Say, What Shall We Dance?
Sunday 16 March 2008 22:45-0:00 (Radio 3)
In a sequence of music, poetry and prose on the theme of dance, Michael Maloney and Emily Raymond read works by Thomas Moore, Laurence Binyon, Rilke, Philip Larkin, Roger McGough and Goethe alongside music by Johann Strauss, Debussy, Louis Andriessen and Britten.
Duration:
1 hour 15 minutes
Say, What Shall We Dance?
Michael Maloney (reader)
Emily Raymond (reader)
Producer's Note
Dance is all embracing, and yet also a very personal affair. From the intimacy of Laurence Binyon's vignette, Little Dancers, to the sweaty, pulsating, grime of Alicia Oistriker's Saturday Night, the words and music included in this sequence trace a line starting with Thomas Moore's international celebration of dance and Lully's Grand March from Le Bourgois Gentilhomme, through the more esoteric spots of sunshine dancing on the water in Amy Lowell's Bath, to the horror of A Square Dance by Roger McGough.
The musical journey echoes that of the poems. Rather than literal interpretations of the words, or always using music written for dance, in many cases I've chosen music that conjures up the atmosphere created by the poetry. Philip Glass's hypnotic score to the film Koyaanisqatsi originally accompanied the movie's repeated patterns of motion. I've used it to create a lyricism of movement suggested by the poetry of Binyon and Larkin. Bach accompanies Yeats' girl dancing on the "leaf sown, new mown, smooth grass plot of the garden" where all is not as it seems, and it's the abject dance rhythms of Shostakovich's most inward looking and most personal of string quartets that lead towards the square dance of Roger McGough's Flanders Fields.
There are also literal interpretations however. It's remarkable how when placing Goethe's Dance of Death with Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens the two fit together like hand in glove. The Drum and Bass of Sub Focus and Saturday Night weave in and out of each other seamlessly, and the Italian Tarantella joins Rilke's Spanish Dancer bringing out the subtlety of the flaming colours in the fire.
Music, dance and poetry finally combine in Baudelaire's sensuous Evening Harmony and Arvo Part's Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror). The two create an almost motionless, introspective, melancholy waltz, bringing the sequence to a close.
Jeremy Evans (Producer)
Playlist
Times are from start of programme
00:00:00
LULLY
March pour la Ceremonie turque
Le Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall (director)
ALIA VOX AV 9807
Track 4
00:00:10
THOMAS MOORE
Say, What Shall We Dance?
Michael Maloney and Emily Raymond (readers)
00:01:14
JOHANN STRAUSS arr. SCHOENBERG
Kaiserwalzer
Ensemble Avantgarde
MDG 6013 0579-2
Track 30
00:02:10
SMETANA
Dance of the Comedians from 'The Bartered Bride'
London Symphony Orchestra
Charles Mackerras (conductor)
MERCURY 434 352-2
Track 1
00:07:59
EMILY DICKINSON
I cannot dance upon my Toes
Emily Raymond (reader)
00:08:48
SAINT SAENS
The Swan from Carnival of the Animals
Anne Martindale Williams (cello)
Joseph Villa (piano)
PHILIPS 442 608-2
CD 1 Track 16
00:11:56
PHILIP GLASS
Organic from Koyaanisqatsi
Members of the Philip Glass Ensemble
NONESUCH 7559 79660-2
CD 1 Track 2
00:12:26
LAURENCE BINYON
The Little Dancers
Michael Maloney (reader)
00:15:05
PHILIP LARKIN
The Dancer
Emily Raymond and Michael Maloney (readers)
00:16:04
SCHOENBERG
Valse de Chopin from Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21
Christine Schafer (Sprechstimme)
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Pierre Boulez (conductor)
DG 457 630-2
Track 5
00:17:20
ALASDAIR NICHOLSON
42nd St. Stomp
Joanna MacGregor (piano)
SOUND CIRCUS SC007
Track 1
00:21:30
RAINER MARIA RILKE, trans. STEPHEN COHN
Spanish Dancer
Emily Raymond (reader)
00:21:32
ATHANASIUS KIRCHER
Tarantella, Tono Hypodorico
L'Arpeggiata
Christina Pluhar (director)
ALPHA 503
Track 3
00:23:55
GRAINGER
The lost lady found from 'A Lincolnshire Posy'
RNCM Wind Orchestra
CHANDOS CHAN 9549
Track 17
00:26:09
AMY LOWELL
Bath
Emily Raymond (reader)
00:26:41
DEBUSSY
Cloches a travers les feuilles
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
WARNER 8573 83940-2
Track 4
00:30:10
SUZANNE KNOWLES
Fox Dancing
Emily Raymond (reader)
00:31:02
BACH
Sarabande from Cello Suite No 1, BWV1007
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)
EMI 7243 5 55363 2
CD 1 Track 4
00:31:53
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Sweet Dancer
Michael Maloney (reader)
00:34:22
JOHN PLAYFORD
Kettledrum from English Dancing Master
Mark Emerson (violin)
Tim Harris (double bass)
Andy Cutting (diatonic button accordion)
BEAUTIFUL JO RECORDS BEJOCD-33
Track 1
00:39:00
N DOUWMA
Citizen Kane
Sub Focus
WARNER DANCE WSMCD 218
Track 9
00:39:00
ALICIA OSTRIKER
Saturday Night
Michael Maloney (reader)
00:41:56
LOUIS ANDRIESSEN
De Stijl
Schonberg Ensemble with Asko Ensemble
ELEKTRA NONESUCH 7559 79342-2
Track 1
00:43:45
SIBELIUS
Valse Triste
Berlin Philharmonic
James Levine (orchestra)
DG 437 828-2
Track 2
00:50:11
SAINT SAENS
Danse Macabre, Op.40
Philharmonia Orchestra
Charles Dutoit (conductor)
DECCA 414 460-2
Track 17
00:50:36
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE trans. EDGAR ALFRED BOWRING
The Dance of Death
Michael Maloney (reader)
00:54:28
SHOSTAKOVICH
3rd movement from String Quartet No.8 in C minor, Op.110
Borodin String Quartet
VIRGIN VC 7 91437-2
Track 3
00:59:09
ROGER McGOUGH
A Square Dance
Michael Maloney (reader)
01:00:23
Shostakovich
5th movement from String Quartet No.8 in C minor, Op.110
Borodin String Quartet
VIRGIN VC 7 91437-2
Track 3
01:04:11
PART
Spiegel im Spiegel
Daniel Hope (violin)
Simon Mulligan (piano)
NIMBUS NI 6531
Track 5
01:04:23
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE trans. WALTER MARTIN
Evening Harmony
Emily Raymond (reader)
