Crowds
Texts and music on the theme of crowds. With music including Handel, Grieg, Mozart, Beethoven, Elgar and Copland, plus texts including Philip Larkin, Shakespeare and Maya Angelou.
Words and Music explores our relationship with Crowds - everyday collectives, the political and the personal.
We begin with the popular experience of mass gatherings, from sporting events, to the daily commute and the fair ground. William Carlos William's majestic poem 'At The Ball Game' celebrates the festive side of crowds and hints at the potential for terror. This foreboding is embodied in Stravinsky's manipulated puppet trapped in a fairground burlesque, and Petrushka points towards the political nature of crowds. In Dicken's famous revolutionary novel 'A Tale of Two Cities', playful games outside a wine shop end with the word BLOOD painted in red wine. Shakespeare's Coriolanus addresses the mob and Aldous Huxley analyses Hitler, the ultimate manipulator of crowds, in 'Brave New World Revisited'. Verdi's Nabucco completes this section; so synonymous is it with Italian history and politics Ricardo Muti recently found his audience rising as one to join in the 'Hebrew Slaves Chorus'.
Freddie Mercury's anthem 'Someone to Love' heralds the personal nature of crowds - the pursuit of the perfect match in amongst humanity - and the sense of loneliness experienced in a crowd. We visit Gatsby's vibrant parties, glittering with emptiness; Cinderella fleeing the ball and Maya Angelou's phenomenal woman where men swarm around her like bees. Finally we end with Philip Larkin's love poem written to Maeve whilst listening to a broadcast of the concert she was attending. There are a few other crowd pleasers along the way, including music by Handel, Grieg, Mozart, Beethoven, Elgar and Copland; with additional words from Walt Whitman, Wordsworth and Garrison Keillor.
Producer, Erika Wright.
Last on
More episodes
Next
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
![]()
00:00Giuseppe Verdi
La donna e mobile
- Decca.
-
William Carlos Williams
At the Ball Game
![]()
00:03Aaron Copland
Fanfare for the Common Man
- EMI.
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
![]()
00:07Stephen Sondheim
Company: Another hundred People
- Columbia.
National Geographic: State Fairs
Garrison Keillor
![]()
00:10Igor Stravinsky
Petrushka
- EMI.
A tale of Two Cities: The Wine Shop
Dickens
![]()
00:16Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Trio in G Major Kanh.66 [K.562e]
- Naxos.
Coriolanus
Shakespeare
![]()
00:21Ludwig van Beethoven
Coriolan overture
- Live Southbank Centre.
Brave New World Revisited
Aldous Huxley
![]()
00:29Edvard Grieg
Homesickness
- EMI.
![]()
00:33Giuseppe Verdi
Nabucco
- KOCH.
![]()
00:37Mercury
Love of My Life
- EMI.
The Multitude
Walt Whitman
![]()
00:41Carmichael
Riverboat Shuffle
- Capitol.
Great Gatsby
F.Scott Fitzgerald
![]()
00:43Sergey Prokofiev
Cinderella
- DG.
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
![]()
00:47Georges Bizet
Carmen
![]()
00:49Sergey Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet: The quarrel
- DECCA.
![]()
00:51Dylan
Sign on a Window
- Columbia.
![]()
00:51Robert Schumann
Fantasiestucke in A minor
- Chandos.
The Daffodils
Wordsworth
![]()
00:56George Frideric Handel
Music for the Royal Fireworks
- MCPS.
Broadcast
Philip Larkin
![]()
00:59Edward Elgar
Introduction and Allegro
- 59鈥�40.
Adjoa Andoh
![Adjoa Andoh]()
Adjoa AndohWilliam Hope
![William Hope]()
William HopeBroadcasts
- Sun 2 Jun 2013 18:30大象传媒 Radio 3
- Fri 30 Dec 2016 16:30大象传媒 Radio 3
Featured in...
![]()
Arts
Creativity, performance, debate
The hidden history of plant-based diets
![The hidden history of plant-based diets]()
Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.
Books website
Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.
Related Content
