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Coffee and Tea

Pop on the kettle and grab your favourite mug for a caffeinated edition of Words and Music, with music, poetry and writing inspired by our favourite hot beverages: coffee and tea.

Pop on the kettle and grab your favourite mug for a caffeinated edition of Words and Music, with music, poetry and writing inspired by coffee and tea. Featuring instructions from Douglas Adams on how to make the perfect cup of tea, the fragrant rituals of an Ethiopian coffee ceremony and Judith Kerr's rambunctious Tiger Who Came To Tea. We'll hear Tchaikovsky's Coffee and Tea dances from The Nutcracker, Shostakovich's Tahiti Trot arrangement of Tea for Two by Vincent Youmans, and Ella Fitzgerald's ode to Black Coffee. The Father Ted theme tune introduces an extract from 'Picnic on Craggy Island' by Lissa Evans about the comedic genius of Pauline McLynn, aka Mrs Doyle, and Florence Price's Adoration arranged for solo violin and string orchestra accompanies Thomas Hardy's poem 'At Tea', where domestic bliss is haunted by the love for another.

Our readers are Ariyon Bakare and Philippa Dunne.

There's also an additional reading by Jason Allen-Paisant from his memoir 'The Possibility of Tenderness', about the plants and people of his native district Coffee Grove in Jamaica, and Sarah Howe reads her own poem 'Porcelain Tea Caddy Painted in Underglaze Blue' reflecting on the Empire, trades and slavery.

Produced in Salford by Nancy Bennie

Readings:
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Untitled by Samuel Johnson
"Tea" from The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Beethoven as I Knew Him by Anton Schindler
The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
Where the Wild Coffee Grows – The Untold Story of Coffee from the Cloud Forests of Ethiopia to Your Cup by Jeff Koehler
The Song of Tea by Lu T’ung
Camomile Tea by Katherine Mansfield
The Possibility of Tenderness by Jason Allen-Paisant
Porcelain Tea Caddy Painted in Underglaze Blue by Sarah Howe
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
In A Bath Teashop by John Betjeman
A Ballad of the Boston Tea-Party By Oliver Wendell Holmes
Procedure by Jo Shapcott
Coffee Ring by T.L. Evans
Picnic on Craggy Island – The Surreal Joys of Producing Father Ted by Lissa Evans
At Tea by Thomas Hardy

1 hour, 14 minutes

On radio

Sunday 18:00
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are the time of the day

  • 17:01

    Edward MacDowell

    Sea pieces Op.55, i. Nautilus

    Performer: Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Anthony Johnson (conductor).
    • Albany Records TROY0224.
    • Tr16.

  • Virginia Woolf

    The Waves

  • 17:04

    Luigi Boccherini

    String Quintet in C Major, G.324 iv: Passacalle

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan (conductor).
    • Deutsche Grammophon 4798224.
    • Tr16.

  • Samuel Johnson

    Untitled

  • 17:07

    The Ink Spots

    The Java Jive

    • One Day Music DAY2CD106.
    • Tr15.
  • 17:10

    Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    Petite Suite de Concert, Op. 77, iii. Un sonnet d'amour

    Orchestra: Chineke! Orchestra. Conductor: Anthony Parnther. Conductor: Anthony Parnther.
    • Decca 485 3322.
    • Tr17.

  • Douglas Adams

    Tea

  • Barbara Pym

    Some Tame Gazelle

  • 17:16

    Vincent Youmans

    Tahiti Trot, Op.16 (Orchestration of Tea for Two)

    Music Arranger: Dmitry Shostakovich. Orchestra: Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. Conductor: Paavo Järvi.
    • Erato 5456092.
    • Tr12.

  • Anton Schindler

    Beethoven As I Knew Him

  • 17:19

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Die Ruinen von Athen, Op. 113, no.4; Turkish march

    Performer: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Efrem Kurtz. Conductor: Efrem Kurtz.
    • Warner Classics.
    • Tr26.

  • Judith Kerr

    The Tiger Who Came to Tea

  • 17:21

    Helvi Leiviskä

    Orchestral Suite No. 2, Op. 11, ii. Humoreski

    Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Dalia Stasevska. Conductor: Dalia Stasevska.
    • BIS BIS2701.
    • Tr3.
  • 17:24

    Mulatu Astatke

    Tezeta

    • Strut STRUT051CD.
    • Tr20.

  • Jeff Koehler

    The Untold Story of Coffee from the Cloud Forests of Ethiopia to Your Cup

  • 17:27

    Gracie Fields

    A Nice Cup of Tea

    • Spectrum Music SPECSIG2041.
    • Tr5.
  • 17:30

    Shusan Chow

    Moonlight

    Performer: Gerald Garcia. Performer: Gerald Garcia. Performer: Takako Nishizaki. Performer: Takako Nishizaki.
    • Marco Polo 8.225837.
    • Tr4.

  • Lu T’ung

    The Song of Tea translated by Steven Owyoung

  • 17:33

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act II: No. 12b, Coffee (Arabian Dance)

    Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • Warner Classics 6 42122 2.
    • Tr9.
  • 17:37

    Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov

    3 Pieces Op.7 for violin and piano, No 1: Berceuse

    Performer: Matthew Hagle. Performer: Rachel Barton Pine.
    • Cedille Records CDR 90000 139.
    • Tr3.

  • Katherine Mansfield

    Camomile Tea

  • Jason Allen-Paisant

    The Possibility of Tenderness

  • 17:41

    Tommy McCook & The Supersonics

    Nocturn

    • Trojan Records.
    • Tr19.
  • 17:42

    Lucinda Chua

    I Left the Earth

    Performer: Lucinda Chua.
    • Netflix Music.
    • Tr28.

  • Sarah Howe

    Porcelain Tea Caddy Painted in Underglaze Blue

  • 17:45

    Rebecca Clarke

    I'll Bid My Heart Be Still

    Performer: Sophia Rahman. Performer: Philip Dukes.
    • Naxos 8.557934.
    • Tr9.

  • Lynne Reid Banks

    The L-Shaped Room

  • 17:48

    Ella Fitzgerald

    Black Coffee

    • Verve Records 00602508525803.
    • Tr3.

  • John Betjeman

    In A Bath Teashop

  • 17:52

    Sergey Prokofiev

    War and Peace Symphonic Suite, i. The Ball: Fanfare and Polonaise

    Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Music Arranger: Christopher Palmer. Conductor: Neeme Järvi.
    • Chandos CHAN9096.
    • Tr1.

  • Oliver Wendell Holmes

    A Ballad of the Boston Tea-Party

  • 17:55

    Cat Stevens

    Tea for the Tillerman

    Performer: Cat Stevens.
    • Island Records ILPS 9135.
    • Tr11.
  • 17:56

    Ottorino Respighi

    6 Pieces for Piano, P. 44: No. 3. Notturno (Version for Harp)

    Performer: Magdalena Hoffmann.
    • Deutsche Grammophon 4861724.
    • Tr1.

  • Jo Shapcott

    Procedure

  • 18:01

    William Alwyn

    2 Irish Pieces, No. 1 From the Countryside

    Performer: Ashley Wass.
    • Naxos 8.570464.
    • Tr16.

  • T.L. Evans

    Coffee Ring

  • 18:04

    Neil Hannon

    Father Ted Theme

    Performer: The Divine Comedy.
    • Divine Comedy Records Limited DCRL025RCD.
    • Tr14.
  • 18:04

    Joan Trimble

    Buttermilk Point (Reel)

    Performer: Una Hunt. Performer: Roy Holmes.
    • Marco Polo 8.225059.
    • Tr18.

  • Lissa Evans

    Picnic on Craggy Island – The Surreal Joys of Producing Father Ted

  • 18:06

    Irving Berlin

    Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee

    Singer: Marion Hutton. Ensemble: Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.
    • Bluebird 09026-63900-2.
    • Tr13.
  • 18:09

    Florence Price

    Adoration (version for Solo Violin and String Orchestra)

    Performer: Daniel Hope. Orchestra: Zürcher Kammerorchester.
    • Deutsche Grammophon 486 1940.
    • Tr14.

  • Thomas Hardy

    At Tea

Broadcast

  • Sunday 18:00
    BBC Radio 3

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