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Fins, Scales and Hooks

Venture into a watery world for a poetic and musical exploration of fish and fishing with Emma Fielding and Michael Simkins. Elizabeth Bishop and Derek Walcott can be found swimming alongside George Gershwin and Benjamin Britten.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 13 Sep 2015 18:00
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

    Alfred Schnittke

    The Swan, the Pike and the Crayfish

    Performer: Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre.
    • Saison Russe RUS 288 155.
    • Tr1.

  • Edwin Morgan

    Salmon, read by Michael Simkins

  • 00:03

    Tommy Smith

    Salmon

    Performer: Tommy Smith.
    • Linn Records AKD054.
    • Tr2.

  • Les Murray

    Shoal, read by Emma Fielding

  • 00:07

    Franz Schubert

    Piano Quintet in A, D667 聭The Trout聮

    Performer: Seta Tanyel, Alberni Quartet.
    • Collins Classics 10742.
    • Tr1.

  • Rupert Brook

    The Trout, read by Michael Simkins

  • 00:18

    Taj Mahal

    Catfish Blues

    Performer: Taj Mahal.
    • Tradition & Moderne T&M031.
    • Tr4.

  • Herman Melville

    The Maldive Shark, read by Michael Simkins

  • 00:23

    John Williams

    Theme From Jaws

    • Decca 4670452.
    • Tr1.

  • The Bible

    Job 41, read by Emma Fielding

  • 00:29

    George Gershwin

    "Porgy and Bess" suite (Catfish Row)

    Performer: James Levine, Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
    • Deutsche Grammophon 4316252.
    • Tr3.

  • Derek Walcott

    Omeros, read by Emma Fielding

  • 00:35

    Benjamin Britten

    Peter 聳 'Now the Great Bear and Pleiades'

    Performer: Philip Langridge, City of London Sinfonia.
    • Chandos CHAN94478.
    • CD1 Tr22.
  • 00:39

    Benjamin Britten

    Balstrode 聳 'For Peace Sake'

    Performer: Philip Langridge, City of London Sinfonia.
    • Chandos CHAN94478.
    • CD1 Tr23.

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    The Song of Hiawatha, read by Michael Simkins

  • 00:44

    Erik Satie

    The Dreamy Fish

    Performer: Jean鈥怸ves Thibaudet.
    • Decca 4736202.
    • CD1 Tr21.

  • Elizabeth Bishop

    The Fish, read by Emma Fielding

  • 00:52

    Yes

    The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)

    • Rhino 812273789-2.
    • Tr7.

  • Ted Hughes

    The canal聮s drowning black, read by Michael Simkins

  • 00:56

    Van Dyke Parks

    Incidental music for The Fisherman And His Wife

    Performer: Van Dyke Parks.
    • Windham Hill/Sbme B00000E9WU.
    • Tr2.

  • Howard Nemerov

    The Goose Fish, read by Emma Fielding

  • 01:01

    Benjamin Britten, WH Auden

    Fish in the unruffled lakes

    Performer: Ian Bostridge, Graham Johnson.
    • Hyperion HYP30.
    • Tr6.

  • Charles Kingsley

    The Three Fishers, read by Emma Fielding

  • 01:05

    Claude Debussy

    Poissons d聮Or

    Performer: Jean鈥怸ves Thibaudet.
    • DECCA 460472.
    • CD1 Tr6.

  • Brain Turner

    Fish, read by Michael Simkins

  • David Constantine

    Told one of the goldfish, read by Emma Fielding

  • 01:10

    Camille Saint鈥怱a毛ns

    The Aquarium

    Performer: John Ogdon, Brenda Lucas, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
    • Warner Classics 55667.
    • Tr7.

  • Leigh Hunt

    To A Fish, read by Michael Simkins

  • 01:13

    Bernard Herrmann

    A Hatful of Fish

    Performer: Bernard Herrmann.
    • Cloud Nine ACN7014.
    • Tr5.

Producer's Notes - Fins, Scales and Hooks

I was three when I caught my first fish 鈥� a brown trout 鈥撎� and although I go fishing far less frequently now than when I was a boy, I find it impossible to walk alongside or cross over any body of water without pausing to try to catch a glimpse of anything moving beneath the surface.听听 I鈥檇 like to invite you to come with me to the riverbank and see what we can see.听 It鈥檚 only a short walk and to accompany us we have Alfred Schnittke鈥檚 march The Swan, The Pike and The Crayfish.
听
Salmon by Scottish poet Edwin Morgan sees the 鈥榢ing of fishes鈥� returning from the ocean to spawn in the river where it originally hatched, struggling upstream against natural and manmade obstacles to mate and then die.听 It鈥檚 an extraordinary natural spectacle which the saxophonist Tommy Smith also evokes in his composition Salmon.

If the sight of salmon leaping out of the water to make their way over waterfalls is familiar to most of us from wildlife documentaries, so too is the extraordinary swarm intelligence displayed by fish such as herring.听 Many individuals acting as one entity, shifting direction with perfect choreography.听 This blurring of the single fish into the group identity is vividly captured by Les Murray in his poem Shoal.

As you listen to the first movement of Schubert鈥檚 鈥楾rout鈥� Quintet, imagine gazing into the gin-clear waters of a lowland chalk-stream.听听 A small, speckled trout, nose pointing into the current, holds its position above the gravel bed of the stream with subtle movements of its fins and tail, then 鈥� suddenly spooked 鈥� darts upstream with unexpected speed and is gone.听 The titular trout of Rupert Brook鈥檚 poem is an older, wilier fish, occupying a deep hole by the side of the bank 鈥� Brook conjures up its shifting, liquid universe.

Watching these graceful, streamlined creatures, maybe you wonder how it would feel to be one yourself.听 鈥淚 wish I was a catfish鈥� sings Taj Mahal, although it seems that the appeal for him lies not so much in the thought of gliding majestically through sun-dappled waters, but in the female attention he might attract.

Herman Melville鈥檚 The Maldive Shark is an account of fishy symbiosis.听 The pilot fish stays in close proximity to the shark and consequently enjoys protection from would-be predators.听 In return it feeds on the shark鈥檚 parasites, even swimming into the shark鈥檚 mouth to remove fragments of food from between the fearsome teeth.听听 We, however, are not so sanguine about the sight of that unmistakeable dorsal fin slicing through the water.听听 And with good reason.听 Two notes: E and F.听 Perfectly innocuous on the face of it, but as soon as you hear them at the start of John Williams鈥� main theme to Jaws you want to get as far away from the water as possible.

If Spielberg鈥檚 1975 film fuelled widespread paranoia about what was waiting for us just off the shore (and lumbered sharks with an unjustifiably bad reputation), two and a half millennia earlier, the author of Job described an even more terrifying monster.听 Is it a fish?听 Is it a whale?听 Whatever Leviathan may be, you really wouldn鈥檛 want to come face to face with it.


We seem to have shifted from our appreciative observation of fish to something more adversarial, so let us turn our attention to a human activity which stretches back many thousands of years 鈥� the business of catching fish.听 Where better to begin this investigation than in the heart of a busy fishing community on the waterfront of Charleston, South Carolina which happens to be the setting of George Gershwin鈥檚 Porgy and Bess: Catfish Row.听 From there, the final lines of Derek Walcott鈥檚 epic poem Omeros transport us nearly 2000 miles south east to St. Lucia where we watch the weary fisherman Achille beach his boat after a long day鈥檚 work.

Our next port of call is a small fishing village on the Suffolk coast.听 There鈥檚 a storm brewing and in the local pub the equally turbulent mood of fisherman Peter Grimes is not making for a particularly convivial atmosphere.听 A bit of communal singing on a fishy theme might help to lighten the mood, but it doesn鈥檛 feel as if it鈥檚 going to end well.听 Safer, perhaps, to leave Benjamin Britten鈥檚 breaking storm and travel back across the Atlantic to the calmer waters of Lake Superior where Longfellow鈥檚 Hiawatha is setting off in his canoe to pit his wits against a mighty sturgeon.

Gazing down into the lake鈥檚 depths, Longfellow鈥檚 insistent trochaic tetrameter has an almost hypnotic effect and we may idly wonder if Erik Satie鈥檚 The Dreamy Fish refers to a fish lost in its own watery reveries or if it鈥檚 the fish of our dreams.听 Satie himself offers no clues 鈥� he subtitled the piece 鈥榤usique pour un conte de Lord Chemonot鈥� but no such tale has ever come to light.听 Maybe it was something he dreamt.听

Elizabeth Bishop鈥檚 poem The Fish, on the other hand, presents us with a creature which is unmistakeably real and described in minute detail.听 The exhilaration of landing a large fish is mixed with the pathos of having dragged such a magnificent animal out of its natural element and having it at your mercy.听 Do you leave it gasping in the air or slide it back into the water?

Even in the grandiloquent world of progressive rock, The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) by Yes must be one of very few song titles to feature a Linnaean binomial.听 In contrast to Elizabeth Bishop鈥檚 magnificent specimen, Schindleria praematurus is one of the smallest known marine fish and lives in the western Pacific.听 Yes bass player Chris Squire鈥檚 nickname was Fish and here, on what became his signature piece, all motifs are played on the bass (the instrument, not the fish).听

Small fish 鈥� minnows, sticklebacks, blennies 鈥� are destined to suffer the indignities and perils of being objects of fascination for curious children.听 In The canal鈥檚 drowning black by Ted Hughes, loach are the quarry and pay the ultimate price for seeming so exotic and enticing in the shadow of West Yorkshire鈥檚 silent mills.听 Given this strangeness and otherness, it鈥檚 no surprise that fish also appear in fairy tales.听 In the Grimm Brothers鈥� story The Fisherman and His Wife a magical flounder grants the fisherman an escalating series of wishes on his wife鈥檚 behalf, but finally puts its foot (or fin) down when the demands become too much.听 This is an extract from the music that Van Dyke Parks wrote for a 1989 animated adaptation of the story.

Given that we live in a different element from fish, it鈥檚 not surprising that we rarely see them alive (unless you happen to be an angler or a diver).听 Our encounters are more likely to be with dead fish lying on a supermarket fish counter or on a plate.听 But if you take a walk by the sea, there鈥檚 also the possibility of seeing one washed up on the beach and that鈥檚 exactly what happens to the lovers in Howard Nemerov鈥檚 poem The Goose Fish.听 Uncertain of how to react to this inert voyeur, they decide to adopt him as a kind of mascot for their union.听 On the other hand, the lover in WH Auden鈥檚 poem Fish in the Unruffled Lakes (here in a setting by Benjamin Britten) envies fish for living unreflective lives without regretting their actions or experiencing the loss of love.听听听听

But of course it鈥檚 not only fish that die and Charles Kingsley鈥檚 poem The Three Fishers reminds us that those whose job it is to catch fish put themselves at the mercy of the sea and all the dangers which that entails.听

Our relationship with fish isn鈥檛 limited to catching and eating them: sometimes we keep them as pets.听 Not ideal for stroking, cuddling or taking for walks, but undeniably low maintenance.听 Here鈥檚 Claude Debussy鈥檚 Poissons d鈥橭r to acknowledge the fact that those pet fish are most likely to be goldfish.听 Non-human members of the household can inspire searching questions about the nature of existence from children 鈥� Fish by Brian Turner 鈥� and also provide us with our first intimations of mortality, played out here in David Constantine鈥檚 poem Told one of the goldfish wouldn鈥檛 last the night.听 But, thorny existential questions aside, it鈥檚 very relaxing to watch fish move lazily around the confines of their tank - a cool, limpid tranquillity which Camille Saint-Sa毛ns captures in Aquarium.听听
听听听听
Finally, I have to acknowledge that not everyone finds fish as fascinating as I do.听 Not everyone thinks they are beautiful.听 Not everyone finds it thrilling to catch a sight of them moving through the water.听 I hope that Leigh Hunt鈥檚 To A Fish will satisfy those of you who do not share my enthusiasm.听听

One last flash of angling bravura 鈥� Bernard Herrmann鈥檚 score for a scene in the 1960 film The Three Worlds of Gulliver in which our hero delights the Lilliputians by dipping his hat into the sea and pulling up a vast draught of fishes.听 Not a technique that I鈥檝e tried鈥︹�et.


(If your appetite for fish still isn鈥檛 fully sated, you can listen to a discussion about Jaws here:

It鈥檚 a Free Thinking Landmark special which features Matthew Sweet talking to Will Self and others about Steven Spielberg鈥檚 film and the novel by Peter Benchley that it was based on.)

听

Broadcast

  • Sun 13 Sep 2015 18:00
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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