Wild Isles: Wild Music
Tom Service explores musical evocations of wilderness and the natural world, and goes in search of what makes music truly wild.
Inspired by David Attenborough’s Wild Isles series, Tom Service goes in search of music that reflects British wildlife and wilderness, and our relationship with it. From the songs of Henry Purcell written whilst wolves still roamed the British Isles to orchestral representations of composers like Hamish MacCunn, Grace Williams and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the score for Wild Isles itself, written by the Oscar nominated film composer George Fenton. But perhaps truly wild music isn’t music written about wild places: perhaps it's music which has a wildness of spirit, of process, or of uncontrollably organic construction, music that releases the untamed and the untameable, by composers like Peter Maxwell Davies, Brian Eno, and Chris Wood. But where do the real sounds of nature fit into all this – the sounds of birdsong, bacteria, and fungi…?
Our witness today is the award-winning author and naturalist Mark Cocker.
Producer: Ruth Thomson
Last on
Music Played
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George Fenton
Wild isles - music for the TV series
Performer: BBC Concert Orchestra.- Shogun Music.
- USA2P2313851.
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Henry Purcell
Hark how the wild musicians sing Z.542 for TTB, 2 violins and continuo
Performer: La Fenice Ensemble.- ARS.
- DEFG21352501.
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Hamish MacCunn
Land of the mountain and the flood - overture Op.3
Conductor: Martyn Brabbins. Performer: BBC Concert Orchestra.- Hyperion.
- CDA66815.
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Grace Williams
Sea sketches for string orchestra
Performer: Roy Goodman. Performer: Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.- CBC.
- SMCD-5227.
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Thea Musgrave
Turbulent landscapes for orchestra
Conductor: Osmo Vänskä. Performer: BBC Symphony Orchestra.- NMC.
- GBCML0915302.
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Chris Watson
Valle Dei Venti
Performer: Chris Watson.- Fondazione Edmund Mach.
- 761118-02708.
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Peter Maxwell Davies
Symphony no. 2
Conductor: Peter Maxwell Davies. Performer: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.- Collins Classics.
- 14032.
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Brian Eno
Reflection
Performer: Brian Eno.- WARP.
- WARP280.
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Chris Wood
Asparagus
Performer: Chris Wood.- RUFCD012.
- RUF-CD012.
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George Fenton
Wild isles - music for the TV series
Performer: BBC Concert Orchestra.- Shogun Music.
- USA2P2313851.
Broadcasts
- Sun 9 Apr 202317:00BBC Radio 3
- Fri 14 Apr 202316:30BBC Radio 3
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Podcast
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The Listening Service
An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service
