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Jemima Rooper and Ewan Bailey read works relating to metallic elements by Wilfred Owen, Afua Cooper and others, with music by composers including Grieg, John Adams and Kraftwerk.

Jemima Rooper and Ewan Bailey read works relating to metallic elements in our bodies, our jobs and our land from authors including Wilfred Owen, Afua Cooper & Homer set to music by composers including Shostakovich, Sanna Kurki-Suonio and Kraftwerk.

We'll meet the people who work with it - blacksmiths in operas by Verdi and Franz Schreker and foundry workers in Henry Green's novel Living. Metal can make extraordinary sounds too, whether it's being blown through by a brass quartet playing a funeral march by Edvard Grieg, or struck to create a clangorous John Cage soundscape. But there's a darker side to metal as well - whether it's the lust for gold inspiring acts of cruelty by Spanish conquistadors in John Adams's El Dorado, or the terrible fate, described by Lavinia Greenlaw, of the young women who painted luminous clock faces and were poisoned by radium.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

READINGS:
Russell Edson - Metals Metals
Ovid (translator AD Melville) - Metamorphosis
Henry Green - Living
Rudyard Kipling - Cold Iron
Ted Hughes - The Iron Man
Edgar Allen Poe - Eldorado
Lavinia Greenlaw - The Innocence of Radium
William Shakespeare - Timon of Athens
Afua Cooper - Red Eyes
Charles Simic - Poem Without a Title
Wilfred Owen - Arms and the Boy
Homer (translator Richmond Lattimore) - the Iliad

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 29 Mar 2020 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

    Alexander Mosolov

    Iron Foundry, Die Eisengie脽erei, Op. 19 (from the Ballet 'Steel')

    Performer: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Johannes Kalitzke (conductor).
    • CAPPRICCIO C5241.
    • Tr1.

  • Russell Edson

    Metals Metals, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:04

    Giuseppe Verdi

    Il Trovatore 聳 Act Two - Vedi! Le fosche notturne

    Performer: London Voices, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano (conductor).
    • EMI CDS5573602.
    • CD1 Tr13.

  • Ovid

    Metamorphoses, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:09

    Franz Schreker

    Der Schmied von Gent 聳 Act One - Gibt's denn Trommeln, Tambourine

    Performer: Oliver Zwarg (bass-baritone), Undine Drei脽ig (alto), Robert Schumann Philharmonie, Frank Beermann (conductor).
    • CPO 7776472.
    • CD1 Tr1.

  • Henry Green

    Living, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:15

    Kraftwerk

    Titanium

    Performer: Kraftwerk.
    • EMI 5917082.
    • Tr8.

  • Rudyard Kipling

    Cold Iron, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:18

    Edvard Grieg

    Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak

    Performer: Brass Partout, Hermann B盲umer (direction).
    • BIS CD1054BIS.
    • Tr12.

  • Ted Hughes

    The Iron Man, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:27

    Iommi, Ward, Butler, Osbourne

    Iron Man

    Performer: Giant Sand.
    • THRILL JOCKEY THRILL104.
    • Tr3.
  • 00:30

    John Adams

    El Dorado Part 1: A Dream of Gold

    Performer: The Hall茅 Orchestra, Kent Nagano (conductor).
    • NONESUCH 7559793592.
    • Tr1.

  • Edgar Allan Poe

    Eldorado, read by Ewan Bailey

  • Lavinia Greenlaw

    The Innocence of Radium, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:43

    Jaki Byard

    Aluminium Baby

    Performer: Jaki Byard.
    • Candid CCD 79018.
    • Tr2.

  • William Shakespeare

    Timon of Athens, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:49

    Richard Wagner

    Das Rheingold - Lugt, Schwestern!

    Performer: Mirella Hagen (soprano), Stefanie Ir谩nyi (mezzo soprano), Eva Vogel (mezzo soprano), Tomasz Konieczny (bass baritone), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Simon Rattle (conductor).
    • BR KLASSIK 900133.
    • CD1 Tr5.
  • 00:55

    Richard Wagner

    Das Rheingold - Der Welt Erbe gew盲nn ich zu eigen durch dich?

    Performer: Mirella Hagen (soprano), Stefanie Ir谩nyi (mezzo soprano), Eva Vogel (mezzo soprano), Tomasz Konieczny (bass baritone), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Simon Rattle (conductor).
    • BR KLASSIK 900133.
    • CD1 Tr6.

  • Afua Cooper

    Red Eyes, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:58

    John Cage

    First Construction in Metal

    Performer: Clive Williamson (piano), David Hockings (percussion), Richard Benjafield (percussion), Sam Walton (percussion), Tim Palmer (percussion), Fiona Ritchie (percussion), Andrew Cottee (percussion), Jurjen Hempel (conductor).
    • WARP WARPCD144.
    • CD1 Tr6.

  • Charles Simic

    Poem Without a Title, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 01:03

    Dmitry Shostakovich

    Symphony No. 10 in E minor 聳 2nd movement - Allegro

    Performer: Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme J盲rvi (conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHAN8630.
    • Tr2.

  • Wilfred Owen

    Arms and the Boy, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 01:07

    Sanna Kurki鈥怱uonio

    Vaskilintu (The Bronze Bird)

    Performer: Sanna Kurki鈥怱uonio.
    • Northside NSD6021.
    • Tr9.

  • Homer (Tranlator Richmond Lattimore)

    The Iliad, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 01:12

    Franz Lachner

    Der Schmied

    Performer: Stella Doufexis (mezzo soprano).
    • HYPERION CDJ33051.
    • CD3 Tr15.

Producer's Notes: Metal

Metal is everywhere - from the blood pumping through our bodies to the furthest reaches of the cosmos. Some metals are hard and shiny, but by no means all. Of the 118 elements in the periodic table, around 90 are metals. Our relationship with metal is so vital that we define eras of pre-history according to the metallurgical skills of our ancestors.听

Alexander Mosolov鈥檚 Iron Foundry is taken from his 1927 ballet Steel. This kind of musical Futurism, reflecting the innovations of industrialisation, was received with scepticism in Mosolov鈥檚 native Russia, but this piece certainly evokes the rhythmic cacophony of the foundry.听听

The ubiquity of metals and our ambiguous relationship with them is underlined by Russell Edson in his poem Metals Metals.听

After the heat and noise of Mosolov鈥檚 Iron Foundry, we meet more metalworkers in Verdi鈥檚 Il Trovatore. This time it鈥檚 a band of gypsies, hard at work on the slopes of a mountain in Biscay and singing what has become popularly known as the Anvil Chorus.听

When Ovid lays out the history of the world from its creation in the first book of his Metamorphoses, he describes the inexorable decline from the Golden and Silver Ages to the Bronze Age and finally to the Iron Age. By his account, the mastery of this metal by the human race brought about untold misery.听

We find another smith at work on some of this accursed iron in Franz Schreker鈥檚 opera Der Schmied von Gent. Here Smee the smith is encouraging his workers to put their backs into their work, emphasising the virtue of what they鈥檙e doing 鈥� 鈥淲ell-forged iron helps against bullets; from the plough comes bread for all the world!鈥� He sells his soul to the Devil later in the opera, but fortunately everything turns out alright in the end.听

There鈥檚 more hot metal being worked on in this excerpt from Henry Green鈥檚 novel Living. Set in the 1920s, Living tells the story of workers at an iron foundry in Birmingham.听

Titanium is a low density, high strength metal which lends itself to aerospace applications. It鈥檚 also used to build high end bicycles and it鈥檚 this that Kraftwerk have in mind with the track Titanium, taken from their Tour de France Soundtracks. Listen carefully 鈥� aluminium gets a mention too. And carbon (not a metal).听

The soundscape of the forge and the foundry may be a deafening racket, but metal can sound beautiful too. Here鈥檚 a good example - Edvard Grieg鈥檚 Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak performed by Brass Partout. Grieg originally wrote this as a piece for piano, but later arranged it for brass octet. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Alloys with a higher copper content give a warmer, mellower tone, while more zinc gives a brighter tone with better projection.听听

Despite the fact that our bodies contain many different metallic elements, we generally think of metal as being inert and lifeless, so the idea of a creature with a metal body is particularly disturbing. Just think of the Cybermen from Dr Who. No wonder then that in Ted Hughes鈥� children鈥檚 story The Iron Man, the arrival of a metal giant with an appetite for agricultural machinery causes terror and alarm. However, this metallic monster does redeem itself by saving the world. Black Sabbath鈥檚 Iron Man on the other hand (covered here by Giant Sand) was originally created to save humanity, but is tossed to one side after serving his purpose and, in a fit of pique, wreaks his dreadful revenge. So it seems that it can go either way with Iron Men.听

Gold has been admired for millennia for being malleable and not losing its lustre beneath a layer of tarnish. Many terrible things have been done and endured to acquire it. The myth of El Dorado 鈥� a fabulous golden city 鈥� gripped the imaginations of the European colonisers who came to South America. In Edgar Allan Poe鈥檚 poem, it is a metaphor for an all-consuming but ultimately pointless quest which can only end with death. A Dream of Gold 鈥� the first part of El Dorado by John Adams 鈥� was originally titled Pizzaro鈥檚 Dream and it depicts the peace of the forest being destroyed by the violence of the conquistadors.听

Although our bodies depend upon certain metals to function properly, others have a lethal effect. Radium, like calcium, is an alkaline earth metal. Unlike calcium, it is radioactive. Marie Curie, who discovered the element, eventually died from the effects of radiation poisoning and her notebooks are still unsafe to touch 80 years later. Dr Sabin von Sochocky used Curie鈥檚 discovery to develop a luminous paint that contained radium and zinc sulphide. Lavinia Greenlaw鈥檚 poem The Innocence of Radium recalls the fate of the young women employed to apply the paint to clock faces.听

We come back to the darker side of gold in Shakepeare鈥檚 Timon of Athens when Timon, having renounced wealth and its trappings, discovers a buried hoard of the precious metal while he鈥檚 digging for roots to eat. And gold is at the heart of mischief in Wagner鈥檚 Das Rheingold when the dwarf Alberich steals the treasure that the Rhine maidens are guarding and uses it to forge a magic ring.听

Another piece of jewellery 鈥� a copper bracelet - features in Red Eyes by Afua Cooper. Offered as a token of love, it is rejected.听听

More sounds of metal, being struck rather than blown through this time. John Cage鈥檚 1939 piece for piano and percussion, First Construction in Metal, is played here by members of the London Sinfonietta.听

We鈥檝e already touched on some of the ways that metal can cause harm, whether it鈥檚 through radiation or greed. But the clearest connection between metal and intentional destruction lies in the manufacture of weapons. Poems by Charles Simic and Wilfred Owen muse on how lead, zinc and steel are put to deadly use.听

Vaskilintu - Finnish for bronze bird - is the title of this unaccompanied song by Sanna Kurki-Suonio. Archaeological digs at grave sites in Finland suggest that bronze pendants in the form of birds were once commonly worn by women there. Evidence of the ability of ancient smiths to create beautiful artefacts can be found in museums around the world. It was clearly a highly valued skill 鈥� Homer devotes nearly all of Book 18 of The Iliad to a detailed description of the beautiful shield that the Olympian blacksmith Hephaistos fashions for Achilles.

We finish back in the forge with Franz Lachner鈥檚 setting of Der Schmied 鈥� a poem by Johann Ludwig Uhland. The smith here is a strong and passionate figure who wants to present himself in the best light to the object of his affections 鈥� 鈥榯he bellows blow/the flames roar up/and blaze around him鈥� when she walks past the smithy.听听

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

听

Broadcasts

  • Sun 4 Feb 2018 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Sun 29 Mar 2020 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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