Space
Sunday 11 May 2008 22:20-0:00 (Radio 3)
Miranda Richarson and Tim McMullan read works by Walt Whitman, Arthur C Clarke, Wordsworth and Craig Raine, as well as from Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. With music evoking the sound of space, including Brian Eno's Apollo, Holst's The Planets and Frank Sinatra's Fly me to the Moon.
Duration:
1 hour 40 minutes
Space
Space
Miranda Richardson (reader)
Tim McMullan (reader)
Producer's Note
For this edition of Words and Music, I have selected a range of poetry and prose
which show man's fascination with space but also his ambivalence towards the unknown,
mysterious galaxy. I start with Walt Whitman's critique of astronomers and the implication
the outer-orbit can't be pinned down to scientific analysis. Brian Eno's pulsating evocation Apollo, provides the backdrop which recurs several times throughout the programme. Other music evoking constellations of stars, planets and the moon includes Judith Weir's beautifully scored
Moon and Star and Dutilleux's dramatic La Nuit Etoilee. Space can by humorous: from
Douglas Adams' zany Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to the Clangers' blue string pudding,
or the alien-speak in Edwin Morgan's The First Men on Mercury. Space has captured
the imagination of a wide range of composers, and I have chosen to include in this
sequence Glen Miller's Stairway to the Stars leading naturally from Lorca's playful "A Game of Moons"; Sinatra's classic rendition of Fly me to the Moon and David Bowie's `Space Oddity`.
The ambivalence returns with Wordsworth's Star Gazers and Auden's poem Moon
Landing which suggests that space will not give the ultimate answers to earthly matters.
The human condition explored through the metaphor of space continues in Gerald Manley
Hopkins' I am a slip of a comet and Walt Whitman's Germs. The programme ends
with a perspective from a martian in Craig Raine's poem and Moniza Alvi's message
from space in Homesick for the Earth and a metaphysical look at space, religion and
eternity in Henry Vaughan's The World, accompanied by Lassus' wonderful
meditation on the Star.
Jessica Isaacs (producer)
Playlist
00:00:00
Actuality of Apollo 11
Blast off recorded 16th July 1969
LP 32364
Brian Eno
Under Stars
Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois Roger Eno
EG EGCD53
Track 1
00:01:15
Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn'd Astronomer
Read by Miranda Richardson
00:02:05
Rued Langgaard
Music of the Spheres
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Chandos
Chan 9517
Track 1
00:04:00
Robert Graves
Star-Talk
Read by Miranda Richardson and
Tim McMullan
00:05:45
Douglas Adams
A Planet in the way from
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Quandary Phase
First broadcast 3-24 May 2005.
Music by Paul 'Wix' Wickens
BBC 056350496X Track 1
(With kind permission from
Douglas Adams and Above the Title)
00:06:15
Judith Weir
Moon and Star
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers
conducted by Martyn Brabbins
NMC D137
Track 6
00:09:45
Wordsworth
Star-gazers
Read by Miranda Richardson
00:12:30
Philip Sidney
With how sad steps .
Read by Tim McMullan
00:13:30
Schubert
An den Mond
Matthias Goerne (baritone)
Andreas Haefliger (piano)
Decca 4529172
Track 1
00:16:15
Glen Miller
Stairway to the Stars
Ray Eberle (vocal)
ASV CDAJA5078
Track 17
00:16:30
Lorca
A game of Moons
(translated by Jerome Rothenberg)
Read by Miranda Richardson
00:19:00
Brian Eno
Apollo Ascent
Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois Roger Eno
EG EGCD53
Track 5
00:19:02
Actuality Apollo 11
32364
Track 1
00:20:30
Auden
Moon Landing
Read by Tim McMullan
Actuality Apollo 32364
Moonwalk
Track 3
00:23:00
Dutilleux
La Nuit Etoilee
Orchestre National de France
conductor Mstislav Rostropovitch
MusicFrance 2292456262
Track 16
00:23:30
Adrian Mitchell
Song in Space
Read by Miranda Richardson
00:30:30
Bart Howard
Fly me to the Moon
Count Basie and His Orchestra
arranged Quincy Jones
Reprise 9362467102 2
Track 13
00:33:15
Lavinia Greenlaw
For the first dog in space
Read by Tim McMullan
00 :34:00
Messiaen
Regards du Fils sur le Fils
from Vingts Regards su l'enfant Jesus
Steven Osborne (piano)
Hyperion CDA673512
CD 1
Track 5
00:39:00
David Bowie
Space Oddity
The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974
EMI 3313042
CD 1
Track 2
00:44:15
Arthur C Clarke
The Moons of Saturn
from 2001 Space Odyssey
Read by Tim McMullan
00:48:15
Holst
Saturn from The Planets
Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart
conducted by Roger Norrington
Hanssler Classic 93043
Track 5
00:55:15
Edwin Morgan
The First men on Mercury
Read by Tim McMullan
57:30
Holst
Mercury from The Planets
Halle Orchestra
Conducted by Mark Elder
Hyperion CDA67270
Track 3
01:01;30
Fleur Adcock
The ex-Queen among the Astronomers
Read by Miranda Richardson
01:03:00
Satie
Preludes du fils des etoiles
Aldo Ciccolini (piano)
EMI CDC7497032
Track 10
01:03:30
Michael Longley
Halley's Comet
Read by Tim McMullan
01:06:30
George Herbert
The Star
Read by Miranda Richardson
01:08:00
Rameau
Chaconne from Castor and Pollux
Les Arts Florissants
Director William Christie
Harmonia Mundi HMC 90143537
Track 16
01:15:00
Darley
A Falling Star
Read by Tim McMullan
01:16:00
Arvo Part
Fratres
Perceptions of Time
Joakim Svenheden (violin)
Anders Jormin (double bass)
Mats Berstrom (guitar)
CAP 21800
Track 4
01:22:30
Gerald Manley Hopkins
I am like a slip of a comet
Read by Miranda Richardson
01:24:00
Stockhausen
Mantra for 2 pianists
Karl-Heinz Stockhausen (piano)
Sotckhausen 16
Tracks 1-2
01:24:15
Walt Whitman
Germs
Read by Miranda Richardson
01:25:30
Clangers extract
Rock Collecting
(With kind permission from Smallfilms)
01:28:00
Craig Raine
A Martian sends a Postcard Home
Read by Miranda Richardson
01:28:00
Brian Eno
Stars
Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno
EG EGCD53
Track 12
01:28:30
Moniza Alvi
Homesick for the Earth
Read by Tim McMullan
01:32:00
Henry Vaughan
The World
Read by Tim McMullan
01:35:00
Lassus
Videntes Stellam
New College Choir Oxford
directed by Edward Higginbottom
Erato 8573802392
Track 3
