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Marking the 500th anniversary of Thomas More's book on the subject, poetry, prose and music on the theme of utopia, with readings by Nancy Carroll and Philip Franks.

Nancy Carroll and Philip Franks read poetry and prose inspired by Utopia as part of Radio 3's focus on the 500th anniversary of Thomas More鈥檚 book with music by Gluck, Richard Strauss, Parry, Dittersdorf, Shostakovich, Gilbert and Sullivan and Annie Lennox. The programme has been curated by New Generation Thinker Professor Nandini Das from The University of Liverpool.

Scroll down the webpage for more information about the music used, and Curator's and Producer's Notes.

You can also hear a Free Thinking debate on Utopia: Anne McElvoy chairs a discussion at LSE in which Professor Justin Champion, Dr John Guy, Politicians Kwasi Kwarteng and Gisela Stuart discuss Is politics about building a better world, or simply the art of the possible? This will be broadcast at 10pm Thursday 18th February.

Scroll down the webpage for more information about the music used, and the Producer's Notes.

Producer: Philippa Ritchie

Main image: Land of Cockaigne, 1567, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525 - 1569), oil on panel (credit Dea Picture Library)

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Tue 27 Dec 2016 16:30
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

    Christoph Willibald Gluck

    The Elysian Fields (Dance of the Blessed Spirits) from Orfeo ed Euridice

    Performer: The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner (conductor).
    • EMI CDC7470272.
    • Tr9.

  • Ovid, translated by Ted Hughes

    Metamorphoses, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:05

    Ravi Shankar/Traditional Raga

    Concerto for Sitar & Orchestra 聳 IV. Raga Manj Khamaj

    Performer: Ravi Shankar & London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn (conductor).
    • EMI CDM7691212.
    • Tr4.

  • Valmiki

    The Ramayana, Book VI, Canto 116, read by Nancy Carroll

  • 00:08

    Giuseppe Verdi

    Messa Da Requiem 聳 No. 2 (coro) Dies Irae

    Performer: Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (conductor).
    • ERATO 4509963572.
    • CD1 Tr2.

  • John Milton

    Paradise Lost, Book I, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:10

    Edward Elgar

    The Dream of Gerontius, Op.38 - 1. Prelude

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox (conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHAN86412.
    • CD1 Tr1.
  • 00:12

    Ray Russell

    Initiation (Chinese flute)

    Performer: Unknown.
    • MUM 150.
    • Tr11.

  • Wang Wei

    Peach Blossom Spring, read by Nancy Carroll

  • 00:16

    Harry 鈥淗aywire Mac鈥� McClintock

    Big Rock Candy Mountain

    Performer: Harry 鈥淗aywire Mac鈥� McClintock.
    • MERCURY 1700692.
    • Tr2.

  • Unknown, mid- 14th century (possibly Friar Michael of Kildare)

    The Land of Cockaygne, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:18

    Hubert Hastings Parry

    The Birds of Aristophanes (1883) 聳 4. Waltz

    Performer: 大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales.
    • CHANDOS CHAN 10740.
    • Tr10.
  • 00:21

    Gilbert and Sullivan

    In lazy languor

    Performer: The D聮Oyly Carte Opera Chorus, Rosalind Griffiths (solo) and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royston Nash (conductor).
    • LONDON 4368162.
    • CD1 Tr3.

  • Thomas More

    Utopia: Marriage Customs, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:25

    Bedrich Smetana

    from 'The Bartered Bride' 聳 1. Overture

    Performer: 大象传媒 Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda (conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHAN10518.
    • Tr1.

  • Plato

    The Republic, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:28

    Unknown (from Ancient Greek fragments)

    Pean. Papyrus Berlin 6870

    Performer: Atrium Music忙 de Madrid.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI HM901015.
    • Tr13.

  • Philip Sidney

    The Defence of Po茅sie, read by Nancy Carroll

  • 00:29

    Maurice Ravel

    Ma m猫re L'Oye. 5 pi猫ces enfantines 聳 V. Le Jardin F茅erique

    Performer: Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam, Carlo Rizzi (conductor).
    • TACET 207.
    • Tr6.

  • Jonathan Swift

    Gulliver聮s Travels, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:34

    Percy Grainger

    Country Gardens

    Performer: 大象传媒 Philharmonic, Richard Hickox (conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHA9584.
    • Tr9.

  • Thomas More

    Utopia: Visit of the Ambassadors, read by Nancy Carroll

  • 00:38

    George Frideric Handel

    The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

    Performer: The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner (conductor).
    • EMI CDC7470272.
    • Tr1.

  • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    Herland, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:42

    Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin

    Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves

    • RCA 82876748412.
    • Tr9.

  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

    The Communist Manifesto, read by Nancy Carroll

  • 00:44

    Igor Stravinsky

    Le Renard (March)

    Performer: Robert Craft/ Instrumental Ensemble.
    • RR CD643/VA.
    • CD3 Tr6.
  • 00:45

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Le pas D聮acier Op. 41- Closing Scene

    Performer: USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (conductor).
    • OLYMPIA OCD 103.
    • Tr11.

  • George Orwell

    Nineteen Eighty-Four, read by Nancy Carroll

  • 00:48

    Keith Leary, David Marsden

    Suspended Terror

    Performer: Unknown.
    • RSM060.
    • Tr18.
  • 00:49

    Arthur Bliss

    The World in Ruins (Excerpt from film Things to Come)

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Bliss (conductor).
    • DUTTON LABORATORIES CDLXT2501.
    • Tr15.
  • 00:52

    Thomas Ad猫s

    Friends don聮t fear (Caliban)

    Performer: Ian Bostridge.
    • EMI 6952342.
    • CD1 Tr13.
  • 00:54

    Jean Sibelius

    The Tempest: Intrada, Berceuse

    Performer: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, cond. Neeme Jarvi.
    • BIS CD448.
    • Tr9.

  • William Shakespeare

    The Tempest, Gonzalo聮s speech Act II Sc.1, read by Philip Franks

  • 00:55

    Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

    Aurea prima sata est aetas (The first age was gold) Larghetto from Sinfonia No.1 Les Quatre Ages du Monde

    Performer: Prague Chamber Orchestra, Bohumil Gregor (conductor).
    • SUPRAPHON 1105792.
    • CD1 Tr1.

  • William Shakespeare

    The Tempest Act V Scene I (Miranda and Prospero), read by Nancy Carroll and Philip Franks

  • 00:59

    Jean Sibelius

    The Tempest: Miranda

    Performer: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, cond. Neeme Jarvi.
    • BIS CD448.
    • Tr18.
  • 01:01

    L Clark, M Dennis

    "Show Me The Way To Get Out Of This World ('Cause That's Where Everything Is)"

    Performer: Peggy Lee.
    • CAPITOL CDP7931952 1.
    • Tr25.

  • Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD)

    A True Story, read by Philip Franks

  • 01:05

    Jacques Offenbach

    Le voyage dans la Lune A.631 - Overture

    Performer: Philharmonia Orchestra, Antonio de Almeida (conductor).
    • PHILIPS 4220572.
    • Tr1.

  • H.G. Wells

    A Modern Utopia, read by Nancy Carroll

  • 01:09

    Richard Strauss

    Also Sprach Zarathustra, Nachtwanderlied (Song of the Night Wanderer)

    Performer: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan (conductor).
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4158532.
    • Tr9.

Curator's Notes: Utopia

Most cultures have some stories about golden worlds, even if they call them by different names 鈥� golden age, fortunate isle, peach blossom spring, Elysium, or Eden.听 They have one thing in common apart from the dream of perfect happiness that they present:听 we are always separated from them, not just by space, but by time, and often by life itself, when the ideal world happens to be the home of the virtuous dead.听 The earliest pieces we have in this programme are of this kind.听 There is Ovid鈥檚 description of the Golden Age, with its rivers of milk and nectar, its perfect glow progressively darkened by the ages of silver, brass and iron that followed.听 There is the description of Rama鈥檚 rule, a story that I grew up with as a child in India.听 It tells of an age of no wars, no illness, and no death, but the bit that I remember comes afterwards in the epic, when Rama has to sacrifice his wife to the demands of his people.听 There is the Chinese story of the Peach Blossom spring, first told by Tao Yuanming (365-427), which we have here in a later retelling by Wang Wei (699-759) 鈥� another perfect world inhabited by people of ancient names and clothes, a secluded enclosure that one can never find again if one is foolish enough to leave it behind.听 Most familiar, perhaps, is the Christian story of mankind鈥檚 greatest loss, the expulsion from Eden.听 However, even behind that exile there is the story of the very first loss of a perfect world 鈥� Satan鈥檚 rebellion and expulsion from Heaven, here in Milton鈥檚 powerful and deeply poignant version in Paradise Lost.听 Ideal places that are not set in the depths of time tend to be either purely conceptual, or blatantly fantastical.听 Plato鈥檚 Republic, a superbly rational social structure from which Socrates famously banished poets because of their ability to evoke irrational emotions is at one end of that spectrum.听 The anonymous thirteenth century poem about the Land of Cockaygne, with its cooperatively ready-roasted wildlife, is at the other.听 All of these have unattainability as a common factor.听 They are places of plenty, where sorrow and loss does not exist, where food is abundant, and pain is non-existent.听 They are perfect, but they are also always and already beyond our reach.

2016, however, marks the five hundredth anniversary of an important event, the historical moment when the ideal world came home to roost in the here and now.听 It was in 1516 that Thomas More, King Henry VIII鈥檚 scholarly, devout, sharp-tongued and frustratingly stubborn counsellor, published a slim Latin volume describing a 鈥榥ew island鈥�.听 He called it Utopia.听 More鈥檚 story is different, because his ideal state co-exists with the rest of his contemporary world.听 It is described to a group of listeners 鈥� which includes a fictional version of More himself 鈥� by a man who supposedly accompanied Amerigo Vespucci on his historical fourth voyage to the New World and chanced on this island on his way home.听 So for the first time, in the middle of what sounds like an everyday, topical debate among a group of alert, intelligent, professional men about their contemporary Tudor England, its problems with law and order, and the economic disparities of its subjects, we have a superbly detailed description of an ideal commonwealth 鈥� its history and geographical setting, political structure, foreign relations, everyday life, family life, dining habits, religion, education, script, and a hundred other details.听 There is an abundance of food here as well, and peace, health, and order.听 In short, it has all those things we expect in an ideal world.听 The crucial thing, however, is that according to More鈥檚 narrator, it is all achievable.听

As someone whose research is based on the great age of voyages and discoveries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I am fascinated by More鈥檚 book.听 It illuminates what is really exciting about an age when one discovery after another meant that on the one hand, suddenly an encounter with such a perfect land was entirely in the realm of the possible.听 On the other, such discoveries also constituted a wonderful license for the imagination, and that, after all, is what drives all utopian literature 鈥� our temptation to dream of something better, stronger, fairer, less fragile than the fallible world we occupy.听 About seventy years after More was beheaded in 1535 because he refused to acknowledge the annulment of Henry VIII鈥檚 marriage to Catherine of Aragon and his claim as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, Edmund Spenser would address Henry鈥檚 daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, to offer exactly that defence of the imagination鈥檚 right to dream of alternative worlds in his great poem, the Faerie Queene.听 I know that people will call this book an 鈥榓bundance of an idle brain鈥�, he writes, since no one knows 鈥榳here is that happy land of Faery鈥�.听 Yet new places are being discovered every day:听

Who ever heard of th'Indian Peru?
Or who in venturous vessell measured
The Amazon huge river now found true?
Or fruitfullest Virginia who did ever view?

Yet all these were, when no man did them know;
Yet have from wisest ages hidden beene:
And later times things more unknowne shall show.
Why then should witlesse man so much misweene
That nothing is, but that which he hath seene?

Ever since the publication of the Utopia, writers have taken up the challenge of dreaming up new ideal worlds, and 鈥楿topia鈥� has become a descriptive name for all of them.听 Poets and writers, as Philip Sidney argued in the sixteenth century, are best equipped to create such golden worlds, unencumbered by practical details and inconvenient truths; but they are also good at pointing out the risks and absurdities latent in all such dreams.听 That, too, is a characteristic of Utopian literature.听 There is no such thing as unquestionable perfection.听 One man鈥檚 idea of perfection is quite likely to be another鈥檚 idea of hell.听 More himself led the way in dissecting the world he had created, and I am rather fond of the slightly schoolboy-ish word-games he plays with his readers to signal that questioning.听 So his narrator, that original traveller to Utopia, is called Raphael Hythlodaeus:听 More鈥檚 educated contemporaries would know that the surname means 鈥榮peaker of nonsense鈥�.听 They would also notice that depending on the Greek roots you chose, the name of his ideal state could mean either 鈥榥o (ou) place鈥� or 鈥榟appy (eu) place鈥�.听 The 鈥楳ore鈥� in the story admits that many things about 鈥榯he manners and laws of that people 鈥� seemed very absurd鈥�, and ends saying that 鈥榯here are many things in the commonwealth of Utopia that I rather wish, than hope, to see followed in our governments鈥�.听 It is never quite clear how seriously one ought to take his Utopian society鈥檚 treatment of wealth, mercenary soldiers, or indeed, of social practices like naked first meetings of courting couples.
听
For the many writers who followed More, Utopian writing often became the vehicle of satire, critiquing or poking fun at their contemporary society under the guise of writing about supposedly perfect alternative places, or carrying the ambitions of one鈥檚 contemporary society to absurdity to reveal their ridiculousness.听 Jonathan Swift鈥檚 Gulliver鈥檚 Travels (1726; 1735) is perhaps one of the most famous examples of this:听 as one of his predecessors, Bishop Joseph Hall, suggested in the title of his own work of fiction in 1605, writers always, to some extent, describe Mundus alter et idem (鈥楢nother world and yet the same鈥�).听 For many others, however, the very idea of a 鈥榩erfect society鈥� has rung warning bells.听 Twentieth century dystopian literature is full of worlds that are perfect societies and states designed by other people, where the very things that have always fascinated Utopian writing 鈥� equality, justice, equitable distribution of wealth, privileges and emotions, the perfection of humankind 鈥� all return to haunt us.听 The difference between an idealistic manifesto of a world of equality where 鈥榯he free development of each [would be] the condition for the free development of all鈥� as Marx and Engels asserted, and the nightmarish totalitarianism of Orwell鈥檚 1984, in many ways, is the difference between Miranda鈥檚 wonder-struck cry in Shakespeare鈥檚 Tempest, 鈥極 brave new world!鈥�, and Prospero鈥檚 superbly understated, wearily knowing reply, 鈥楾is new to thee.鈥� Yet the temptation to dream of perfect worlds remains with us; from the fantasies of unbridled appetite concocted by Lucian of Samosata鈥檚 2nd century True Story, to the visions of futuristic fiction, and of science itself, that go beyond our familiar earth to other planets and planetary systems, we have always carried stories of Utopia with us, and will continue to do so as long as we make stories.

Nandini Das is a Radio 3 New Generation Thinker and Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool.听 She specialises on Renaissance theatre and popular fiction, and early English voyages and contact with other nations and cultures.

Devisor:听 Nandini Das

听

Producer's Notes: Utopia

Gluck鈥檚 shimmering evocation of Elysium from Orfeo ed Euridice begins the programme and ushers in Ovid鈥檚 description of The Age of Gold.听 We then move east to the perfect world presided over by the Hindu deity Rama, described by Valmiki in The Ramayana and to accompany it is the R膩ga M膩nj Kham膩j, performed by Ravi Shankar together with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1971.听 This is an evening raga, a time for reflection and remembrance of loss perhaps, but also of continuation which makes it appropriate for dreams of ideal worlds that are always tinged with loss.听

Milton鈥檚 great poem of loss is thrillingly read by Philip Franks and I鈥檓 grateful to him for his suggestion of the Dies Irae from Verdi鈥檚 Requiem as a terrifying musical prelude to Milton鈥檚 description of Satan鈥檚 expulsion from Heaven 鈥渉urled headlong flaming鈥� by the Almighty.听听
One of the earliest descriptions of an Utopian world occurs in Aristophanes鈥� play The Birds, first performed in 414 BC, in which two men disillusioned by Athens persuades the world's birds to create a city in the sky to be named Nephelococcygia or Cloud Cuckoo Land.听 I have picked the delightful Waltz from Hubert Parry鈥檚 incidental music to the play to underscore the thirteenth century depiction of The Land of Cockaygne and its enticingly edible charms. Parry composed the music for a Cambridge University production of the play in 1883. The production was a great success and, interestingly, starred a young M.R. James.听
Gilbert and Sullivan鈥檚 operetta Utopia Limited, performed in 1893, was the second to last of their collaborations and not as successful as the others, though Bernard Shaw said in his review that he enjoyed it more than any of the previous Savoy operas.听 I鈥檝e used the pretty opening number, sung by the chorus of the D鈥橭yly Carte Opera Company in 1975.


听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 In lazy languor--motionless,
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 We lie and dream of nothingness;
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 For visions come
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 From Poppydom
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Direct at our command:
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Or, delicate alternative,
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 In open idleness we live,
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 With lyre and lute
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 And silver flute,
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 The life of Lazyland.

To accompany听 Sidney鈥檚 Defence of Poesie I have chosen Ravel鈥檚 Le Jardin F茅茅rique.听 It is the final part of his suite Ma M猫re l'Oye (Mother Goose) - cinq pi猫ces enfantines. Whereas the other four pieces are inspired by specific fairy tales, the Fairy-tale Garden celebrates the triumph of the magical world and seemed a fitting illustration of Sidney鈥檚 view of poetry as transcending Nature.听
Unfortunately many planned Utopias end up as dystopias. Prokofiev鈥檚 Pas d鈥橝cier, or Leap of Steel was commissioned by Diaghilev for a ballet in celebration of the new Soviet Russia and was first performed in June 1927 in Paris, coming to London a month later.听 It aroused a chorus of indignation against 鈥淏olshevik Music鈥� and when it was first performed in America in 1931 one critic asked whether the ballet was 鈥減ropaganda or music鈥�.听 Neither was the music welcome in the Soviet Union where Prokofiev was criticised for attempting to portray an image of Soviet life which he had not at first hand himself experienced.听 The recording I have used was performed by The USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, who was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990.

The British composer Arthur Bliss was commissioned in 1934 to compose the score for Things To Come, a science fiction film with a screenplay by H.G. Wells based on his short story of the same name.听 Wells was appalled by the final film, regarding it as a travesty of what he鈥檇 intended, but she score is today regarded by many critics as the first great British film score.
The programme ends with an extract from H.G. Wells鈥� 1905 novel A Modern Utopia in which he envisages a parallel world exactly like earth, but on another planet 鈥渙ut beyond Sirius鈥� and differing from earth in that the inhabitants have created a perfect society. To accompany Nancy Carroll鈥檚 moving reading I have chosen an extract from Richard Strauss鈥檚 Thus Spake Zarathustra.听 Of course, this piece has become eternally associated with space travel after Kubrick鈥檚 use of its opening bars in his 1968 film 2001:听 A Space Odyssey.听 I have not used this, but rather the finale of the tone poem 鈥� The Song of the Night Wanderer, a transcendent piece of music that may almost make you believe in the possibility of Utopia.听

Philippa Ritchie, Producer

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  • Sun 14 Feb 2016 17:30
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