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Texts and music exploring the colour green, with readings by Niamh McGrady and Sean Barrett. Includes Chaucer, Shakespeare and Wilfred Owen, plus Schubert and Maxwell Davies.

Has any colour attracted a wider range of associations than green? This Words and Music programme explores its resonance - from emeralds to vegetables and frogs to leprechauns, the greenhorn and the green-ey'd monster, Irish republicanism and international environmentalism - in poetry and prose from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Wilfred Owen, Dylan Thomas and PG Wodehouse; and music from Schubert to Maxwell Davies.

Readings: Niamh McGrady and Sean Barrett.

First broadcast 09/09/2012.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 31 May 2015 17:30
大象传媒 Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • John Clare

    Meet Me in the Green Glen, reader Niamh McGrady

  • 00:00

    George Butterworth

    The Banks of Green Willow [excerpt]

    Performer: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult (conductor)

    • Lyrita SRCD 245.

  • Anon

    A Little Geste of Robin Hood [excerpt], reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:02

    Roger Quilter

    Under the Greenwood Tree [No. 2 of Five Shakespeare Songs, Op. 23]

    Performer: John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Malcolm Martineau (piano)

    • Hyperion CDA 66878.
  • 00:03

    Ray Davies

    The Village Green Preservation Society

    Performer: The Kinks

    • Essential ESMCD 481.

  • P G Wodehouse

    The Heart of a Goof (excerpt), reader Niamh McGrady

  • 00:07

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Fantasia on Greensleeves

    Performer: Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner (conductor)

    • London 421 392-2.

  • Juan Ram贸n Jim茅nez, translated by David Gallagher

    The Little Green Girl, reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:09

    Franz Schubert

    Das Lied im Gr眉nen [Song in the Green Countryside]

    Performer: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Gerald Moore (piano)

    • Deutsche Grammophon 437 226-2.

  • Dylan Thomas

    Fern Hill, reader Niamh McGrady

  • 00:17

    George Frideric Handel

    Verdi prati [Green Fields, from opera Alcina]

    Performer: Della Jones (mezzo-soprano), City of London Baroque Sinfonia, Richard Hickox (conductor)

    • EMI CDS 749 773-2.

  • Cuthbert Bede

    The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green [excerpt], reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:23

    Michael Torke

    Green

    Performer: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman (conductor)

    • Argo 433 071-2.

  • Shakespeare

    Othello, Act 3 Scene 3 [excerpt], reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:27

    Giuseppe Verdi

    Otello, Act 2 [excerpt]

    Performer: Aldo Protti (bass 鈥� Iago), Mario del Monaco (tenor 鈥� Otello) Performer: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan (conductor)

    • Decca 411 620-2.

  • Geoffrey Chaucer

    The Friar鈥檚 Tale, from The Canterbury Tales [excerpt, modernised], reader Niamh McGrady

  • 00:30

    Franz Schubert

    Die liebe Farbe [The Beloved Colour, No. 16 of Die Sch枚ne M眉llerin]

    Performer: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Gerald Moore (piano)

    • Deutsche Grammophon 437 236-2.

  • Dan Pagis, translated from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell

    Twelve Faces of the Emerald, reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:36

    Peter Schickele

    All In Green Went My Love Riding

    Performer: Joan Baez

    • Vanguard VMD 79275-2.
  • 00:40

    Edvard Grieg

    Peer Gynt and the Woman in Green [from Peer Gynt; excerpt from complete incidental music]

    Performer: Malm枚 Symphony Orchestra, Bjarte Engeset (conductor)

    • Naxos 8.570871.
  • 00:40

    Irish traditional, arr. Herbert Hughes

    The Leprehaun [first verse]

    Performer: Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)

    • Helios CDH 55210.

  • William Allingham

    The Fairies 鈥� A Child鈥檚 Song [excerpt], reader Niamh McGrady

  • 00:40

    Irish traditional, arr. Herbert Hughes

    The Leprehaun [second and third verses]

    Performer: Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)

    • Helios CDH 55210.
  • 00:41

    Edvard Grieg

    Peer Gynt and the Woman in Green [from Peer Gynt; excerpt from complete incidental music]

    Performer: Malm枚 Symphony Orchestra, Bjarte Engeset (conductor)

    • Naxos 8.570871.
  • 00:42

    Harrison Birtwistle

    Gawain [excerpt]

    Performer: Omar Ebrahim (baritone 鈥� The Fool), Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Elgar Howarth (conductor)

    • Collins Classics 70412.

  • Anon, translated from the Middle English by Simon Armitage

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [excerpt], reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:44

    Harrison Birtwistle

    Gawain [excerpts]

    Performer: Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Elgar Howarth (conductor)

    • Collins Classics 70412.

  • L. Frank Baum

    The Wizard of Oz [excerpt), reader Niamh McGrady

  • 00:46

    Mario Castelnuovo鈥怲edesco

    Il raggio verde [The Green Ray; excerpt]

    Performer: Mariaclara Monetti (piano)

    • ASV CD DCA 1034.

  • Wallace Stevens

    The Candle a Saint, reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:49

    Charles Hubert Parry, reorch. Edward Elgar

    Jerusalem

    Performer: 大象传媒 Singers, 大象传媒 Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin (conductor) Performer: with participation of Royal Albert Hall audience on the Last Night of the Proms 2004

    • Warner Classics 2564 61956-2.

  • Wilfred Owen

    Dulce et Decorum Est, reader Sean Barrett

  • 00:53

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Pastoral Symphony [Symphony no. 3], fourth movement [excerpt]

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra, Andr茅 Previn (conductor)

    • RCA RD 89827.

  • Anon, c. 1798

    The Wearin' o' the Green, reader Niamh McGrady

  • 00:56

    Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Majid Derakhshani

    Language of Fire

    Performer: Mohammad Reza Shajarian

    • n/a.

  • Richard Llewellyn

    How Green Was My Valley [excerpt], reader Niamh McGrady

  • 01:01

    Curly Putman

    Green, Green Grass of Home

    Performer: Tom Jones

    • Deram 820 182-2.

  • John Christopher

    The Death of Grass [excerpt], reader Sean Barrett

  • 01:05

    Peter Maxwell Davies

    Farewell to Stromness [from The Yellow Cake Revue]

    Performer: Peter Maxwell Davies (piano)

    • Unicorn-Kanchana DKP CD 9070.

  • Tawara Machi

    鈥極nly the green鈥︹�� [tanka], reader Niamh McGrady

  • 01:10

    Toru Takemitsu

    Green

    Performer: London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen (conductor)

    • London Sinfonietta SINF CD3-2006.

  • Tu Fu [Du Fu]

    鈥楯ade-green river鈥︹�� [wu-ch眉eh], reader Sean Barrett

  • 01:11

    Joe Raposo

    Bein' Green

    Performer: Kermit the Frog

    • Walt Disney 358693-2.

Producer's Note

It wasn鈥檛 till I was most of the way through making this programme that I realised something about the colour green.聽 I already knew that despite its apparently very positive associations with nature, with spring, youth and growth, it had a mysterious, enigmatic, *super*natural side too.聽 But the more reading and listening I did, the more worms I found in the apple: practically every affirmative connotation also held the seeds of its own destruction.聽 Even green traffic lights are no use without red ones.聽 Or maybe that鈥檚 just my perspective 鈥� after all, as the Wizard of Oz so profoundly points out, 鈥榳hen you wear green spectacles, why of course everything you see looks green to you鈥�.

We鈥檙e invited into the green glen by Niamh Grady with one of the loveliest poems by the man who loved and understood the green ways of the English countryside best, John Clare.聽 George Butterworth called his orchestral piece 鈥�The Banks of Green Willow鈥� an 鈥榠dyll鈥� 鈥� but the passion of its climax reminds us that the two folksongs we hear in it (鈥楪reen Bushes鈥� as well as 鈥楾he Banks of Green Willow鈥� itself) encompass not just love, but loss, betrayal, death in childbirth, even infanticide.聽 Even in the company of Sean Barrett and his merry men, our image of dallying in the greenwood may be as idealised and nostalgic as John Major鈥檚 鈥� or the Kinks鈥� 鈥� Village Green.聽

PG Wodehouse guys golfers, his heroine Barbara Medway cleverly exploiting their sexism to get the rub of the green in her love match.聽 Lovely Joan turned the tables on her would-be seducer 鈥� 鈥榮he鈥檚 robbed him of his horse and ring, and left him to rage in the meadows green鈥�; her tune features alongside the (very likely unwarranted) aspersions on the virtue of 鈥榤y lady Greensleeves鈥� in Vaughan Williams鈥檚 鈥�Fantasia on Greensleeves鈥�.聽 The programme features two pieces of music each by both VW and Schubert: in each case, the first expressing the light of green, the second the dark.

I鈥檝e also included two poems that I find haunting despite not fully understanding them.聽 Wallace Stevens鈥檚 鈥�The Candle a Saint鈥� is one; the other is 鈥�The Little Green Girl鈥� by Spanish poet Juan Ram贸n Jim茅nez 鈥� who was apparently fixated on the colour green; I鈥檇 love to hear from anyone who knows why!

Schubert and Dylan Thomas sing the miraculous joy of green youth.聽 (I鈥檝e always loved Thomas鈥檚 鈥�Fern Hill鈥�, but I don鈥檛 feel his own reading caught its essence; fortunately Niamh McGrady wanted to do it very differently.)聽 Green youth doomed to inevitable loss, like the 鈥榲erdi prati鈥�, the 鈥榞reen fields鈥�, of Alcina鈥檚 paradise island.

Mr Verdant Green, a gullible greenhorn of nineteenth-century Oxford undergraduacy, pairs up with a luxuriant orchestral piece whose composer Michael Torke originally called it 鈥榁erdant Music鈥�, then purely 鈥�骋谤别别苍鈥�: he says that 鈥榮uggests a quality that is simple or unseasoned鈥�; yet to me the music sounds a more ominous note. 聽聽

And from here the programme begins to take a more sinister turn.聽 Shakespeare鈥檚 Othello succumbs to the green-ey鈥檇 monster, jealousy 鈥� though when Joe Green (the Italian Giuseppe Verdi) made it into an opera, his lyricist made 鈥�驳别濒辞蝉颈补鈥� curiously colourless.聽 The devil himself wears green 鈥� in the shape of the cheery chap who greets Chaucer鈥檚 summoner with a friendly 鈥榯hou鈥� (rather than the more formal 鈥榶ou鈥� the unsuspicious summoner employs in his replies).聽 Why green?聽 The theory goes that Chaucer鈥檚 devil is a hunter, with bow and arrows 鈥� and huntsmen wear green.聽 As Schubert鈥檚 miller lad finds to his cost: he鈥檚 besotted with the miller鈥檚 beautiful daughter, whose love for the colour green follows her feelings for the handsome huntsman who wears it.聽

Dan Pagis鈥檚 eerie emerald poem 鈥� chillingly translated from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell, chillingly read by Sean Barrett 鈥� and Peter Schickele and Joan Baez鈥檚 eldritch take one e cummings draw us deep into the supernatural.聽 The gorgeous woman in green who tempts Grieg and Ibsen鈥檚 Peer Gynt is a troll princess; and not even a legion of Irishwomen can turn the tables on the tricksy little men in green jackets.聽 The Green Knight of Arthurian legend, in Simon Armitage鈥檚 brilliant modern English rendering and Harrison Birtwistle鈥檚 terrifying operatic music, is no jolly green giant: Gawain gives him the chop, but he doesn鈥檛 lose his head, and announces his intention to back with a vengeance next year.聽 And for all the comforting delights of Yellow Brick Road, courageous Cowardly Lion and empathetic Tin-Man-without-a-heart, the Wizard of Oz conceals a decidedly un-magical political message behind the spectacles of his Emerald City.

Politics comes to the fore as day turns to night with Wallace Stevens, via Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco鈥檚 evocation of 鈥�Il raggio verde鈥�, the fugitive last 鈥榞reen ray鈥� of sunset. It was already hard enough to fathom the meaning of William Blake鈥檚 Christo-mystical poem 鈥�闯别谤耻蝉补濒别尘鈥� before it accrued ever more complex layers of cultural associations through Parry鈥檚 tune 鈥� commissioned by strident supporters of the First World War but rapidly adopted (to Parry鈥檚 delight) by Suffragettes 鈥� then Elgar鈥檚 huge orchestration and the flag-waving Last Night of Proms.聽 The green gas of Wilfred Owen鈥檚 searing anti-nationalistic indictment would have been all too familiar to Vaughan Williams, whose experiences as a WW1 ambulance driver on the blackened fields of Flanders underpin his version of Pastoral.聽 Green remains a potent political symbol in Ireland; and has recently become one in Iran, when the 2009 presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi adopted it as his campaign colour (probably at least partly because of its importance in Shia Islam): in the wake of his controversial defeat, the revered Persian traditional musician Mohammad Reza Shajarian and his colleague Majid Derakhshani released their impassioned protest song 鈥�Language of Fire鈥� free of charge 鈥榓s a gift to the struggles of Iranian people鈥�: 鈥楲ay down your gun鈥� The gun speaks the language of fire and iron, but I have nothing but the language of the heart.鈥�

Tom Jones adds an ironic twist to Richard Llewellyn鈥檚 yearning vision of a Welsh mining childhood, as we turn to the 鈥榦ther鈥� Green movement.聽 The Lord-of-the-Flies-for-grown-ups fable of 鈥�The Death of Grass鈥� by Samuel Youd (writing as John Christopher) grew from an environmental insight as prescient as it is remarkable for its early date (1956).聽 Just over two decades later, the threat of open-cast uranium mining in Orkney drew a defiant twofold creative response from composer Peter Maxwell Davies (who鈥檇 made his home there): the enormous, intense 鈥�Black Pentecost鈥� for orchestra and solo singers with words from Greenvoe, the first novel by his friend George Mackay Brown, was counterpointed by the subversive cabaret 鈥�The Yellow Cake Review鈥� (鈥榶ellow cake鈥� being uranium ore) 鈥� which included perhaps the most beautiful piece he ever wrote, a lament for the town of Stromness.

To end, three enigmatic, epigrammatic green views from the Far East, and a final word from the Frog-Prince who really gets under the skin of greenness.


Producer: David Gallagher

Broadcasts

  • Sun 9 Sep 2012 18:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Sun 31 May 2015 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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