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The Poetry of WH Auden on Radio 3 |
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 Horae Canonicae Listen to Horae Canonicae During W. H. Auden’s centenary attention has rightly been paid to his early political commitment, his technical virtuosity and his relationship with landscape. But a crucial aspect of his character, his Christian faith, has, though it is apparent in his poetry from the late 1930s to the end of his life, been largely ignored. Radio 3 completes its celebration of W. H. Auden’s centenary by broadcasting the work in which his faith finds its most mature expression, Horae Canonicae, throughout Good Friday. Horae Canonicae, while far from being a direct account of the hours before Christ’s death, is a reflection on the events and significance of Good Friday. It comprises seven poems, each corresponding to one of the offices of the monastic day. At its proper hour, or as close as possible (the monastic day beginning somewhat earlier than that governing most people’s lives) each poem is introduced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and read by the actor Tom Durham. Close to 7.00am, in Rob Cowan’s programme, there will be Lauds, a joyful song heralding the new day, its solitude and company, that Auden wrote for the first office. At 9 o’clock will come Prime, about our innocence at first waking, though a death is already foreshadowed. At mid-morning, in CD Masters,the Archbishop will introduce Terce. In Auden’s poem for the third office of Good Friday the hangman and the judge and set off to work not knowing who their victim will be. And the poet does not know whose truth he will tell. About midday there is Sext, Auden’s noon office poem which explores the idea of vocation, civilisation giving rise to authority and the crowd which does not see the whole situation. Each is complicit in the death which comes between noon and three. Horae Canonicae continues, with, in Afternoon on 3, Nones at 3 o’clock, close to the hour of Christ’s death. Vespers, the evening office poem, will come before Performance on 3at 7 o’clock. The Verb at 9.45 will include an interview with Rowan Williams in which he talks about Auden’s poem, and responds to it as a practising poet himself. Horae Canonicae concludes with Compline, the last office of the monastic day, and Auden’s sleepy yet profound thought that in death we waken, to the knowledge of what did happen on Good Friday between noon and three. The Archbishop has recorded his short introductions to each section of Horae Conanicae in his study in Lambeth Palace. Rowan Williams is the right man for this job, which he was keen to do: as well as the theology he knows the poetry - his Desert Island Discs book was a collection of Auden’s poems. Among his many publications are After Silent Centuries and Remembering Jerusalem, two books of poetry, in which the influence of Auden is clear. The reader, Tom Durham, is an actor well- known for his work on the poetry of David Jones, Edward Thomas and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He has been reading poetry on Radio 3 for more than 15 years. In the theatre he has worked at the Bristol Old Vic and the National, and has just completed a run of Murder in the Cathedral at the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden - playing Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Julian May, the producer, was responsible for Wilfred Owen Week on Radio last November and made the opening programmes of radio 3’s new series The Essay - which were about W. H Auden. Listen to Horae Canonicae |
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Related Links on radio 3 on bbc.co.uk Historic Figures - WH Auden Audio Interview with WH Auden Defection probe over Auden After reading a child's guide... on the web The Knitting Circle - WH Auden Auden in the North No clocks stopped for Auden Auden at the British Library The WH Auden Society The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites. |
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