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In Flux

Owen Teale & Thalissa Teixeira read poems and prose on adolescence, politics and metaphysics. Music from Glass, Holst, Aphex Twin to Haydn. Writers include Nietszche & Emily Berry

Owen Teale and Thalissa Teixeira with readings and music exploring ideas about change, chaos and becoming.

'When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self'. So says Dogen, the medieval Japanese philosopher whose words are positioned to respond to Emily Berry's poem The Old Fuel depicting the pain of carrying on with one's emotional routines when external circumstances have changed. The tension between rigidity and flux is a recurring theme. Some of the works featured seem surprised to observe that flux is the condition of all things. If Berry struggles to accept it, Virginia Woolf presents change as being contrary to our every-day expectations, and Carson McCullers' teenager Frankie finds it as baffling as the transition from Winter to Spring. The note of anxiety is picked up by Philip Glass and Haydn. Heraclitus, Nietzsche and Marx brag that they see change as the natural condition of things, but the tone of enthusiasm in their accounts is suspicious. The inevitability of it is better captured by Seamus Heaney's Bog Queen - even in what appears to be stasis, flux rules whether we're excited about it or not. We hear flux and stasis in Steve Reich's Piano Phases, music from SUNN 0))) and Aphex Twin. Marianne Moore, Marcel Proust, and Chuang Tzu, seem more moved by the beauty of transience.

READINGS:
Heraclitus fragments translated by Philip Wheelwright
Edmund Spenser Ruines of Rome
Friederich Nietzsche The Will to Power translated by Walter Kaufmann
Hannah Sullivan Repeat Until Time: The Heraclitus poem
Karl Marx and Friederich Engels The Communist Manifesto
Marianne Moore A Jellyfish
Chuang Tzu from the Book of Chuang Tzu
Carson McCullers The Member of the Wedding
Emily Berry The Old Fuel
Dogan Genjo Koan
Gerard Manley Hopkins Pied Beauty
Ovid Metamorphosis Book VIII translated by Samuel Garth
Ted Hughes Tales from Ovid
Seamus Heaney Bog Queen
Virginia Woolf Orlando
Marcel Proust Swann's Way translated by CK Scott Moncrieff
Edmund Spenser Two Cantos of Mutabilitie

Producer: Luke Mulhall

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 8 Dec 2019 17:30

Music Played

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

  • 00:00

    Richard Wagner

    Das Rheingold: Prelude

    Performer: Sir Georg Solti, Wiener Philharmoniker.
    • DECCA4555562 [2].
    • CD1 Tr 1.
  • Heraclitus

    Fragments, trans. Philip Wheelwright, read by Owen Teale

  • 00:05

    Gustav Holst

    The Planets: Mars, Bringer of War

    Performer: Lorin Maazel, L聮Orchestre National de France.
    • CBS CD37249 [1].
    • Tr 1.
  • Edmund Spenser

    Ruines of Rome, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • 00:10

    Olivier Messiaen

    Quartet for the End of Time: Vocalise pour l聮ange qui announce la fin du temps

    Performer: Octuor de France.
    • CALLIOPE CAL9898.
    • Tr 2.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche

    The Will to Power, tran. Walter Kaufmann, read by Owen Teale

  • Hannah Sullivan

    Repeat Until Time: The Heraclitus Poem, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

    The Communist Manifesto, read by Owen Teale

  • 00:17

    Sunn O)))

    The Grimm Robe Demos: Black Wedding

    • HYDRA HEAD HH666-93.
    • Tr 1.
  • Marianne Moore

    A Jellyfish, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • 00:19

    Francis Poulenc

    Les Mamelles de Tiresias, from Acte 1

    Performer: Andre Cluytens, Cours et Orchestre du Theatre National de l聮Opera-Comique.
    • EMI CDM7631542 [1].
    • Tr 2.
  • 00:22

    Steve Reich

    Piano Phase

    Performer: Kevin Griffiths, the London Steve Reich Ensemble.
    • CPO 7773372 [1].
    • Tr 6.
  • Chuang Tzu

    from The Book of Chuang Tzu, read by Owen Teale

  • Carson McCullers

    the Member of the Wedding, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • 00:27

    William Blake, The Fugs

    The Fugs First Album: Ah Sunflower, weary of time聟

    Performer: The Fugs.
    • BIG BEAT CDWIKD119 [1].
    • Tr 2.
  • Emily Berry

    The Old Fuel, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • Dogen

    Genjo Koan, read by Owen Teale

  • 00:33

    Peter Westergaard

    Mr & Mrs Discobbolos: First Recitative

    Performer: The Group for Contemporary Music.
    • CRI SD 271.
    • Tr 2.
  • 00:35

    Joseph Haydn

    Symphonie No.45 in F sharp minor: 1. Allegro assai

    Performer: Ton Koopman, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.
    • ERATO ECD88173.
    • Tr 5.
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins

    Pied Beauty, read by Owen Teale

  • 00:41

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV 565

    Performer: Karl Richter.
    • DECCA 4176792 [1].
    • Tr 1.
  • Ovid

    Metamorphosis, Bk VIII, tran. Samuel Garth, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • Ted Hughes

    Tales from Ovid, read by Owen Teale

  • 00:48

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV 565

    Performer: Catrin Finch.
    • KISSAN KISSANCD007.
    • Tr 1.
  • Seamus Heaney

    Bog Queen, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • 00:52

    Fairport Convention

    Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

    • Universal Island Record Ltd GBAAN6900035.
    • Tr 7.
  • Clarence Ellis

    The Pebbles on the Beach, read by Owen Teale

  • 00:56

    Aphex Twin

    Bucephalus Bouncing Ball

    • Crysalis Music Ltd T0100519230.
    • Tr 4.
  • Virginia Woolf

    Orlando, read by Thalissa Teixeira

  • Marcel Proust

    Swann聮s Way, trans. C.K Scott Moncrieff, read by Owen Teale

  • 01:06

    Philip Glass

    Metamorphosis 2

    • SONY CLASSICAL SMK45576 [1].
    • Tr 2.
  • Edmund Spenser

    Two Cantos of Mutabilitie, read by Owen Teale

  • 01:11

    Johann Strauss II

    Blue Danube Reprise

    Performer: Vienna Philharmonic.
    • Tr.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 30 Sep 2018 17:30
  • Sun 8 Dec 2019 17:30

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