May His Memory Be a Blessing
Taking the Jewish honorific 'may his memory be a blessing', the composer Michael Zev Gordon reflects on the idea of the persistence of memory.
Within the Jewish tradition, it's common to use the honorific 'may his memory be a blessing' when writing of the dead. The composer Michael Zev Gordon uses this phrase to reflect on the idea that so much of what we are is locked in memory, but that we only grasp this fully when it starts to slip away.
He draws on writings by Proust and W.G.Sebald, poems by Carol Ann Duffy and Marjorie Agosin, and musical excerpts from JS Bach, Thomas Ades, Robert Schumann, his own piano piece entitled 'On Memory' and the music hall song that was one of his father's last triggers to memory and identity, 'Daisy Bell'.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.
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Music Played
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Gerald Adams
Daisy Bell
- The Great War 聳 50 Original Historical Recordings.
- TPX.
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Morton Feldman
Piano and String Quartet
Performer: Vicki Ray (piano) & Eclipse Quartet.- Bridge.
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Thomas Ad猫s
Darknesse Visible
Performer: Thomas Ad猫s.- Life Story.
- EMI Classics.
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Robert Schumann
Frauenliebe und Leben
Performer: Janet Baker & Daniel Barenboim.- The Great EMI Recordings 聳 German Lieder.
- EMI.
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Michael Zev Gordon
Forbidden Fruit
Performer: Andrew Zolinsky.- On Memory.
- NMC.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude in C# (Book 2, Well-Tempered Clavier)
Performer: Glenn Gould.- The Glenn Gould Edition.
- Sony.
Readings
Title: Remembrance of Things Past
Author: Marcel Proust
Synopsis: The taste of a Madeleine cake opens up memories of a world long closed.
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Title: M-M-Memory
Author: Carol Ann Duffy
Synopsis: A poem about the intimate relationship of memory and forgetting.
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Title: Austerlitz
Author: W.G. Sebald
Synopsis: An extract from Sebald鈥檚 final book in which Austerlitz recalls the memories of his nanny, Vera.听
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Title: The Romantic Generation
Author: Charles Rosen
Synopsis: A description of Robert Schumann鈥檚 technique in his songcycle Frauenliebe und Leben
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Title: Memorial
Author: Marjorie Agosin
Synopsis: A poem about what we choose to remember.
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Title: One Day
Author: Rupert Brooke
Synopsis: A poem about the warmth - and chillier aspects 鈥� of nostalgic recollections.
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Title: A Grief Observed
Author: C.S. Lewis
Synopsis: Lewis reflects on the unexpected rewards of letting memories of his dead wife go.
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Title: Burning Your Boats
Author: Angela Carter
Synopsis: From her short story, a description of how memory can impose meaning.
Broadcasts
- Sun 28 Sep 2014 06:05大象传媒 Radio 4
- Sun 28 Sep 2014 23:30大象传媒 Radio 4