Man's Best Friend
Actors Robert Lindsay and Claire Benedict read some of the canine literature of writers including Dodie Smith, Frank L Baum, Rudyard Kipling and Emily Dickinson.
Actors Robert Lindsay and Claire Benedict read from Dodie Smith's 101 Dalmatians, Jack London's Call of the Wild and Dorothy Parker's mischievous Verse for a Certain Dog in this selection of poems, prose and music of all kinds celebrating mankind's greatest ally in the animal kingdom - dogs. With music by Gershwin, Elgar, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan. From puppy love to fawning, from fetching a stick to disobedience and the clip of a dog and deer that went viral.
Producer: Paul Frankl
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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Fenton!
Duration: 00聮20
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00:00No毛l Coward
Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Performer: No毛l Coward.- SONY MDK 47253.
- Tr14.
Emily Dickinson
A little Dog that wags his tail [Claire Benedict]
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00:00George Gershwin
Walking the Dog (Shall We Dance)
Performer: Los Angeles Philharmonic (orchestra), Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor).- CBS CD39699.
- CD4 Tr8.
Thomas Hardy
A Popular Personage at Home [Robert Lindsay]
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00:00Fr茅d茅ric Chopin
Waltz in D flat major, Op 64, No 1, 聭Valse du Petit Chien聮
Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano).- LONDON 4437382.
- CD8 Tr6.
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00:00Mel Leven
Cruella de Vil
Performer: Bill Lee (piano/vocals).- Walt Disney Records B00006EXG0.
- Tr4.
Dodie Smith
101 Dalmations [Claire Benedict]
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00:00Eric Coates
Knightsbridge March (London Suite)
Performer: 大象传媒 Concert Orchestra, Vernon Handley (conductor).- CLASSIC FM 75605570032.
- Tr4.
Jack London
The Call of the Wild [Robert Lindsay]
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00:00Tom Waits
Rain Dogs
Performer: Tom Waits.- ISLAND CID 131.
- Tr10.
Fred Gipson
Old Yeller [Claire Benedict]
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00:00Scott Bradley
Downbeat Bear (Tom and Jerry)
Performer: Scott Bradley (conductor), studio orchestra.- FILMSCORE FSM29172.
- CD2 Tr4.
Don Marquis
聯confessions of a glutton聰 [Robert Lindsay]
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00:00Johann Strauss II
Wine, Woman and Song
Performer: Alfred Mitterhofer (harmonium), Heinz Medjimorec (piano), Alban Berg Quartet (ensemble).- EMI CDC 7 54881 2.
- Tr8.
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00:00Johann Strauss II
The Beautiful Blue Danube
Performer: Tina the dog.- N/A.
- N/A.
Dorothy Parker
Verse for a Certain Dog [Claire Benedict]
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00:00Bob Dylan
If Dogs Run Free
Performer: Bob Dylan.- COLUMBIA COL CD 3226.
- Tr6.
Ted Hughes
Roger the Dog [Robert Lindsay]
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00:00Robert Schumann
Traumerei (Kinderszenen, Op 15 No 7)
Performer: Moura Lympany [piano].- HMV Classics ?聳 HMV 5 72163 2.
- Tr4.
Robert William Service
My Dog [Claire Benedict]
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00:00Heiner Goebbels
Dwell Where the Dogs Dwell (The Horatian)
Performer: Jocelyn B Smith [vocals], South German Youth Philharmonic [orchestra], Peter Rundel [conductor].- ECM 4653382.
- Tr13.
Rudyard Kipling
The Power of the Dog [Claire Benedict]
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00:01Edward Elgar
G.R.S (Enigma Variations)
Performer: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin [conductor].- Philips 416 354-2.
- Tr11.
Kevin Young
Bereavement [Robert Lindsay]
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00:01Edward Elgar
Sospiri
Performer: Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields [orchestra], Sir Neville Marriner [conductor].- DECCA LONDON ENTERPRISE 421 384.
- CD2 Tr10.
Words and Music:Dogs
Producer's Notes
Stand steady. You鈥檙e about to enter the exuberant universe of 肠补苍颈蝉听蹿补尘颈濒颈补谤颈蝉, the joyous and life-affirming world of dogs.聽In the interests of compliance and impartiality, I have to declare a personal interest: I鈥檇 always been ambivalent about dogs. Other people鈥檚 dogs kind of annoyed me and the way they bark and slobber and all that, far from endeared me. But a couple of years ago I was persuaded, or tricked, into letting a smallish black dog under my fence. Now I read books on dog anthropology, research dog nutrition, dog-walking routes and doggy welfare. I sit in front of the TV holding a cushion to my chest, watching dog rescue programmes, and I weep.聽聽
It鈥檚 fair to say that the weight聽 of literature about dogs far outweighs the classical music about them. Musically, I avoided puns: Bach, barcarolles, Liszt鈥檚 Vall茅e d鈥橭bermann, anything by Puccini, instead heading for Gershwin鈥檚聽 Walking the Dog, an Elgar Enigma Variation directly referencing a dog, and other pieces that just summed up the doggy style of life. I was surprised to learn that Chopin鈥檚 Minute Waltz is subtitled 鈥淲altz of the Little Dog鈥�. That went straight in! And there鈥檚 no end of music in a more popular vein such as Tom Waits鈥檚 Rain Dogs which聽 seemed to go well with a brutal evocation of a dog fight in Jack London鈥檚 鈥淭he Call of the Wild鈥�. There are great poems by Kipling, Hardy, Hughes, Dickinson, Parker. Towards the end of the programme, when things take a darker turn, listen out for Dwell Where the Dogs Dwell, an orchestral song by Heiner Goebbels of devastating impact and lavish beauty. The sequence ends with a moving poem from the New Yorker: the poet explores his relationship with the dogs of his father who has recently died. What will he do with them? Do they grieve?聽
Thanks to the wonderful Claire Benedict and Robert Lindsay (another dog nut like me) for their brilliant readings.聽
Oh by the way, that鈥檚 my dog on the photo for this programme.聽 And there goes the last vestige, the final pretence, of the journalistic impartiality you might justifiably expect from the 大象传媒. Sorry about that. It鈥檚 just that she鈥檚 such a good girl.聽
Producer: Paul Frankl
Broadcasts
- Sun 18 Mar 2018 17:30大象传媒 Radio 3
- Boxing Day 2018 16:30大象传媒 Radio 3
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