The Wanderer
Sunday 22 June 2008 22:25-0:00 (Radio 3)
Rufus Sewell and Indira Varma read a selection of texts by authors including Thomas Hardy, John Masefield, Bruce Chatwin - as well as the Old English poem The Wanderer and the Indian epic The Mahabarata.
With music including Schubert's Der Wanderer, Gawain's journey by Harrison Birtwistle, as well as the gypsy sounds of Django Reinhardt and Maurice Ravel.
Duration:
1 hour 35 minutes
The Wanderer
Indira Varma (reader)
Rufus Sewell (reader)
Producer's Note
This week's theme for Words and Music suggested a wealth of different readings and associated music.
The programme starts with the classic rock track from Dion The Wanderer followed by John Masefield's poem about yearning to escape to the sea. I chose to include the epic journeys of the pandavas in the Indian saga The Mahabarata. This epic theme continues in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in a new translation by Simon Armitage, accompanied by Harrison Birtwistle's evocative journey music from his opera Gawain. The wanderer crosses continents in Bruce Chatwin's Songlines - accompanied by Kevin Volans' lilting String Quartet inspired by that classic book.
As a centre point, I've chosen the Old English poem: The Wanderer which depicts man's struggle to find his way in the world. In Schubert's lieder, Der Wanderer, the wanderer expresses the feeling of being a stranger everywhere "where are you my beloved land?" he asks. The mood changes with Gilbert and Sullivan A Wandering Minstrel I from the Mikado and Raggle Taggle gypsy celebrating life on the road, followed by the gypsy sounds of Django Reinhardt. With Walt Whitman we move to a more meditative theme with the musing on the death of a soldier with the haunting strains of the Kaddish. In Yeats' Song of the wandering Aengus' nostalgic memories are matched by the reverberant guitar in Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint.
The theme of wandering also suggested pilgrimage. I include the metaphysical meditation by George Herbert and Vaughan Williams' Pilgrim's Progress, the end of the journey. This leads to Thomas Hardy's poem about a wanderer finding an eternal resting place. To end I return to the unmistakeable voice of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Der Wanderer an den Mond where the wanderer looks to the moon for the answer to man's existence.
Jessica Isaacs (producer)
Playlist
00:00:00
Dion
Wanderer
Sanctuary/ Suite for late Summer
CDCHD792
CD1
Track 8
00:00:45
John Masefield
A Wanderer's Song
Read by Rufus Sewell
00:01:45
Debussy
Jeux de vagues
Halle Orchestra
conducted by Mark Elder
CD Hll 7513
Track 2
00:04:10
Sylvia Plath
Crossing the Water
Read by Rufus Sewell
00:05:10
Wordsworth
Stepping Westward
Read by Indira Varma
00:06:30
Anoushka Shankar
Bairagi
Angel
CDC5567292
Track 1
00:08:15
extract from the Indian epic,
The Mahabarata
Trans. Ganguli
Read by Indira Varma
00:10:15
Anoushka Shankar (cont)
Bairagi
Angel
CDC5567292
Track 1
00:11:15
Harrison Birtwistle
Gawain: The Journey
The Royal Opera House Orchestra
conducted by Elgar Howarth
Collins Classics 70412
CD 2
Track 2
00:11:20
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Simon Armitage
Read by Rufus Sewell
00:14:30
Kevin Volans
String Quartet Songlines
Standing Dance
Balanescu Quartet
Argo 4406872
Track 6
00:15:00
Bruce Chatwin
Songlines (extract)
Read by Indira Varma
00:18:15
The Wanderer
Old English
Translated by Michael Alexander
Read by Indira Varma
00:25:00
Ives
Hymn Cantabile
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Leonard Bernstein
DG
429220-2
CD1
Track 8
00:28:00
Schubert
Der Wanderer
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)
Alfred Bredel (piano)
Philips
651 438 4
CD
Track 12
00:35:00
TS Eliot
Journey of the Magi
Read by Rufus Sewell
38:00
Gibbons: Fantasia in 6 parts
Fretwork
Virgin Classics VC7908492 Track 1
40:30
Gilbert and Sullivan
A Wandering Minstrel I
from Mikado
Anthony Rolfe Johnson as Nanki-Poo
Orchestra of Welsh National Opera
conducted by Charles Mackerras
Telarc CD 80284
Track 2
00:45:30
Raggle Taggle Gypsy
Traditional
Read by Rufus Sewell
00:47:00
Djangology
Django Reinhardt
Classics 739
Track 2
00:49:15
Shakespeare
Puck:A Midsummer Night's Dream
Read by Indira Varma
00:50:00
Debussy
Danse de Puck
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano)
DG 469 826-2
CD 7
00:53:00
Count Basie
My Wandering man
Count Basie
Classics Classic S623
Track 3
00:53:05
Kipling
Road to Mandalay
Read by Rufus Sewell
00:56:15
Count Basie continues
00:58:00
Siegfried Sassoon
A Wanderer
Read by Rufus Sewell
00:60:00
Raggle Taggle Gypsy
John Reilly
Topic TSCD702
Track 5
01:03:00
Ravel
Tzigane (extract)
Gil Shaham (violin)
DG
429729
CD
Track 7
01:06:0 0
Paul Muldoon
Why Brownlee left
Read by Indira Varma
Mahabharata film soundtrack
Original soundtrack by Peter Brook
Excerpt written by Rabindranath Tagore
Nibiro Ghono Andhara
REALWORLD
CDRW9
CD 1
Track 1
01:10:00
extract from the Indian epic,
The Mahabarata
Trans. Ganguli
Read by Indira Varma
01:12:30
Kaddish
Daniel Hope (violin)
Nimbus NI5702
Track 17
01:13:00
Whitman
As toilsome I wondered Virgina's Woods
Read by Rufus Sewell
01:17:00
Reich
Electric Counterpoint
Pat Metheny
Nonesuch 9791762
Track 5
01:17:40
Yeats
The song of wandering Aengus
Read by Rufus Sewell
01:19:00
Jackie Kay
In my country
Read by Indira Varma
01:19:30
Auden
The Wanderer
Read by Rufus Sewell
01.20.40
Shelley
Wanderer (excerpt)
Read by Indira Varma
01.21:00
Joan Baez
I wonder as I wonder
Vanguard VCD795962
Track 5
01:25:00
George Herbert
Pilgrimage
Read by Indira Varma
01:27:00
Vaughan Williams
The Pilgrims Progress
Gerald Finley (the pilgrim)
The orchestra of the Royal Opera House
conducted by Richard Hickox
Chandos Chan 9625
CD 2
Track 8
01:30:30
Ligeti
Etudes
Fredrik Ullen (piano)
Bis BISCD 168384
Track 2
01:31:00
Thomas Hardy
The Wanderer
Read by Rufus Sewell
01:31:38
Schubert
Der Wanderer an den mond
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)
Alfred Brendel (piano)
Philips 4114212
Track 14
