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28/05/2012

Through the Night Susan Sharpe's selection includes a concert in tribute to Pablo Casals.

ON NEXT : 06:30 Breakfast

Words and Music

The Gothic

Episode image for The Gothic

Duration: 1 hour, 15 minutes

This week Words and Music takes you into the darkened, turreted recesses of The Gothic. From the surreal, macabre beginnings of the genre in Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to the tortured wanderings of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; the gothic literary world is one of dark passions and ominous thrills. Work by Coleridge and Keats shows the romantic impulse which was extended and darkened by later gothic writing, arriving in the late nineteenth century at Oscar Wilde's haunting Picture of Dorian Gray. Musically, we venture back to the 12th century with the work of Pérotin who composed amidst the gothic splendour of Notre Dame cathedral, as well as pieces by Bach, Berlioz, Paganini and Rachmaninov.

  • Producer Notes

    The creeping, menacing, darkness of Verdi’s Prelude to Macbeth raises the curtain on the entrancing, unsettling world of The Gothic. Born of the twin eighteenth century literary fascinations of romanticism and the sublime, gothic literature took readers to cliff top castles, on Byronic journeys through unnatural tempests and into the more disturbing realms of imagination.

    This was a genre designed to deliver a pleasurable thrill of terror and it gave rise to great literature. As ever, Shakespeare looms large - his Lady Macbeth was arguably the first gothic heroine and her chilling demand for supernatural powers to ‘unsex me now’ starts our shadowy journey. Mary Shelley’s entry in an 1816 story telling competition bestowed upon the world a spine chilling monster of a book which has lurked in the public consciousness ever since.

    The name Frankenstein has become a metaphor in its own right. In the programme you’ll hear the poignant moment when Frankenstein’s monster suffers the painfully human sensation of remorse after the murder of his creator. Nineteenth century gothic revivalism in architecture revelled in the macabre, gargoyle-encrusted grandeur of medieval religious buildings.

    We step inside Ernest Walsh’s Cathedral accompanied by the echoing enormity of Poulenc’s concerto for organ, strings and timpani. The unearthly music of Perotin, one of the twelfth century composers who served their apprenticeship amidst the gothic splendour of Notre Dame, evokes the ethereal majesty of a cathedral space with his Beata Viscera. Gregory Lewis’ The Monk takes gothic religiosity in a slightly more eccentric direction.

    This tale of a lustful man of the cloth trying to overcome his demons has all the elements of gothic- gone-mad: we hear the moment when a devilish preacher with Pride!Lust!Inhumanity! written on his forehead lunges at an alter-bound virgin; an ideal introduction to Carl Orff’s demonic O Fortuna. While the gothic in music and literature is most often associated with darkness and fear; some of its defining principles come from the light infused excitement of romantic writing.

    Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, with its rapturous paean to the haunting power of nature, shows us the roots of the gothic preoccupation with ever heightened sensation. We finally arrive at another iconic gothic location at the close of the programme. Léonie Adams’ pealing evocation of a Bell Tower is musically matched by Tallis’ luminous O Nata Lux, allowing us to step momentarily out of the shadows and into the light.

  • Music and featured items

    Timings are shown from the start of the programme in hours and minutes.



    Offset: 00’00’00
    Composer: Verdi
    Title: Macbeth, prelude
    Performer: New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti
    Label: EMI Classics, 724356712829
    Track: CD 1, Tr.1

    Offset: 00’02’58
    Title: William Shakespeare
    Speech: Macbeth, Act 1 scene V

    Offset: 00’04’09
    Composer: John Morris
    Title: A Transylvanian Lullaby from Young Frankenstein
    Performer: Gil Shaham (violin), Jonatahn Feldman (piano)
    Label: DG, 463483-2
    Track: 2

    Offset: 00’08’01
    Title: Mary Shelley
    Speech: Frankenstein, extract

    Offset: 00’09’34
    Composer: Debussy
    Title: La Mer
    Performer: Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Michel Plasson
    Label: EMI Classics, 724357472722
    Track: 7

    Offset: 00’13’14
    Title: Angela Carter
    Speech: The Bloody Chamber, extract

    Offset: 00’13’31
    Composer: Debussy
    Title: Prelude, La Cathédrale engloutie
    Performer: Werner Haas (piano)
    Label: Philips, 438718-2
    Track: 10


    Offset: 00’14’58
    Composer: Danny Elfman
    Title: Edward Scissorhands, Introduction
    Performer: The Paulist Choristers of California conducted by Shirley Walker
    Label: MCA,MCAD-10133
    Track: 1



    Offset: 00’17’36
    Composer: N/A
    Title: Annunciation Bells
    Performer: The Benedictine Nuns of Notre-Dame de l’Annonciation
    Label: Decca, 2748264
    Track: 4

    Offset: 00’17’46
    Composer: Poulenc
    Title: Concerto for organ, strings and timpani
    Performer: Gillian Weir (organ), City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox
    Label: Virgin Classics, 5450672
    Track: 7

    Offset: 00’19’29
    Title: Ernest Walsh
    Speech: The Cathedral

    Offset: 00’23’14
    Composer: Perotin
    Title: Beata Viscera
    Performer: The Hilliard Ensemble
    Label: ECM, 1385837751-2
    Track: 8

    Offset: 00’29’15
    Title: Giosuè Carducci
    Speech: In a Gothic Cathedral, extract

    Offset: 00’30’43
    Composer: Danney Elfman
    Title: Castle on a Hill from Edward Scissorhands
    Performer: The Paulist Choristers of California conducted by Shirley Walker
    Label: MCA,MCAD-10133
    Track: 3

    Offset: 00’34’57
    Title: Matthew Gregory Lewis
    Speech: The Monk, extract

    Offset: 00’35’45
    Composer: Carl Orff
    Title: O Fortuna from Carmina Burana
    Performer: San Francisco Symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt
    Label: Decca, 430509-2
    Track: 1

    Offset: 00’37’04
    Composer: Dowland
    Title: Galliard to Lachrimae
    Performer: David Miller (lute)
    Label: Coro, COR16081
    Track: 17


    Offset: 00’37’29
    Title: Christina Rossetti
    Speech: Goblin Market, extract






    Offset: 00’39’11
    Composer: Dowland
    Title: In this trembling shadow
    Performer: Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), David Milar (lute)
    Label: CORO. COR16081
    Track: 21


    Offset: 00’42’00
    Composer: Eugène Ysaye
    Title: Obsession from Solo Sonata No. 2
    Performer: Gil Shaham (violin), Jonathan Feldman (piano)
    Label: DG, 463482-2
    Track: 13


    Offset: 00’44’16
    Title: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    Speech: The Raven

    Offset: 00’46’21
    Composer: Saint-Saëns
    Title: Danse Macabre
    Performer: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit
    Label: Decca
    Track: 1

    Offset: 00’53’21
    Title: Oscar Wilde
    Speech: The Picture of Dorian Gray, extract

    Offset: 00’54’50
    Composer: Weber
    Title: Der Freischutz, Act 2 finale
    Performer: Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
    Label: Decca, 417120-2
    Track: CD 2, Tr. 1

    Offset: 00’57’18
    Title: Emily Bronte
    Speech: Wuthering Heights, extract

    Offset: 00’59’32
    Composer: Ravel
    Title: Gaspard de la Nuit, Ondine
    Performer: Louis Lortie (piano)
    Label: Chandos, CHAN8647
    Track: 1

    Offset: 01’06’07
    Title: Worsworth
    Speech: Tintern Abbey, extract

    Offset: 01’06’37
    Composer: Schubert
    Title: Nocturno Op. 148
    Performer: Trio Florestan
    Label: Koch, DICD920488-9
    Track: 5

    Offset: 01’11’00
    Composer: N/A
    Title: Annunciation Peal of Bells
    Performer: The Benedictine Nuns of Notre-Dame de l’Annonciation
    Label: Decca, 2748264
    Track: 22

    Offset: 01’11’13
    Composer: Tallis
    Title: O nata lux
    Performer: The Tallis Scholars
    Label: Gimell, CDGIM025
    Track: 10

    Offset: 01’11’41
    Title: Léonie Adams
    Speech: The Bell Tower

  • Shirley Henderson

    Shirley Henderson

  • Dougray Scott

    Dougray Scott

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