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Tanglewood Jungles

Into the forest of life, death, decay and rebirth via music by Gibbons and Glazunov and texts by Plath, Padel and Humboldt, with readings by Anna Chancellor and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

From the forests of Olde England to the Tropics via good, evil and the affairs of the human heart, Anna Chancellor and Julian Rhind-Tutt read prose and poetry raised by the idea of Tanglewood Jungles

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Scroll down the webpage for more information about the music used, and the Producer's Notes.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 10 Jan 2016 17:30

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Einige kanonische Ver盲nderungen 眉ber das Weihnachtslied BWV 769 - Variatio 1: nel canone all'ottava

    Performer: Helmut Walcha.
    • ARCHIV 4637122.
    • CD9 T11.
  • Upton Sinclair

    Prose: The Jungle read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • 00:01

    Alexander Glazunov

    The Forest 聳 Fantasia for Symphony Orchestra, Op.19

    Performer: Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.
    • ICONE ICN94242.
    • Tr4.
  • Sir Philip Sidney

    Poem: O Sweet Wood read by Anna Chancellor

  • Lewis Carroll

    Alice talks to a Gnat read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • 00:08

    Orlando Gibbons

    The Woods so wilde

    Performer: Martha Cook (harpsichord).
    • Vanguard 08915771.
    • Tr3.
  • Ogden Nash

    Poem: The Ant read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • 00:10

    Orlando Gibbons

    The Woods so wilde

    Performer: Martha Cook (harpsichord).
    • Vanguard 08915771.
    • Tr3.
  • Ogden Nash

    Poem: The Fly read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • 00:10

    Orlando Gibbons

    The Woods so wilde

    Performer: Martha Cook (harpsichord).
    • Vanguard 08915771.
    • Tr3.
  • John Pudney

    Poem: The Slug read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • Ted Hughes

    Poem: Crow Blacker Than Ever read by Anna Chancellor

  • 00:13

    John Williams

    The Five Sacred Trees 聳 II. Tortan

    Performer: Judith Sinclair (bassoon), London Symphony Orchestra, John Williams.
    • Sony Classical SK62729.
    • Tr2.
  • Don Marquis

    poem: Archy the Cockroach read by Anna Chancellor

  • 00:17

    John Williams

    The Five Sacred Trees 聳 III. E贸 Rossa

    Performer: Judith Sinclair (bassoon), London Symphony Orchestra, John Williams.
    • Sony Classical SK62729.
    • Tr3.
  • Sylvia Plath

    poem: Dark Wood, Dark Water read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • 00:20

    Franz Schubert, lyricist Wilhelm Muller

    Winterreise, D. 911: No. 5. Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree)

    Performer: Roman Trekel, baritone, Ulrich Eisenlohr, piano..
    • NAXOS 8556791.
    • Tr6.
  • Gavin Francis

    prose passage: The Lungs from Adventures in Human Being read by Anna Chancellor

  • Adventures in Human Being by Gavin Francis

    prose passage The Lungs read by Anna Chancellor

  • 00:32

    Alexander Glazunov

    The Forest 聳 Fantasia for Symphony Orchestra, Op.19

    Performer: Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.
    • ICONE ICN94242.
    • Tr4.
  • Gilbert White

    prose extract: The Raven Tree from A History of Selbourne read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • Rudyard Kipling

    Rudyard Kipling poem extract: The Law of the Jungle from The Jungle Book read by Anna Chancellor

  • 00:35

    Duke Ellington

    Jungle Nights in Harlem

    Performer: The Ellington Band, Duke Ellington.
    • HERMES HRM6001.
    • Tr12.
  • 00:38

    Colin M Turnbulll

    In The Rainforest Approaching A Forest Camp

    Performer: Trad..
    • Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SF40401.
    • Tr13.
  • Ruth Padel

    Poem extract: Lavender Light in a Leap Year read by Anna Chancellor

  • 00:41

    Traditional, Luis Craff (arranger)

    Naranjitay - Huai帽o

    Performer: James Johnstone (solo organ), Arakaendar Bolivia Choir, Ashley Solomon (Director).
    • CHANNEL CLASSICS CCSSA28009.
    • Tr17.
  • 00:42

    Peter Sculthorpe

    Earth Cry

    Performer: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, James Judd.
    • NAXOS 8557382.
    • Tr1.
  • Ruth Padel

    Poem: Tiger Drinking at a Forest Pool from The Soho Leopard by read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • by Alexander von Humboldt (Translators E C Otte and Henry G Booin)

    Extract from Views of Nature read by Anna Chancellor

  • 00:53

    Gustav Mahler

    Das Klagende Lied 聳 Erster Teil . Part One: Waldm盲rchen

    Performer: Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Riccardo Chailly, Hartmut Schmidt chorus master, Susan Dunn soprano, Brigitte Fassbaender mezzo-soprano, Markus Baur boy alto, Werner Hollweg tenor, Andreas Schmidt Bass.
    • DECCA 4257192.
    • Tr1.
  • Traditional, Helen Waddell (translator)

    poem: The Tribulus on the Wall from Lyrics the Chinese read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • Ted Hughes

    poem: Hawk Roosting (from The Crow) read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

  • Sylvia Plath

    Poem: The Shrike read by Anna Chancellor

  • 01:00

    Toru Takemitsu

    Tree Line

    Performer: Judith Sinclair (bassoon), London Symphony Orchestra, John Williams.
    • Sony Classical SK62729.
    • Tr6.
  • William Butler Yeats

    Poem extracts: Vacillation read by Julian Rhind-Tutt and Anna Chancellor

  • 01:07

    Juan P茅rez Bocanegra

    Ritual Formulario: Hanacpachap cussicuinin

    Performer: La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jordi Savall.
    • ALIA VOX AV9834.
    • Tr5.
  • Upton Sinclair

    Prose extract from The Jungle read by Anna Chancellor

  • 01:13

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Glaubenslieder 聳 Ach wie nichtig, ach wie fl眉chtig, BWV 644

    Performer: Ren茅 Saorgin.
    • Harmonia Mundi HMC90121516.
    • CD2 Tr22.

Producer's Notes: Tanglewood Jungles

Anna Chancellor and Julian Rhind-Tutt read prose and poetry raised by the idea of Tanglewood Jungles.

Edward Said, the great Palestinian scholar and music lover, wrote of extraordinary compositions that were for themselves alone 鈥 Bach鈥檚 Canonic Variations on 鈥淰on Himmel hoch da komm鈥檌ch her鈥 was a particular favourite.聽 Such is the virtuosity of composer and musician that we are at the edge of what music can achieve.聽 We can try and make it mean something, argue about interpretations, but in the end such music rebels against human attempts to categorise; its intransigence is its glory.

Thus, and so, with the great Tanglewood Jungles of Nature.聽聽 They are within us and without us. We love and fear them. We worship and exploit. Our lungs are as full of air as leafy canopies, we seek solitary inspiration in a world teeming with other lives, we cannot see the wood for the trees and the trees are our shelter and our nightmares. But in the end the forest or jungle and its tangled-underworld is beyond metaphor, beyond human understanding, it is just itself.聽

Through the music of Bach and Gibbons and Glazunov and Stravinsky, Duke Ellington and Takemitsu, with the words of Philip Sidney, Sylvia Plath, Ogden Nash and Lewis Carroll, Gilbert White and Alexander von Humboldt, Ted Hughes and W B Yeats we have trees and leaves and hanging lichens, lianas and flowers and then we have tigers and insects and monsters and people, the living and the dead, decay and growth 鈥 hope and fear, joy and terror - many and simultaneous voices coming together in a heterodox polyphony of Words and Music.

Be not afraid; for as Philip Sidney wrote, there is no 'danger to thyself, if't be not in theyself鈥.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Broadcast

  • Sun 10 Jan 2016 17:30

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