pattern, often intricate in design, until repeated hearings have made it clear. In the sonatas for violin and pianoforte, there are often three parts to be heard simultaneously, each of the pianist's hands having an independent strand of melody, with all three voices having equal shares in the effect of the whole. But the melodies themselves are so fresh and wholesome, and the music as a whole so thoroughly happy and good-humoured, as to call for little more in the way of guidance ; all that need be pointed out in this Sonata is the fine expressiveness of the slow Siciliano with which it begins. A ' Siciliano,' as listeners will remember, is closely akin to a pastoral movement, and as a rule is in a rather flowing measure, at a fairly quick speed. This slow one is in that way a little unusual.

2LO London and 5XX Daventry

Appears in

About this data

This data is drawn from the Radio Times magazine between 1923 and 2009. It shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was subject to change and may not be accurate. More