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There Will Be Blood

Texts and music on the theme of blood, with readings by Indira Varma and Rory Kinnear. With John Webster, Bram Stoker and Heaney, and Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Gluck, Bartok and Barber.

The theme is blood and the anticipation of it being spilled: whether in war, sacrifice or murder.

Indira Varma and Rory Kinnear read poems and prose by John Webster, Bram Stoker, Carol Ann Duffy and Seamus Heaney. Music is by Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Gluck, Bart贸k, Barber, Alessandro Scarlatti, Gavin Bryars and Harrison Birtwistle.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 2 Apr 2017 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

  • 00:00

    Giuseppe Verdi

    Macbeth, Preludio

    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.

  • John Webster

    from The Duchess of Malfi, reader Indira Varma

  • 00:03

    B茅la Bart贸k arranged by Zolt谩n Sz茅kely

    Romanian folk dances no.3; Transylvanian stamping dance

    • DECCA.

  • Bram Stoker

    from Dracula, reader Rory Kinnear

  • 00:06

    Claudio Monteverdi

    L'incoronazione di Poppea, Pur ti miro

    • ARCHIV 4470882.
  • 00:10

    Johann Strauss II

    Leichtes Blut, polka

    • EMI.
  • 00:13

    Richard Strauss

    Salome, Dance of the Seven Veils

    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMAPHON 4318102.

  • Carol Ann Duffy

    Salome, reader Indira Varma

  • 00:22

    Samuel Barber

    Medea Ballet Suite, Choros. Medea and Jason

    • NAXOS 8559088.

  • William Shakespeare

    from Macbeth, reader Indira Varma

  • Christopher Logue

    from All Day Permanent Red, reader Rory Kinnear

  • 00:27

    John Williams

    The Shark Cage Fugue

  • Herman Melville

    The Maldive Shark, reader Indira Varma

  • 00:00

    Alessandro Scarlatti

    Il Primo Omicidio, Spiritoso

    • HARMONIA MUNDI HMC90164950.

  • Anon

    Who Killed Cock Robin?, reader Rory Kinnear

  • 00:32

    Ferguson, Hunter, Bruce, Dunst, Darren,Hamer, Watts, Whalley, Abbott, Nutter

    The Cutty Wren

    • One Little Indian.
  • 00:00

    Alan Abbott

    Alla caccia arr. for horn and piano [orig. for horn and orchestra]

    • EMI Classics CDC 7 54220 2,.

  • Seamus Heaney

    Actaeon, reader Indira Varma

  • 00:37

    Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

    Sonata violino solo representativa for violin and continuo in A major, Cucu

    • Harmonia Mundi.
  • 00:37

    Igor Stravinsky

    Le sacre du printemps, II Le Sacrifice, Action rituelle des anc锚tres

    • PHILIPS 4204912.

  • Jos茅 de Acosta

    Human Sacrifice among the Aztecs c 1520, reader Rory Kinnear

  • 00:41

    Luis Mars

    La Llorona

    • DECCA 4741502.
  • 00:44

    Hans Erdmann, arranged by Gillian B Anderson and James Kessler

    Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror, Theme I

    • RCA 09026681432.
    • 02.

  • Aeschylus, trans. Richard Lattimore

    Cassandra, from Agamemnon, reader Indira Varma

  • 00:46

    Christoph Willibald Gluck

    Iphig茅nie en Tauride, O malheureuse Iphig茅nie!

    • PHILIPS 4161482.

  • Wilfred Owen

    The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, reader Rory Kinnear

  • 00:52

    Michael John Harvey, Nicholas Edward Cave,Thomas Wydler

    Red Right Hand

    • Mute Records Limited.
  • 00:57

    Harrison Birtwistle

    Gawain's Journey, Introduction, The Opening of the Door

    • NMC NMCD088.

  • Simon Armitage

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, reader Rory Kinnear

  • 01:01

    Carlo Gesualdo

    Fifth Book of Madrigals for Five Voices, T'amo, mia vita!

    • OISEAU LYRE 4101282.

  • Alfred Lord Tennyson

    In Memoriam, Be Near Me When My Light is Low, reader Rory Kinnear

  • 01:04

    Gavin Bryars

    Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

    • VENTURE CDVE938.

  • William Cowper

    There is a Fountain Filled With Blood , reader Rory Kinnear

Producer's Note

The programme begins with music from Verdi鈥檚 version of Macbeth, perhaps one of our bloodiest tales, and a song from John Webster鈥檚 murderous masterpiece, the Duchess of Malfi, anticipating the deaths to come. Later we meet Cassandra the doomed Trojan prophetess whose visions are of the ongoing bloodshed unleashed in the House of Atreus, by the sacrifice of Iphegenia.

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The creep of blood described in Tennyson鈥檚 In Memoriam is one of dread but the excitement of anticipation is not straightforward. Here in an extract from Bram Stoker鈥檚 Dracula we peep, with the protagonist, through his lashes and experience his delicious horror at the voluptuous approach of the vampire.

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Blood鈥檚 association with love and desire is longstanding. Those of a sanguine temperament were said to be amorous and today we might refer to those of a lustier disposition as being hot-blooded. The final, beautiful duet of Monteverdi鈥檚 Coronation of Poppea sees 鈥渓ove鈥� triumph over 鈥渇ortune鈥� or 鈥渧irtue鈥� but those with a historical understanding will know that the Roman Emperor Nero and his second wife Poppea鈥檚 honeymoon was short-lived. He would go on to cause her death with a kick to the stomach. Likewise, the exquisite beauty of Carlo Gesualdo鈥檚 madrigals belie his notoriety as murderer of his wife and her lover.

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After a circulation boosting polka from Johann Strauss II we meet women with blood on their hands: Lady Macbeth and Medea and, in Carol Ann Duffy鈥檚 Salome鈥檚 case, a woman with an unexpected head on her pillow. There鈥檚 reference to the very first recorded murder 鈥� that of Abel by Cain and there鈥檚 beastly power in the depiction of the Greek warrior Hector as an East African lion about to spring with deadly intent and in Melville鈥檚 description of the Maldive Shark鈥檚 charnel maw.

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The murder of Cock Robin is matched with a song, The Cutty Wren, about the old English tradition of a ritual Boxing Day hunt of a wren and we hear, from Seamus Heaney, of Actaeon鈥檚 horrible transformation to a stag and his death: torn apart by his own hounds. The turn of the year is also a time of magical bloodshed and it is amidst the feasting and celebration of King Arthur鈥檚 court that the great Green Knight appears and demands his head be sliced from his shoulders. 听

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Traditionally, of course, the cuckoo is the herald of spring but its call is also one of the most certain signs of impending death. The cuckoo chick, hatched in the nest of another bird, swiftly dispatches the other eggs, sacrificing its companions the better to survive itself.听 Stravinsky鈥檚 Rite of Spring is set alongside a cool, contemporary account of the practice of Aztec sacrifice during the sixteenth century and La Llorona, the legendary weeping-woman of South American legend, sometimes linked with the conquest of the Aztecs, sings for her lost children.

听

Wilfred Owen refashions the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac for a World War I context. In the original story the obedient Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son Isaac as God has instructed him, an angel intervenes at the last moment and a ram is sacrificed in Isaac鈥檚 stead. Here Abraham refuses to slaughter the Ram of Pride and kills his son and 鈥渉alf the seed of Europe, one by one.鈥�

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Blood plays a vital part in Christian symbolism: Jesus鈥� blood shed to redeem the sinners of the world and remembered in the ritual of the Eucharist, prayers and hymns. Here there鈥檚 a verse from William Cowper鈥檚 There is a Fountain Filled with Blood and a remarkable piece by Gavin Bryars which uses a looped recording of a homeless man singing a religious song: Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet to extraordinary emotionally powerful effect.

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Producer: Natalie Steed

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Broadcasts

  • Sun 11 Aug 2013 18:15
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Sun 2 Apr 2017 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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