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Birdsong

From the skylark of Shelley, the bluebird of Charles Bukowski to the crows described by Evie Wyld, from Sally Beamish to Saint-Saens, we celebrate bird song in words and music.

Blackbirds to nightingales, skylarks to crows - in today's programme we hear a range of poetry & prose alongside music and the sounds of tweeting, cheeping and chirping from a variety of birds.

Our texts and poems include Christina Rossetti admiring the first swallows of spring, Shelley’s awestruck poetic sermon to a skylark, Rainer Maria Rilke’s existential thoughts on birdsong and love; Max Porter’s use of the crow as a symbol of grief, Tara Bergin’s silent blackbirds and Lisa Kelly’s thoughts on the deafness and the blackbird as the ‘Beethoven of songbirds’.

Our birdsong soundtrack includes Gerald Finzi’s song setting of Thomas Hardy’s ‘Proud Songsters’ from his ‘Earth and Air and Rain’ Op. 15, Medieval madrigal ‘Sumer is Icumen In’, believed to the oldest song in the English language (“loud sing cuckoo”), Einojuhani Rautavaara’s birdsong magnum opus ‘Cantus Arcticus’ Op. 61, Elena Kats-Chernin’s ballet ‘Wild Swans’ and Etta James’ recording of ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’.

Our readers are Julia Winwood and Jonathan Keeble.

Producer: Lola Grieve

This is one of the programmes on BBC Radio 3 marking the anniversary of cellist Beatrice Harrison duetting with nightingales in one of the first live outside broadcasts made by the BBC.

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 19 May 2024 18:00
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Damion Searls

    Excerpt from ‘The Inner Sky: Poems, Notes, Dreams’, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 00:01

    Frederick Delius

    On Hearing The First Cuckoo of Spring (No. 1 of "Two Pieces for Small Orchestra") 

    Orchestra: Hallé. Conductor: Sir Mark Elder.
    • HALLE CDHLL7512.
    • Tr 6.

  • Emily Dickinson

    Letter to Eugenia Hall, 1876, read by Julia Winwood

  • 00:05

    Elena Kats‐Chernin

    Wild Swans - Concert Suite for soprano and orchestra: No. 2: Eliza's Aria

    Singer: Jane Sheldon. Orchestra: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Ola Rudner.
    • ABC 476 7639.
    • Tr 2.

  • Christina Rossetti

    A Bird Song, read by Julia Winwood

  • Thomas Hardy

    Proud Songster, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 00:09

    Gerald Finzi

    Earth and air and rain Op.15, no.10; Proud songsters 

    Singer: John Carol Case. Performer: Howard Ferguson.
    • Gerald Finzi - Songs.
    • Lyrita.
    • 20.

  • Rumi (translated by by Coleman Barks)

    Birdsong, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 00:12

    Harald Sæverud

    Smafuglvals [Little bird’s waltz] Op. 18  

    Performer: Håvard Gimse.
    • Fabra FBRCD-10.
  • 00:14

    Antonio Vivaldi

    Concerto in A major for violin & strings, RV335 - "The Cuckoo": I. Allegro 

    Performer: Andrew Manze. Performer: Christopher Hogwood. Ensemble: Academy of Ancient Music.
    • Philips 4556532  .

  • Sara Teasdale

    May Day, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 00:19

    Anon.

    Sumer is Icumen in 

    Choir: The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford. Conductor: Mark Williams.
    • Opus Arte OACD9049D.

  • Tara Bergin

    Bridal Song, read by Julia Winwood

  • 00:22

    Trad.

    The Song of the Birds

    Music Arranger: Sally Beamish. Performer: Steven Isserlis.
    • Hyperion CDA67541/2 .
    • Tr 37.
  • 00:25

    Einojuhani Rautavaara

    Cantus arcticus, Op. 61, "Concerto for Birds and Orchestra": II. Melankolia (Melancholy)  

    Orchestra: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Leif Segerstam.
    • Odine ODE1300-2Q .
    • Tr 302.

  • Evie Wyld

    All the Birds, Singing (excerpt), read by Julia Winwood

  • 00:31

    Steve Reich

    Slow Motion Blackbird

    Composer: Chris Hughes. Composer: Chris Hughes. Performer: Chris Hughes. Performer: Chris Hughes.
    • Fontana 518 843-2.

  • Percy Bysshe Shelley

    To a Skylark, read by Julia Winwood

  • 00:38

    Einar Englund

    Symphony No. 2 'Blackbird': I. Allegro moderato 

    Orchestra: Estonian State Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Peeter Lilje.
    • Ondine ODE7512.
    • Tr.
  • 00:40

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    8 Songs Op.52: no.4; Maigesang (Wie herrlich leuchtet mir die Natur) 

    Singer: James Newby. Performer: Joseph Middleton.
    • BIS BIS-2475.
    • Tr 9.

  • Lisa Kelly

    Blackbird and Beethoven, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 00:44

    Ray Henderson

    Bye Bye Blackbird

    Performer: Etta James.
    • Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-298-2.
    • Tr.

  • Tom McKinney

    Catalogue d'Oiseaux: The composer who took a cue from birdsong for BBC Radio 3 (excerpt), read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 00:49

    Olivier Messiaen

    Catalogue d’oiseaux: No. 8, L’alouette calandrelle

    Performer: Yvonne Loriod.
    • Decca Records France.

  • David George Haskell

    Sounds Wild and Broken (excerpt) from Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 00:57

    Paul McCartney

    Blackbird

    Ensemble: The Beatles.
    • The Beatles.
    • EMI Catalogue.
    • 11.

  • Imtiaz Dharker

    Close to the sun (for a child, not yet three), read by Julia Winwood

  • 01:00

    Hoagy Carmichael

    Skylark

    Singer: Ella Fitzgerald. Ensemble: Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra.
    • Verve 823-274-2.
    • Tr 6.

  • Max Porter

    ‘Boys’ from Grief is the Thing with Feathers, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 01:04

    Ilan Eshkeri

    Nureyev from 'The White Crow'

    Performer: Dudana Mazmanishvili. Performer: Lisa Batiashvili.
    • The White Crow.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 8.

  • Charles Bukowski

    Bluebird, read by Jonathan Keeble

  • 01:10

    Charles Villiers Stanford

    8 Partsongs Op. 119: No. 3; The Blue Bird 

    Ensemble: Gabrieli Consort. Performer: Paul McCreesh.
    • McCreesh: Silence & Music.
    • Signum Classics.

Broadcast

  • Sun 19 May 2024 18:00
    BBC Radio 3

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