Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

After Life

Words and Music ? After Life

Samantha Morton and Jonathan Coy with poetry, prose and music by women and men who have lost loved ones, exploring the complexities of grief and coming to terms with living without them.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 20 Oct 2013 17:30
大象传媒 Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Verdi 200: Verdi - Conflict and Liberty

Next

Free Thinking: Who's in Control?

See all episodes from Words and Music

Music Played

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

  • Gwyneth Lewis

    A Hospital Odyssey (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:00

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no. 10 (Finale 鈥� excerpt)

    Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Daniel Harding.
    • DG 477 7347.
    • 5.

  • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

    The Gates Ajar (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • W H Auden

    Funeral Blues, reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:03

    Josef Suk

    Symphony no. 2 in C minor (Asrael) (Finale 鈥� excerpt)

    Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic. Conductor: Ji艡铆 B臎lohl谩vek.
    • Chandos CHAN 9042.
    • 5.

  • Lynn Caine

    Widow (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:05

    June Tabor

    Trad

    The Reaper

    • 大象传媒 recording.

  • Michael Rosen

    Carrying the Elephant (excerpt), reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:07

    Giacomo Carissimi

    Plorate, filii Israel, from Jephte

    Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • Erato 2292-45466-2.
    • 13.

  • Ruth Stone

    Loss, reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:13

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no. 10 (Finale 鈥� excerpt)

    Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • Symphony no. 10 (Finale 鈥� excerpt).
    • 5.

  • C S Lewis

    A Grief Observed (excerpt), reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:14

    Anton铆n Dvo艡谩k

    Stabat Mater (excerpt)

    Orchestra: Pra啪sk媒 filharmonick媒 sbor. Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic. Conductor: Ji艡铆 B臎lohl谩vek.
    • Chandos CHAN 8985/6.
    • CD1 Tr1.

  • Joan Didion

    The Year of Magical Thinking (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:17

    Alban Berg

    Violin Concerto (excerpt)

    Performer: Josef Suk. Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic. Conductor: Karel An膷erl.
    • Supraphon SU 3663-2.
    • 7.

  • Michael Rosen

    Carrying the Elephant (excerpt), reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:19

    Johannes Brahms

    Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt, from A German Requiem (excerpt)

    Choir: Bavarian Radio Symphony Choir. Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Wolfgang Sawallisch.
    • Orfeo C 039101 A.
    • 6.

  • Lynn Caine

    Widow (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • Kakinonoto Hitomaro

    I loved her like the leaves, reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:23

    Anton铆n Dvo艡谩k

    Cello Concerto (Finale 鈥� excerpt)

    Performer: Raphael Wallfisch. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Mackerras.
    • Chandos CHAN 10715.
    • 3.

  • Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Lament (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:26

    Herbert Howells

    The Lord is my Shepherd, from Hymnus Paradisi (excerpt)

    Performer: Julie Kennard. Performer: John Mark Ainsley. Choir: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir. Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Vernon Handley.
    • Hyperion CDA66488.
    • 3.

  • Frances Beck

    The Diary of a Widow (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:32

    Alfred Schnittke

    Piano Quintet: In tempo di Valse (second movement 鈥� excerpt)

    Performer: Boris Berman. Performer: Vermeer Quartet.
    • Naxos 8.554830.
    • 7.

  • Michael Rosen

    Carrying the Elephant (excerpt), reader Jonathan Coy

  • Helen Humphreys

    True Story 鈥� On the Life and Death of My Brother, reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:34

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Romanza: Jane Scroop (Her Lament for Philip Sparrow), from Five Tudor Portraits (excerpt)

    Choir: Guildford Choral Society. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Hilary Davan Wetton.
    • Hyperion CDA66306.
    • 9.

  • Kevin Young

    Ode to Sweet Potato Pie, reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:37

    J贸n Leifs

    Requiem (excerpt)

    Choir: Hamrahlid Choir. Conductor: Thorgerdur Ingolfsdottir.
    • ITM ITM 6-01.
    • 5.

  • Denise Riley

    Time lived, without its flow (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • John Milton

    Sonnet XXIII: Methought I Saw my Late Espoused Saint, reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:42

    John Ireland

    When I am dead, my dearest

    Performer: Benjamin Luxon. Performer: Alan Rowlands.
    • Lyrita SRCD.2261.
    • CD2 T22.

  • Thomas Hardy

    An Upbraiding, reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:45

    Eric Clapton

    Tears in Heaven, from Eric Clapton Unplugged (excerpt)

    Composer: Will Jennings. Performer: Eric Clapton.
    • Duck [Reprise] 9362-45024-2.
    • 4.

  • Joan Didion

    The Year of Magical Thinking (excerpt), reader Samantha Morton

  • 00:49

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Romanza: Jane Scroop (Her Lament for Philip Sparrow), from Five Tudor Portraits (excerpt)

    Performer: Elizabeth Bainbridge. Choir: The Bach Choir. Orchestra: New Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
    • EMI CDM 764722-2.
    • 4.

  • Julian Barnes

    Levels of Life (excerpt), reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:51

    Peter Lieberson

    Amor mio, si muero y tu no mueres, from Neruda Songs (excerpt)

    Performer: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra. Composer: James Levine.
    • Nonesuch 7559-79954-2.
    • 5.

  • Douglas Dunn

    Anniversaries, reader Jonathan Coy

  • 00:56

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no. 10 (Finale 鈥� excerpt)

    Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Composer: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • EMI 574317-2.
    • 5.

  • Mary Frye

    Do not stand at my grave and weep, reader Samantha Morton

  • Michael Rosen

    Michael Rosen鈥檚 Sad Book (excerpt), reader Jonathan Coy

  • 01:04

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no. 10 (Finale 鈥� excerpt)

    Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • EMI 574317-2.
    • 5.

  • Julia Darling

    End, reader Samantha Morton

  • 01:10

    Franz Schubert

    Die Taubenpost, D965a

    Performer: Robert Holl. Performer: Roger Vignoles.
    • Hyperion CDA67657.
    • 14.

Producer's Note

Almost all of us will one day be faced with going on living after someone we love dies.听 It鈥檚 hard to talk about it.听 So it鈥檚 often easier not to talk about it.听 Or to pathologise it 鈥� to treat grief as a disease rather than a completely natural human response; or to define it as a 鈥榩rocess鈥� with a number of 鈥榮tages鈥� that need to be gone through, like the all-too-famous 鈥楩ive Stages of Grief鈥�.听 Certainly, if someone you love dies, you鈥檙e unlikely to get through the following months and years without feeling angry, depressed, lonely, and lots of other things too 鈥� even moments of humour (in various shades of black).听 But different people will feel different things at different times; some people may experience some feelings particularly intensely and others not at all; and the same emotions can come round and round.听 Everyone is unique, and every human relationship is unique.听

听

So if someone you love has died, I鈥檓 very aware there鈥檚 only a tiny chance that this programme 鈥� encompassing the experiences of many different people, and put together in an order chosen by me 鈥� will mirror your own experience.听 All I can hope is that something in it might mean something to you.听 听

听

I鈥檝e focussed on poetry, prose and music written by people who have themselves lost loved ones, together with some poems and songs that have meant a lot to someone after a person they love has died.听 Perhaps the most common experience in the programme is the death of a husband or wife 鈥� from the seventh century Japanese poet Kakinonoto Hitomaro through John Milton to the modern English writers C S Lewis and Julian Barnes, and Americans Lynn Caine and Joan Didion.听 Some here 鈥� composers Johannes Brahms and Alfred Schnittke, poet Kevin Young 鈥� are writing about the death of their mother or father; others 鈥� including Eric Clapton, Herbert Howells, J贸n Leifs and Denise Riley 鈥� about the death of a son or daughter.听 Helen Humphreys sends postcards to her dead brother.听 Vaughan Williams鈥檚 music grieves for a child鈥檚 beloved pet sparrow.听 The Czech composer Anton铆n Dvo艡谩k set to music the Stabat Mater 鈥� Mary lamenting her son Jesus at the foot of the cross 鈥� after the death of his first daughter Josefa, who was just two days old.听 Dvo艡谩k鈥檚 sister-in-law (and first love) Josefina died while he was at work on his Cello Concerto. 听His third daughter Otilie married his pupil, the composer Josef Suk, whose Asrael Symphony reflects the deaths, within little more than a year, first of Anton铆n and then of Otilie.听 听Josef and Otilie鈥檚 grandson, also called Josef, plays the violin here in Alban Berg鈥檚 Concerto, his response to the death of a dear friend.听

听

Some people are utterly alone after someone they love dies.听 Some also have to deal with the effect on other people they love 鈥� like Frances Beck, struggline to help her young daughter, who鈥檚 trying to make sense of her father鈥檚 death.听 Some words and music here express still more complex experiences: Ruth Stone, whose husband committed suicide, leaving her alone with their three young daughters; Thomas Hardy, overcome with guilt after the death of his once-beloved wife Emma, whom he鈥檇 all but ignored for years; Michael Rosen, coming to terms with living without both his mother and his son Eddie; Gustav Mahler, eight of whose younger siblings had died in childhood, working on his Tenth Symphony after the death of his own elder daughter Maria (aged five) and under the shadow of the heart condition that killed him before he could finish it.

听

And so, finally, to the voices they left us: Julia Darling鈥檚 End, her vision of her own death; and the last song Franz Schubert ever wrote.听 Darling, who had breast cancer, knew she was dying.听 And Schubert?听 We鈥檒l never know.

Producer: David Gallagher

Broadcast

  • Sun 20 Oct 2013 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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.

Gallery