This is taken from Radiolisting.org about Radio 3's words and music programme tonight. I'm sharing some of the links to extracts and music that can be freely found on the web.
SUN 17:30 Words and Music (m001j4rv)
The Emperor's New Clothes
Jane Austen’s Catherine in Northanger Abbey wonders what she should wear to the
ball, while Dickens’s Miss Havisham still wears her wedding clothes years after
she was ditched. Aldous Huxley considers the folds in his trousers, and
Diogenes folds his cloak in two for summer. Jenny Joseph threatens to wear
purple when she is old, and the Emperor parades without any clothes at all. And
in London Fashion Week we celebrate the wild and wonderful life and work of the
late Vivienne Westwood. There’s music from Prokofiev’s Cinderella, Richard
Strauss’s Salome, Anoushka Shankar, PJ Harvey and JS Bach. Our readers are
Julia Winwood and Jonathan Keeble.
Producer in Salford: Nick Holmes
You might be interested in a discussion on Free Thinking about a poetry
exhibition inspired by fashion at the National Poetry Library at London's
Southbank Centre. Shahidha Bari discusses the display of writing by Gwendolyn
Brooks, Stevie Smith, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath and Audre Lorde with the
exhibition organisers Sarah Parker and Gesa Werner.
02 00:01:25
Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey. Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
04 00:05:35
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:01
She was dressed in rich materials,—satins, and lace, and silks,—all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on,—the other was on the table near her hand,—her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a Prayer-Book all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.
It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose had shrunk to skin and bone.
"Who is it?" said the lady at the table.
"Pip, ma'am."
"Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close."
It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
"Look at me," said Miss Havisham. "You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?"
05 00:06:33 A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Bury Me in the Clothes I was Married In
Performer: A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Duration 00:00:02
06 00:09:04 JS Bach
Sonata No. 2 for violin solo in A minor, BWV 1003 - Andante
Performer: Sigiswald Kuijken
Duration 00:00:05
07 00:10:06
Anne Carson
Father's Old Blue Cardigan. Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
08 00:14:32
Gertrude Stein
Tender Buttons (A Long Dress). Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
09 00:15:07 Jay Livingston
Buttons and Bows
Performer: Dinah Shore
Duration 00:00:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8vTvCZzBRQ
10 00:17:09 Arthur Bliss
The Lady of Shalott
Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra
Conductor: Martin Yates
Duration 00:00:04
11 00:17:23
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The Lady of Shalott. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:01
ALFRED TENNYSON, LORD TENNYSON
The Lady of Shalott
PART I
ON either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To
many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
By the margin, willow-veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?
Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
Down to tower'd Camelot:
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers 'Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott.'
12 00:21:34 Anoushka Shankar
Naked
Performer: Anoushka Shankar
Duration 00:00:04
13 00:21:55
Martin Jenkins
Diogenes the Cynic. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:04
Socrates,
who died when Diogenes was an infant, had also tried to live a simple life. He
usually went barefoot (although he would wear sandals when the occasion
demanded it) and he wore shabby old clothes; but he had a house and a family.
Walking through the market, Socrates famously said, “How many things I don’t
need!” Diogenes took Socratic simplicity to its logical conclusion, so much so
that Plato, Diogenes’ contemporary, allegedly called him ‘Socrates gone mad’.
The story goes that Diogenes saw a mouse eating the crumbs from the coarse
bread on which he had been dining, and was inspired to reduce his own life to
the bare minimum. So he reduced his clothing to a single cloak that he could
fold in two, making him cool in summer and warm in winter. He
consistently went barefoot. He carried a knapsack for such possessions as he
needed – basically his food. He lived by begging, but was willing to be invited
to dinner – though he once refused to dine a second time with a host whom he
felt had not been properly grateful for his presence the first time round. He
had no house, but notoriously slept in a large ceramic jar (which has often
been called a ‘barrel’). Another story about his austerity is that he had a
wooden cup but threw it away when he saw a lad drinking out of a cupped hand,
and realised that he already had what he needed for drinking.
14 00:23:35
Kahlil Gibran
On Clothes. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:01
On Clothes
Kahlil Gibran - 1883-1931
And the weaver said, Speak to us of Clothes.
And he answered:
Your clothes
conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And though you
seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a
chain.
Would that you
could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your
raiment,
For the breath of
life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.
Some of you say,
“It is the north wind who has woven the clothes we wear.”
And I say, Ay, it
was the north wind,
But shame was his
loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread.
And when his work
was done he laughed in the forest.
Forget not that
modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.
And when the
unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the
mind?
And forget not
that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with
your hair.
15 00:25:40 David Bowie
Fashion
Performer: The Sunburst Band
Duration 00:00:03
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPHF4933h4w
16 00:25:47
Hadley Freeman
Vivienne Westwood, Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
Vivienne Westwood has become what she never wanted to be: a national treasure,
the status conferred by a V&A retrospective, which celebrates the work of
the punk icon with a strong sense of tradition.
I’ve never really felt that Vivienne Westwood was for me.
But then, the feeling was probably mutual. Certainly the one, brief and pretty
unmemorable time that we met, the designer with a notorious penchant for
eschewing airkissing for brutal honesty gave that impression. It was at one of
those annoying “mwah-mwah, dahling, dahling” kind of fashion parties a few
years ago. In all honesty, we both looked equally bored, but that was where the
similarities ended. A well-meaning but patently misguided PR (is there any
other kind?) attempted to introduce us and make us the best of friends:
Westwood, in an enormous draped crinoline evening gown, replete with
gallumphing bustle, took a skating glance at my typical couldn’t-care-less
attire of jeans, Converse and blouse, and turned away. Westwood was not for me,
and I was not for her.
Think about Vivienne Westwood’s clothes and the word “high”
comes to mind: high octane, high cleavages and very, very high heels. For those
of us with a more timid approach to dressing, such in-your-face style can seem,
at best, as intimidating as the lady herself. Yet the woman who once proclaimed
that she “never wants to be a national treasure” has been given the final
confirmation that she is just that, with a retrospective of her work at the
Victoria and Albert museum.
17 00:27:51
Veronica Horwell
Vivienne Westwood.Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
No fashion designer ever had a Paris show like the one staged by Vivienne
Westwood in 1991. Although she was by then 50 and had been making clothes for
sale for 20 years – and the British Fashion Council had named her designer of
the year – she stitched much of that collection on her own sewing machine in
her shabby south London flat, hand-finishing it in the van that transported
her, and the models, to France, where the couturier Azzedine Alaïa had invited
her to guest-show. Despite those limitations, the collection was a major
success.
The life of Westwood, who has died aged 81, was like that,
both rackety and responsible.
18 00:28:53
Billy Collins
Taking off Emily Dickinson's Clothes. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:01
Taking Off Emily
Dickinson's Clothes
First,
her tippet made of tulle,
easily
lifted off her shoulders and laid
on the
back of a wooden chair.
And her
bonnet,
the bow
undone with a light forward pull.
Then
the long white dress, a more
complicated
matter with mother-of-pearl
buttons
down the back,
so tiny
and numerous that it takes forever
before
my hands can part the fabric,
like a
swimmer's dividing water,
and
slip inside.
You
will want to know
that
she was standing
by an
open window in an upstairs bedroom,
motionless,
a little wide-eyed,
looking
out at the orchard below,
the
white dress puddled at her feet
on the
wide-board, hardwood floor.
The
complexity of women's undergarments
in
nineteenth-century America
is not
to be waved off,
and I
proceeded like a polar explorer
through
clips, clasps, and moorings,
catches,
straps, and whalebone stays,
sailing
toward the iceberg of her nakedness.
Later,
I wrote in a notebook
it was
like riding a swan into the night,
but, of
course, I cannot tell you everything -
the way she closed her eyes to the orchard,
how her hair tumbled free of its pins,
how there were sudden dashes
whenever we spoke.
What I can tell you is
it was terribly quiet in Amherst
that Sabbath afternoon,
nothing but a carriage passing the house,
a fly buzzing in a windowpane.
So I could plainly hear her inhale
when I undid the very top
hook-and-eye fastener of her corset
and I could hear her sigh when finally it was unloosed,
the way some readers sigh when they realize
that Hope has feathers,
that reason is a plank,
that life is a loaded gun
that looks right at you with a yellow eye.
19 00:30:12 Richard Strauss
Salome: Dance of the Seven Veils
Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Andris Nelsons
Duration 00:00:09
20 00:39:38
Katherine Mansfield
A New Hymn.
Sing a song of men's pyjamas,
Half-past-six has got a pair,
And he's wearing them this evening,
And he's looking such a dear.
Sing a song of frocks with pockets
I have got one, it is so's
I can use my `nitial hankies
Every time I blow my nose.
21 00:39:59 Erik Satie
Les Valses distinguees du precieux degoute no.2; Son binocle
Performer: Alan Marks
Duration 00:00:01
22 00:41:25 Lee Hazlewood
These Boots Were Made for Walkin'
Performer: Emilie‐Claire Barlow
Duration 00:00:03
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHjVyU_h690
23 00:41:25
Benjamin Zephaniah
Vegan Steven's Vegan Clothes. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:03
Remember that vegan called Steven
Yes he would not kill for no reason,
Well I saw him today
Wearing nothing I say
But some cabbage leaves
With a few peas on.
Benjamin Zephaniah
24 00:45:17 Bryn Terfel (bass baritone), Annette Bryn Parri
(piano) (artist)
La Bohè me; Act 4; Vecchia Zimarra, Senti
Performer: Bryn Terfel (bass baritone), Annette Bryn Parri (piano)
Duration 00:00:02
25 00:47:14
Hans Christian Andersen
The Emperor's New Clothes . Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:01
The Emperor walked under his high canopy in the midst of the procession,
through the streets of his capital. All the people standing by, and those at
the windows, cried out, “Oh! How beautiful are our Emperor’s new clothes! What
a magnificent train there is to the mantle; and how gracefully the scarf
hangs!” No one would admit these much admired clothes could not be seen because,
in doing so, he would have been saying he was either a simpleton or unfit for
his job.
“But the Emperor has nothing at all on!” said a little
child. “Listen to the voice of the child!” exclaimed his father. What the child
had said was whispered from one to another. “But he has nothing at all on!” at
last cried out all the people. The Emperor was upset, for he knew that the
people were right. However, he thought the procession must go on now! The lords
of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train,
although, in reality, there was no train to hold, and the Emperor walked on in
his underwear.
Clothes of Sand
Nick Drake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE6PfDsYVjA
Who has dressed you in strange clothes of sand?
Who has taken you far from my land?
Who has said that my sayings were wrong?
And who will say that I stayed much too long?
Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning, taken my place
Some make your way on down to sea
Something has taken you so far from me
Does it now seem worth all the color of skies?
To see the earth through painted eyes
To look through panes of shaded glass
See the stains of winter's grass
Can you now return to from where you came?
Try to burn your changing name
Or with silver spoons and colored light
Will you worship moons in winter's night?
Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning taken my place
So make your way on down to the sea
Something has taken you so far from me
27 00:51:00 Ottorino Respighi
Three Botticelli Pictures: The Adoration of the Magi
Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia
Conductor: Richard Hickox
Duration 00:00:09
28 00:52:33
Aldous Huxley
The Doors of Perception. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:01
29 01:00:11
L. M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables. Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
After two hours of smoking and hard reflection Matthew arrived at a solution of
his problem. Anne was not dressed like the other girls!
The more Matthew thought about the matter the more he was
convinced that Anne never had been dressed like the other girls--never since
she had come to Green Gables. Marilla kept her clothed in plain, dark dresses,
all made after the same unvarying pattern. If Matthew knew there was such a
thing as fashion in dress it was as much as he did; but he was quite sure that
Anne's sleeves did not look at all like the sleeves the other girls wore. He
recalled the cluster of little girls he had seen around her that evening--all
gay in waists of red and blue and pink and white--and he wondered why Marilla
always kept her so plainly and soberly gowned.
Of course, it must be all right. Marilla knew best and
Marilla was bringing her up. Probably some wise, inscrutable motive was to be
served thereby. But surely it would do no harm to let the child have one pretty
dress--something like Diana Barry always wore. Matthew decided that he would
give her one; that surely could not be objected to as an unwarranted putting in
of his oar. Christmas was only a fortnight off. A nice new dress would be the
very thing for a present. Matthew, with a sigh of satisfaction, put away his pipe
and went to bed, while Marilla opened all the doors and aired the house.
30 01:01:49 Cole Porter
Silk Stockings
Singer: Don Ameche
Duration 00:00:02
31 01:03:55
Robert Herrick
Upon Julia's Clothes. Read by Jonathan Keeble
Duration 00:00:02
32 01:04:17 PJ Harvey
Dress (demo)
Performer: PJ Harvey
Duration 00:00:01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVbgYf5CUKs
Put on that dress
I'm going out dancing
Starting off red
Clean and sparkling, he'll see me
[Verse 2]
Music play, make it dreamy for dancing
Must be a way that I can dress to please him
It's hard to walk in the dress, it's not easy
I'm swinging over like a heavy-loaded fruit tree
[Chorus]
If you put it on, if you put it on
If you put it on, if you put it on
[Verse 3]
It's sad to see
Lonely, all this lonely
Close up my eyes
Dreamy, dreamy music, make it be alright
[Verse 4]
Music play, make it good for romancing
Must be a way I can dress to please him
Swing and sway, everything'll be alright
But it's feeling so damn tight tonight
[Chorus]
If you put it on, if you put it on
If you put it on, if you put it on
[Bridge]
"You purdy thang," my man says
"But I bought you beautiful dresses"
"You purdy thang," my man says
"But I bought you beautiful dresses"
You might also like
Oh My Lover
PJ Harvey
Long Snake Moan
PJ Harvey
Happy and Bleeding
PJ Harvey
[Verse 5]
Filthy tight, the dress is filthy
I'm falling flat, and my arms are empty
Clear the way, better get it out of this room
A falling woman in dancing costume
[Chorus]
If you put it on, if you put it on
If you put it on, if you put it on
If you put it on, if you put it on
If you put it on, if you put it on
33 01:06:08 William Walton
As You Like It: The Forest of Arden
Ensemble: English Serenata
Conductor: Guy Woolfenden
Duration 00:00:01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEvicAAH-ew
34 01:06:21
William Shakespeare
As You Like It, Act I Scene III. Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
Rosalind
Why, whither shall we go?
Celia
To seek your father in the forest of Arden.
Rosalind
Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
Celia
I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire
And with a kind of umber smirch my face.
The like do you. So shall we pass along
And never stir assailants.
Rosalind
Were it not better,
Because that I am more than common tall,
That I did suit me all points like a man?
A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,
A boar-spear in my hand, and — in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will.
Celia
What shall I call thee when thou art a man?
Rosalind
I’ll have no worse a name than Jove’s own page,
And therefore look you call me Ganymede.
36 01:11:23
Jenny Joseph
Warning. Read by Julia Winwood
Duration 00:00:01
Warning
Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
37 01:12:50 Gogol Bordello
Start Wearing Purple
Performer: Gogol Bordello
Duration 00:00:01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkkIwO_X4i4
