Soul Music

Latest Episodes:

Wichita Lineman Aug 23, 2011

Show notes

Witchita Lineman is the ultimate country/pop crossover track - written by Jimmy Webb for the Country star Glen Campbell.

Released in 1968, it tells the story of a lonely lineman in the American Midwest, travelling vast distances to mend power and telephone lines.

The song has been covered many times, but Glen’s version remains the best-loved and most played.

Johnny Cash also recorded an extraordinary and very raw version. Peter Lewry, a lifelong Cash fan, describes how it came about.

David Crary is a lineman from Oklahoma, who recalls his reaction to the first time he heard the song.

Meggean Ward's father was a lineman in Rhode Island. As a child she always felt it was written for her him.

Glen Campbell is also interviewed.

Shortly after it was recorded, he went public about his diagnosis of Alzheimer's. His contribution is brief, but it includes an acoustic performance of the song. It was a privilege to record ‘down the line’.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Karen Gregor.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.

Mendelssohn's Octet Aug 16, 2011

Show notes

An exploration of how Mendelssohn's Octet has impacted people's lives, demonstrating the healing power of music in a variety of situations around the world.

Felix Mendelssohn wrote his Octet for double string quartet in 1825 aged just 16.

Despite his youth, this is a mature and brilliant piece of music described by our interviewees as "carnivalesque", "a romp", "a party".

Choreographer Bill T Jones describes the way in which the Octet showed his company how to keep living during the onslaught of AIDS in the 1980's.

Cellist Raphael and violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch talk about falling in love whilst learning this music in the 1970's.

South Korean Lisa Kim tells a story about going on tour with the New York Philharmonic to North Korea and her intense fear and mistrust being replaced by wonder when they played the Octet with a North Korean Quartet.

And Matthew Trusler describes the importance of playing this work after the death of his son.

The featured recording of the Mendelssohn Octet by the Emerson String Quartet on Deutsche Gramophon.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Rosie Boulton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.

Mahler's Adagietto Mar 29, 2011

Show notes

Gustav Mahler wrote his 5th Symphony during the summers of 1901 and 1902.

The Adagietto is the 4th movement which is thought to have been inspired by falling in love with Alma who he married around this time.

This single movement is the composer’s most well-known piece of music. It was famously used in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice. It was also conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York on the day of the burial of Robert Kennedy.

Composer David Matthews explains the significance of this piece in Mahler's output.

Psychoanalyst Anthony Cantle describes listening to it with his mother during her last days of dementia.

Malcolm Reid tells how this piece signified a change in himself as a young man in the British police force with narrow, racist views, to hearing it in Australia and shifting him to becoming a liberal.

And Helen Epstein explains why it was played at her mother's funeral.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Rosie Boulton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.

Schubert's Winterreise Mar 22, 2011

Show notes

Winterreise was written the year before Franz Schubert's death aged just 31, these 24 songs based on poems by Wilhelm Müller describe a journey that takes us ever deeper into the frozen landscape of the soul.

Singers Thomas Hampson, Mark Padmore, Alice Coote and David Pisaro describe the experience of immersing themselves in this music.

And Bernard Keefe tells of the time he sang these songs in Hiroshima to survivors of the bomb.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Rosie Boulton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.

The Impossible Dream Mar 15, 2011

Show notes

‘The Impossible Dream' is a song that talks of the resilience of the human spirit.

It tells the story of a quest and it's had a surprising journey of its own.

It was originally composed for the 1965 musical The Man of La Mancha which was inspired by Miguel de Cervantes story of Don Quixote. The music was written by Mitch Leigh and the lyrics by Joe Darion.

Now in his 80s, Leigh explains how his first writing partner was WH Auden and talks about why this particular piece struck a chord with African American friends at that time.

Generations on, international Soprano Lesley Garrett recalls how this song inspired her childhood dreams in Doncaster.

Yachtsman of the Year Geoff Holt talks about how this song carried him across the Atlantic on one of the most important voyages of his life.

Plus, former advertising executive Rob Chew explains how this piece is helping him face life’s biggest challenge.

Contributors:

Geoff Holt Rob Chew Mitch Leigh Stuart Pedlar Lesley Garrett

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.

Simple Gifts Mar 08, 2011

Show notes

Simple Gifts started life as a Shaker Hymn and became incorporated into the hymn Lord of the Dance and Aaron Copland's ballet suite Appalachian Spring.

Nora Guthrie describes the central place this tune has played throughout her life.

Pete Lashley tells how he heard it unexpectedly whilst touring in New Zealand.

Michael Carter explains why his father chose this tune for his famous hymn "Lord of the Dance" and Scott Malchus describes running a marathon whilst listening to this music.

Featuring:

Thomas Swain Michael Carter Nora Guthrie Scott Malchus Pete Lashley

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Rosie Boulton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.

Mozart's Clarinet Quintet Mar 01, 2011

Show notes

Mozart's Clarinet Quintet was written in 1789, two years before the composer’s death.

The first ever work for string quartet plus clarinet remains a firm favourite for music lovers around the world.

Professor Paul Robertson describes how his wife played this piece to him whilst he lay in a coma. Clarinettist Peter Furniss tells of the solace the slow movement provided his mother as she lay dying.

And Alex Smith explains the importance of this piece in his work to help children with autism, Asperger's, dyslexia and other childhood disorders.

Featuring:

Paul Robertson Peter Furniss Alex Smith John Playfair David Campbell Robin Batteau

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Rosie Boulton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.

The Emperor Oct 05, 2010

Show notes

Beethoven's fifth and final piano concerto, The Emperor is majestic and moving in equal measure.

Richard McMahon plays extracts and discusses the virtuosic it demands.

Australian film producer, Hal McElroy, talks about using the Adagio (the second movement) to illustrate the classic 1970s film Picnic at Hanging Rock.

That was where Andrew Law – who was Chaplain at Malvern College - first heard the piece. He describes the Adagio as being 'one of those pieces of art which it is worth being alive to have heard'.

Concert pianist, James Rhodes, describes how The Emperor was central to his childhood and his developing love of Beethoven's piano music.

Music teacher and singer, Prue Hawthorne, recalls how her father (an amateur clarinettist) laboriously transcribed by hand the horn and clarinet sections of the first movement so they could play along with the record in their living room.

Also contributing is the renowned Beethoven biographer, John Suchet.

Concert pianist Richard McMahon has now retired as a teacher at the Royal Welsh School of Music and Drama.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Karen Gregor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2010.

How Great Thou Art Sep 28, 2010

Show notes

An examination of the enduring popularity of the hymn, How Great Thou Art. Based on a Swedish poem by Carl Gustav Boberg, it was written by the British missionary Stuart Hine in 1949.

It subsequently become an Elvis Presley classic and as the country and western star , Connie Smith explains, it's the piece she always sings to close her show, the stirring lyrics and soaring melody having the ability to move and inspire audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

At the age of 101, George Beverly Shea shares his clear memories of singing it at hundreds of Billy Graham crusades.

Featuring:

Bud Boberg Ray Bodkin Bev Shea Jerry Schilling Malcolm Imhoff David Darg

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Lucy Lunt

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

Faure Requiem Sep 21, 2010

Show notes

"He wanted it to be something that's consoling and helpful. It's the end of their lives where they can rest in peace."

World renowned choral conductor Sir David Willcocks, shares his personal reflections on the Faure Requiem alongside those for whom the music has comforted and inspired.

Known for its peaceful and hopeful nature the Faure Requiem has been called 'The lullaby of death'. Whilst Gabriel Faure himself never spoke directly about what inspired his interpretation of the Requiem, author and biographer Jessica Duchen has speculated that it may have been born out of his experience as a soldier during the Franco-Prussian war.

Featuring personal stories of conflict and deliverance shared from across the decades. Reaching from the beaches of Normandy to the plains of Afghanistan and into the skies of Salisbury.

Faure composed the first version of the work, which he called "un petit Requiem" with five movements, of which the Pie Jesu and In Paradisum have become arguably the most popular.

"Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."

Featuring:

David Willcocks Jessica Duchen Christina Schmid Paul Hawkins Ross Mallock

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected