Rebel, Rebel
American novelist JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye tells the story of a teenager at odds with the world. To mark the centenary of his birth, poetry and music on rebellion.
Words and Music this week marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the American novelist, J.D. Salinger, whose classic novel The Catcher in the Rye told the story of the troubled teenager Holden Caulfield, at odds with a world he feels is cruel and unfeeling. First published as a novel for adults it’s become popular with teenagers around the world: it’s very hard to believe it was first published at the end of WWII. Rebel Rebel visits the world of those who don’t obey from composers and performers including the wild living Debussy and the minimalism of the pioneer Erik Satie and later the American composer Steve Reich who broke all the rules from the very start of his career in the 1960s, fighting against the musical establishment with his groundbreaking style. And, of course, you’ll hear the work of Mozart who did everything from composing his country’s national anthem to writing cruel parodies of his contemporaries’ work to make fun of them. You’ll also hear Don’t Rain on My Parade from Jule Styne and Bob Merrill’s musical Funny Girl, performed by Barbra Streisand who has had a hugely successful long career in Hollywood while refusing to conform to the rules. Samuel West and Natalie Simpson read words including poetry from the maverick Emily Dickinson who refused to live in the real world and the French writer Arthur Rimbaud who wrote nearly all his work between the ages of 16 and 20 before he abandoned poetry. Yearning to get away from the conventions of society he chose to give up his artistic life for that of a vagabond in East Africa. You’ll also see Samuel read from Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind and Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, poems by two writers who broke all the rules, moral and artistic, both involved in the social and political problems of their revolutionary age. Byron said of himself that he was ‘born for opposition’. Natalie reads from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, a character who, like Roald Dahl’s Matilda, begin their difficult early lives as passionate, intelligent and defiant children. And in a special linking up with the Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network, Jade Cuttle and Aisha Mango Borja’s writing is featured.
Producer: Fiona McLean
Last on
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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J.D. Salinger
Extract from The Catcher in the Rye, read by Samuel West
00:01Niccolò Paganini
24 Caprices for solo violin – No.16 in G minor
Performer: Julia Fischer (violin).- DECCA 4782274.
- Tr16.
Aisha Mango Borja
Resolution, read by Natalie Simpson
Mark Twain
Extract from Tom Sawyer, read by Samuel West
00:04Ferde Grofé
Mississippi Suite – Huckleberry Finn
Performer: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Enrique Batiz (Conductor).- EMI CDC7490562.
- Tr7.
Louisa May Alcott
Extract from Little Women, read by Natalie Simpson
00:08Jule Styne and Bob Merrill
DonÂ’t Rain on my Parade
Performer: Barbra Streisand.- COLUMBIA 5062572.
- CD1 Tr9.
William Shakespeare
Extract from Romeo and Juliet, read by Natalie Simpson
00:11Sergey Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet – Act I, Scene 2 – Juliet's Variation
Performer: London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn.- EMI CDS7490128.
- CD1 Tr14.
Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Wyatt Mason
Extract from Novel, read by Samuel West
00:14Erik Satie
Gnossienne no 1
Performer: Pascal Roge (piano).- DECCA 4102202.
- Tr10.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Extract from Ode to the West Wind, read by Samuel West
Emily Dickinson
My Cocoon Tightens read by Natalie Simpson
00:20Joni Mitchell
Urge for Going
Performer: Nigel Kennedy (violin), English Chamber Orchestra.- EMI CDC 5568902.
- Tr19.
Qui Jin
Capping Rhymes, read by Natalie Simpson
00:24Claude Debussy
Deux Arabesques L. 66 - No. 2 Allegretto scherzande
Performer: Pascal Rogé.- Decca 443 021-2.
- Tr18.
Roald Dahl
Extract from Matilda, read by Samuel West
00:29Tim Minchin
Quiet
Performer: Adrianna Bertola Josie Griffiths and Kerry Ingram (Matilda).- RSC RSCE002.
- Tr14.
J.D. Salinger
Extract from The Catcher in the Rye, read by Samuel West
00:32Charles Mingus
Self-Portrait in Three Colors
Performer: Charles Mingus.- COLUMBIA CK64624.
- Tr4.
Jane Austen
Extract from Emma, read by Natalie Simpson
00:37Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto no. 2 in E Flat Major - Rondo
Performer: Barry Tuckwell (Horn), the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner (Conductor).- EMI CDM7695692.
- Tr5.
Charlotte Bronte
Extract from Jane Eyre, read by Natalie Simpson
00:41Clara Schumann
Drei Romanzen für violin und clavier op. 22 – Allegretto in G minor
Performer: Lisa Batiashvili (violin), Alice Sara Ott (piano), Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann (Conductor).- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4790086.
- Tr5.
Lord Byron
Extract from Childe HaroldÂ’s Pilgrimage, read by Samuel West
00:45Dmitry Shostakovich
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in F major, Op.102 - Andante
Performer: New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (piano).- SONY CLASSICAL SMK47618.
- Tr6.
W.B. Yeats
Extract from Easter 1916, read by Samuel West
00:52Alexander Scriabin
Piano Sonata No. 9, op.68
Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy.- DECCA 4255792.
- CD2 Tr4.
Jade Cuttle
The Miracle of Mould, read by Natalie Simpson
01:00Steve Reich
Electric Counterpoint - Fast
Performer: Pat Metheny (guitar).- NONESUCH 7559791762.
- Tr6.
Dylan Thomas
Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, read by Samuel West
01:06Jean Sibelius
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47
Performer: Nigel Kennedy, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle (Conductor).- EMI 5574112.
- CD2 Tr7.
Broadcast
- Sun 30 Dec 2018 17:30³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3