Hey, Little Hen
From the prose of PG Wodehouse's Love among the Chickens and Clarice Lispector's Hen to the poetry of John Clare and Elizabeth Bishop. Music by Nielsen, Lassus and Willie Dixon.
Sophie Thompson and Alex Waldmann are the readers as we peck and scrape our way around the curious world of man's old friend the chicken. Lockdown has seen a rise in people taking up chicken keeping but our readings begin much further back in time with Geoffrey Chaucer and Robert Herrick. We'll hear about the hen who escapes being cooked for Sunday lunch, by laying an egg in Clarice Lispector's short story and the chickens coming home to roost in Kay Ryan's poem - whilst in Love Among the Chickens, P.G. Wodehouse writes of the difficulties of a relationship set against an ill-feted get-rich-quick-scheme on a Dorset farm. Musical settings range from Rameau, Mussorgsky, Saint-Saens and Lassus to performances by the folk performer Peter Seeger, blues performer Willie Dixon; and Louis Jordan, the American singer and sax player known as "The King of the Jukebox" in the 40s and early 50s.
Producer: Lindsey Kemp
Readings:
Gary Whitehead - A Glossary of Chickens
John Clare - Hen's Nest
Edward Lear - Oh Brother Chicken! Sister Chick!
Christina Rossetti - A White Hen Sitting
Clarice Lispector - The Hen
PG Wodehouse - Love Among the Chickens
Ted Hughes - The Hen
Herman Melville - Cock-a-doodle doo! or the Crowing of the Noble Cock Beneventano
John Gay - Before the Barn-Door Crowing
Chaucer translated by Neville Coghill - The Nun's Priest's Tale
Katharine Tynan Hinkson - Chanticleer
Elizabeth Bishop - Roosters
Jack Mapanje - The Last of the Sweet Bananas
Edwin Brock - Song of the Battery Hen
Robert Herrick - Cock-crow
Henry Vaughan - Cock-crowing
Kay Ryan - Home to Roost
Mark Roper - The Hen Ark
Heinrich Heine, translated by Charles Godfrey Leland - The Homecoming
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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Gary Whitehead
A Glossary of Chickens
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00:00Jean鈥怭hilippe Rameau
La poule (The Hen)
Performer: Alexandre Tharaud (piano).- Harmonia Mundi 901754.
- 17.
John Clare
Hen's Nest
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00:00Camille Saint鈥怱a毛ns
Poules et Coqs (Hens and Cocks) from Le Carnaval des animaux (Carnival of the Animals)
Performer: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Neeme J盲rvi.- Chandos CHAN CHSA5162.
- 7.
Edward Lear
O Brother Chicken! Sister Chick!
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00:00Noel Gay
Hey Little Hen
Performer: Bunny Doyle.- D Sharp DSHCD 7012.
- 8.
Christina Rossetti
A white hen sitting
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00:00Marco Uccellini
Maritati insieme la Gallina, e il Cucco (The Marriage of the chicken and the cuckoo)
Performer: Rheinisches Bach-Collegium.- CPO 9990832.
- 24.
Clarice Lispector, translated by Elizabeth Bishop
The Hen (excerpt)
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00:00Dusty Rhodes
Chick Chick Chicken
- Gramopone LIB4.
- 4.
P.G. Wodehouse
Love among the chickens (excerpt)
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00:00Modest Mussorgsky
Ballad of the Unhatched Chicks (Pictures at an Exhibition)
Performer: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mariss Jansons.- BR Klassik 900141.
- 24.
Ted Hughes
The Hen
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00:00Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 83: The Hen (1st movement)
Performer: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed by Sigiswald Kuijken.- Virgin Classics VC790793 2.
- 5.
Hermann Melville
Cock-a-doodle doo!, or the Crowing of the Noble Cock Beneventano
![]()
00:00Joaqu铆n Rodrigo
Preludio al gallo ma帽anero (Prelude to the Dawn Cockerel)
Performer: Artur Pizzaro (piano).- Naxos 8557923.
- 23.
John Gay
Before the barn door crowing
![]()
00:00Willie Dixon
Little Red Rooster
Performer: The Rolling Stones.- ABKCO 9818864.
- Track 1.
Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill
The Nun聮s Priest聮s Tale (excerpt)
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00:00LASSUS
Chi chilichi?
Performer: Ensemble Cl茅ment Janequin.- Harmonia Mundi HMC 9011391.
- 10.
Katharine Tynan Hinkson
Chanticleer
![]()
00:00Nielsen
The Cockerels' Dance (Maskarade)
Performer: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Neeme J盲rvi).- Deutsche Grammophon 4477572.
- 3.
Elizabeth Bishop
Roosters (excerpt)
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00:00Passereau
Il est bel et bon
Performer: The King鈥檚 Singers. Performer: The Consort of Musicke.- EMI CDM 7698372.
- 19.
Jack Mapanje
The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New & Selected Poems
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00:00Traditional American
The Old Hen
Performer: Pete Seeger.- Smithsonian Folkways SFCD45039.
- 13.
Edwin Brock
Song of the Battery Hen
![]()
00:00Kramer & Whitney
Ain't nobody here but us chickens
Performer: Louis Jordan.- Mercury 8382192.
- 1.
Robert Herrick
Cock-crow
Henry Vaughan
Cock-crowing
![]()
00:01Soler
Sonata No. 108: Del Gallo
Performer: Bob van Asperen.- Astree E8771.
- 5.
Kay Ryan
Home to Roost
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00:01Saeverud
H酶nens d酶d (The Death of the Hen)
Performer: Einar Steen-N酶klberg (piano).- Naxos 8554300.
- 26.
Mark Roper
The Hen Ark
![]()
00:01Hancock
Eggs of your chickens
Performer: The Flatlanders.- New West NW6049.
- 5.
Heinrich Heine, translated by Charles Godfrey Leland
The Homecoming
Hey Little Hen - Producer Note
Anyone who has ever kept chickens knows there are few things better in life than watching a hen. When the world鈥檚 troubles are getting you down, when the pressures of work seem heavy to bear, release comes when you stop what you are doing, find a hen, and watch it. Maybe you think there isn鈥檛 much to see. It may not even occur to you at first that you are doing it. But the little things it does 鈥� the struts, leg-lifts, feather-fluffs, comb-wobbles and jerking, sharp-eyed inspections of the ground 鈥� and the little noises it makes, from clucks and squawks to gentle, low-voiced murmurs, will nevertheless warm you and reassure you.
It turns out that the chicken is not hard to mimic in music, and in today鈥檚 programme many of these little movements are noted in pieces by Rameau, Uccellini, Saint-Sa毛ns and Mussorgsky, as well as in Gary Whitehead鈥檚 poem A Glossary of Chickens and an extract from Clarice Lispector鈥檚 The Hen.
We also recognise mankind鈥檚 long relationship with these strange birds for the things they do for us 鈥� however unwittingly 鈥� from giving us their flesh and eggs to eat to waking us up in the morning. Chickens as food-source occur in Edwin Brock鈥檚 Song of the Battery Hen, Pete Seeger鈥檚 version of a traditional American lyric, and in the lighthearted songs Hey Little Hen and Chick Chick Chicken. And the raucous cockerel as herald of the dawn makes himself heard in extracts from Herman Melville, John Gay, Katharine Tynan Hinkson and Elizabeth Bishop, and music by Lassus and Rodrigo. That his puffed-up pride may lead to a fall 鈥� as it can for all of us 鈥� is the thrust of Chaucer鈥檚 Nun鈥檚 Priest鈥檚 Tale, and his sexual appetite is darkly suggested in The Rolling Stones鈥� famous version of Little Red Rooster.听
听
Elsewhere, readings from P.G.Wodehouse and John Clare draw attention to ways in which chickens can almost nonchalantly outwit supposedly superior beings like us; Christina Georgina Rossetti celebrates their capacity for perfect motherhood; and unexpected symbolic roles are found for them in poems by Kay Ryan, Jack Mapanje and Heinrich Heine, and religious lyrics by Herrick and Henry Vaughan.听
In the end, though, my hope as one who has lived with poultry for many years is that this programme will cause you to stop what are doing for a moment and contemplate the beauty of these old friends of ours: for their humbling mixture of low IQ and lateral-thinking chicken wisdom, as shrewdly observed by Ted Hughes; and, as so beautifully pointed out by Mark Roper, for that quiet cathartic quality they bring to our lives.Lindsay Kemp
Broadcasts
- Sun 8 Jul 2018 17:30大象传媒 Radio 3
- Mon 28 Dec 2020 18:15大象传媒 Radio 3
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