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Way out West

Actors Kerry Shale and Amelia Lowdell present an adventure way out west with outlaws, lawmen and a soundtrack featuring Copland, yodelling cowboys and the Doors.

Join the actors Kerry Shale and Amelia Lowdell for an adventure way out west with outlaws, lawmen and a soundtrack featuring Copland, yodelling cowboys and The Doors.

Producer: Zahid Warley

(Image: Cattle Skull in Monument Valley, Arizona, America)

Scroll down the webpage for more information about the music used, and the Producer's Notes.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 27 Dec 2015 17:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    John Adams

    Hallelujah Junction part 1

    Performer: Nicolas Hodges and Rolf Hind, pianos.
    • Nonesuch 7559796992.
    • Tr4.

  • John Steinbeck

    Highway 66, read by Kerry Shale

  • 00:09

    Jerome Moross

    The Big Country

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra.
    • I.M.P PCD 887.
    • Tr6.

  • Walt Whitman

    Pioneers! O Pioneers, read by Amelia Lowdell

  • 00:14

    Elmer Bernstein

    The Magnificent Seven

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra.
    • I.M.P PCD 887.
    • Tr5.

  • Mark Twain

    Roughing It, read by Kerry Shale

  • 00:20

    Rogers

    Cowboy Night Herd Song

    Performer: Roy Rogers with The Sons of the Pioneers.
    • Rhino R271683.
    • Tr8.

  • Cormac McCarthy

    All the Pretty Horses, read by Amelia Lowdell

  • 00:25

    Kelley/Higley

    Home on the Range

    Performer: The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
    • Sony Classical MDK 48295.
    • Tr5.

  • Zane Grey

    Rider of the Purple Sage, read by Amelia Lowdell

  • 00:30

    Aaron Copland

    Saturday Night Waltz from Rodeo: Suite

    Performer: Morton Gould Orchestra.
    • RCA 09026616672.
    • Tr12.

  • Willa Cather

    My Antonia, read by Amelia Lowdell

  • 00:36

    Ennio Morricone

    Harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West Film Soundtrack

    Performer: Various artists.
    • BMG 82876589982.
    • Tr5.

  • Christian Wiman

    The Preacher addresses the Seminarians, read by Kerry Shale

  • 00:42

    Aaron Copland

    Gun Battle from Billy the Kid: Suite

    Performer: Morton Gould Orchestra.
    • RCA 09026616672.
    • Tr5.
  • 00:44

    Giacomo Puccini

    Aria - Or son sei mesi - from La Fanciulla del West

    Performer: Renata Tebaldi and Mario del Monaco.
    • Decca 4215952.
    • CD2 Tr8.

  • Sherman Alexie

    How to write the Great American Indian Novel, read by Amelia Lowdell

  • 00:51

    Arthur Farwell

    Invocation: With dignity, slowly from Impressions of the Wo-Wan Ceremony of the Omahas

    Performer: Lisa Cheryl Thomas.
    • Toccata TOCC 0126.
    • Tr7.

  • Franc Johnson Newcomb

    The Murder of Narbona, read by Kerry Shale

  • 00:56

    Ferde Grofé

    Cloudburst

    Performer: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel.
    • Telarc CD 80086.
    • Tr12.

  • Frank Norris

    McTeague, read by Kerry Shale

  • 01:06

    The Doors

    Riders on the Storm

    Performer: The Doors.
    • Elektra 9750112.
    • Tr10.

Producer's Notes - Way Out West

Before space was declared the final frontier it was the West – the American West to be specific - with pioneers pushing constantly into territory which though often inhabited by Native Americans was unfamiliar to those who came as settlers.  The lure was lucre and land, of course, but curiosity and the wonder of discovery also played their part.  The West was a place in which the imagination could roam and exploring it could be a matter of re-invention as well as re- discovery.  Way out West follows some of these trails with music by composers such as Aaron Copland and Ferde Grofé as well as the odd Roy Rogers’ cowboy yodel and the dark psychedelia of The Doors, a band whose songs rather like their native California stand on the fault line of the American Dream.  The West has inspired writers too - Mark Twain, Willa Cather and John Steinbeck as well as Sherman Alexie, Walt Whitman, Frank Norris and Zane Grey.  The experiences they describe are as varied as the landscape in which they unfold – small and intimate at times – scenes of an almost ineffable happiness – then tumultuous, or fraught with a reptilian, green- eyed, greed.  No time to hang around then – saddle up and join Kerry Shale and Amelia Lowdell for a trip Way out West.

Producer: Zahid Warley

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