Soul Music

‘The Impossible Dream' is a song that talks of the resilience of the human spirit.It tells the story of a quest and it's had a surprising journey of its own. It was originally composed for the 1965 musical The Man of La Mancha which was inspired by Miguel de Cervantes story of Don Quixote. The music was written by Mitch Leigh and the lyrics by Joe Darion.Now in his 80s, Leigh explains how his first writing partner was WH Auden and talks about why this particular piece struck a chord with African American friends at that time. Generations on, international Soprano Lesley Garrett recalls how this song inspired her childhood dreams in Doncaster.Yachtsman of the Year Geoff Holt talks about how this song carried him across the Atlantic on one of the most important voyages of his life.Plus, former advertising executive Rob Chew explains how this piece is helping him face life’s biggest challenge.Contributors:Geoff Holt Rob Chew Mitch Leigh Stuart Pedlar Lesley GarrettSeries about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.Producer: Nicola HumphriesFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.

Simple Gifts started life as a Shaker Hymn and became incorporated into the hymn Lord of the Dance and Aaron Copland's ballet suite Appalachian Spring.Nora Guthrie describes the central place this tune has played throughout her life. Pete Lashley tells how he heard it unexpectedly whilst touring in New Zealand. Michael Carter explains why his father chose this tune for his famous hymn "Lord of the Dance" and Scott Malchus describes running a marathon whilst listening to this music.Featuring: Thomas Swain Michael Carter Nora Guthrie Scott Malchus Pete Lashley Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.

Mozart's Clarinet Quintet was written in 1789, two years before the composer’s death. The first ever work for string quartet plus clarinet remains a firm favourite for music lovers around the world. Professor Paul Robertson describes how his wife played this piece to him whilst he lay in a coma. Clarinettist Peter Furniss tells of the solace the slow movement provided his mother as she lay dying. And Alex Smith explains the importance of this piece in his work to help children with autism, Asperger's, dyslexia and other childhood disorders. Featuring: Paul Robertson Peter Furniss Alex Smith John Playfair David Campbell Robin BatteauSeries exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.

Beethoven's fifth and final piano concerto, The Emperor is majestic and moving in equal measure.Richard McMahon plays extracts and discusses the virtuosic it demands. Australian film producer, Hal McElroy, talks about using the Adagio (the second movement) to illustrate the classic 1970s film Picnic at Hanging Rock. That was where Andrew Law – who was Chaplain at Malvern College - first heard the piece. He describes the Adagio as being 'one of those pieces of art which it is worth being alive to have heard'.Concert pianist, James Rhodes, describes how The Emperor was central to his childhood and his developing love of Beethoven's piano music. Music teacher and singer, Prue Hawthorne, recalls how her father (an amateur clarinettist) laboriously transcribed by hand the horn and clarinet sections of the first movement so they could play along with the record in their living room. Also contributing is the renowned Beethoven biographer, John Suchet.Concert pianist Richard McMahon has now retired as a teacher at the Royal Welsh School of Music and Drama.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Karen GregorFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2010.

An examination of the enduring popularity of the hymn, How Great Thou Art. Based on a Swedish poem by Carl Gustav Boberg, it was written by the British missionary Stuart Hine in 1949. It subsequently become an Elvis Presley classic and as the country and western star , Connie Smith explains, it's the piece she always sings to close her show, the stirring lyrics and soaring melody having the ability to move and inspire audiences of all ages and backgrounds.At the age of 101, George Beverly Shea shares his clear memories of singing it at hundreds of Billy Graham crusades.Featuring: Bud Boberg Ray Bodkin Bev Shea Jerry Schilling Malcolm Imhoff David Darg Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Lucy LuntFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

"He wanted it to be something that's consoling and helpful. It's the end of their lives where they can rest in peace."World renowned choral conductor Sir David Willcocks, shares his personal reflections on the Faure Requiem alongside those for whom the music has comforted and inspired. Known for its peaceful and hopeful nature the Faure Requiem has been called 'The lullaby of death'. Whilst Gabriel Faure himself never spoke directly about what inspired his interpretation of the Requiem, author and biographer Jessica Duchen has speculated that it may have been born out of his experience as a soldier during the Franco-Prussian war. Featuring personal stories of conflict and deliverance shared from across the decades. Reaching from the beaches of Normandy to the plains of Afghanistan and into the skies of Salisbury.Faure composed the first version of the work, which he called "un petit Requiem" with five movements, of which the Pie Jesu and In Paradisum have become arguably the most popular."Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."Featuring: David Willcocks Jessica Duchen Christina Schmid Paul Hawkins Ross MallockSeries exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Nicola HumphriesFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

At the core of Czech cultural identity Bedrich Smetana’s Ma Vlast. Written in the late 19th century, it's a series of six symphonic poems. For a western audience the most popular and best loved is Vltava, a soundscape conjuring up vivid images of the river which runs through Prague.Jan Kaplan is a Czech born film-maker who has lived in the UK since 1968. He describes the 'educational concerts' he had to attend as a young boy when - bored to tears - he would endure long performances of Smetana's music. However, as an adult living in exile, his experience of Czech culture was tinged with a remote sense of patriotism and he grew to appreciate his national composer. When - following the 1989 Velvet revolution - he was eventually able to return home, he witnessed one of the most famous and moving performances of Ma Vlast at Smetana Hall in 1990. Also at that concert was musicologist, Professor Jan Smaczny, who describes his memories of that evening, and explains the history and mythology portrayed in Ma Vlast.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Karen Gregor.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

Stephen Sondheim's song, Send In the Clowns, from the musical 'A Little Night Music' was written late in rehearsals for the actress Glynis Johns, playing the part of Desiree. A song of regret and anger, the part has famously been played by Judi Dench, and the song became an independent hit, sung by Judy Collins, Shirley Bassey and Barbra Streisand. Hannah Waddingham played the youngest ever Desiree in Trevor Nunn's production, and used her memories of an unhappy relationship to inspire her performance.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Sara Conkey.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Bach wrote his Goldberg Variations for harpsichord in the 1740s, but today it's performed by pianists all over the world. People describe the place these pieces have in their lives, including a neuroscientist from New York, pianist Angela Hewitt, a father driving his family through the night in the Australian Outback, and a woman from Oregon whose life was transformed, perhaps even saved, by this music.Produced by Sarah ConkeyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands is a spiritual song originating in the USA.But it first caught the public's attention when Laurie London took it to the top of the charts in 1958. In this programme, people describe the place that the song has in their lives. Including the conductor of a choir for refugees and asylum seekers and the minister who led prayers on President Obama's first day in office.There's also a performance from Washington Performing Arts Society's Children of the Gospel Choir. They sang an arrangement of He's Got the Whole World in His Hands made by their conductor and Artistic Director Stanley J Thurston at the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral on January 21, 2009. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden and their families attended this service and the sermon was given by the Reverend Sharon E Watkins.Contributors:John Copley Ian Bradley Amy Mclean Philip Wright Sharon Watkins Mike McGrother Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Sara ConkeyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2010.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Dido's Lament is a popular name for a famous aria, 'When I am laid in earth', from the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, with the libretto by Nahum Tate. Mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly talks about why she finds the piece, sung by the likes of Janet Baker and Emma Kirkby, so extraordinary, and the skill it takes to perform it. Composer and cellist Philip Shepperd's musical life was transformed when he was part of the rock singer Jeff Buckley's performance of the piece at the 1995 Meltdown Festival.Contributors: Alison Moyet Sarah Connolly Jeremy summerly Graham Jones Sheryl Sarnet Nicholas Witchell Philip Sheppard First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.When Mendelssohn wrote his Violin Concerto in 1844 he could hardly have imagined how famous and well loved it would become. In this programme, people tell how it has played an important part in their lives. Violinist Daniel Hope tells how he got caught practising this concerto secretly locked in the bathroom at school. Harry Atterbury remembers hearing the Mendelssohn for the first time on the night before a Second world War air raid which turned his life upside down. Composer Stephen Pratt describes discovering that his father had played this concerto to cheer fellow soldiers in the jungle in Burma, and explains how this inspired him to write his own violin concerto.To find out more about Stephen Pratt's Violin Concerto, go to: http://www.liverpoolphil.com./1132/rlpo-recordings/stephen-pratt-lovebytes.html The recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto featured in this programme was by violinist Maxim Vengerov with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur. Teldec 4509-90875-2.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Based on Psalm 103, this hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte, who also penned Abide With Me, and is most asssociated with the tune by John Goss - even though the two men never met. Their hymn has become one of the most popular for weddings, and was used at those of the Queen and Prince Philip and Charles and Camilla. Increasingly it is also used at funerals, and the widow of DC Stephen Oake, killed while on duty during an anti-terrorist raid, explains why it's so important to her and her family. It's also the perfect tune for teaching young choristers to sight read music, although these days they often misplace the comma in the line, 'Father like, he tends and spares us'.Contributors John Ridyard Lesley Jenkins Ian Bradley Gordon Giles Daniel Hyde Rob White John Ganjavi Gillian WarsonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Richard Strauss was aged 84 when he completed his final composition. It was 'Four Last Songs', which, although dealing death, conveys a sense of calm acceptance. Though written in 1948, it still touches the hearts of many listeners today. As the soprano voice delves ever deeper into the richness of the music, interviewees tell how the Four Last Songs have brought calm and beauty at key moments in their lives.Featuring: Alan Yentob Michael Kennedy Gillian Weir Margaret Nelson Jamie Nichols Gabe Meline Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal. Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2009.

Written by Carole King and made famous by James Taylor, You've Got a Friend won a Grammy Award in 1971. In this programme people tell how this song has affected their lives. Contributors:Carole King Nick Barraclough Marcella Erskine Estelle Williams Karen Garner James Taylor Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal. Producer: Terry CarterFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2009.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal. Fantasia on a theme by Thomas TallisWhen Vaughan Williams wrote his Tallis Fantasia in 1910, he changed the course of British music. Here at last was a piece of music which was no longer under the Teutonic influence, but which drew on old English hymn tunes and folk idioms for its themes. As the string music builds to a climax, interviewees tell how this music has brought solace and hope in times of tragedy and changed the course of their lives.When composers Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney heard the premiere of Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, it's said that they walked the streets of Gloucester all night because of the sheer excitement of possibility that this new piece had awakened in them.This programme tells how the beauty and richness of Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia awakened a life long love of classical music in a nine year old boy at bedtime; how it served as comfort for an artist in despair and how it brought solace to a grieving fatherContributors: Michael Kennedy Ian Clarke EM Marshall Rolf Jordan Peter Phillips Harry Atterbury Colin WoodProducer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009.

Hal David discusses writing The Look of Love with Burt Bacharach, for the soundtrack of the spoof 1967 James Bond film Casino Royale. This classic track, sung by Dusty Springfield, provided the musical backdrop for a love scene between Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress.Dusty Springfield's former backing singer, Simon Bell, remembers being on stage at the Albert Hall when Dusty laughed her way through a performance of the song, and musician Jonathan Cohen describes how the samba rhythm underscoring Dusty's smooth vocals combine to make this an enduringly popular love song.It has been covered many times by artists including Isaac Hayes, Gladys Knight and the French singer Mirielle Mathieu. This programme hears from people whose personal memories of love and loss are forever linked with The Look of Love.Contributors:Sue Clarke Wally Welling Simon Bell Trevor Foster Jonathan Cohen Hal David Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal. Producer: Karen GregorFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Gregorio Allegri wrote the chord sequence for his Miserere in the 1630s for use during Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel.This is located in the Apostolic Palace, official residence for the Pope in Vatican CityIt then went through the hands of a 12-year-old Mozart, Mendelssohn and Liszt until it finally reached England in the early 20th century and got fixed into the version we know today.The soaring soprano line that hits the famous top C and never fails to thrill has become a firm favourite for concert audiences around the world. Textile designer Kaffe Fassett, writer Sarah Manguso and conductor Roy Goodman explain how they have all been deeply affected by this beautiful piece of music.With Peter Phillips.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal. Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2009.

Louis Armstrong recorded the classic 'What a Wonderful World' in 1967, amidst civil rights demonstrations and protests against the Vietnam War. It was a song written for him. Was it naïve or a powerful anthem for peace?Featuring: Prof. Peter Ling Laurence Bergreen Simon Weston Katie Melua Troy Andrews Milan Bertosa Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Sara ConkeyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2008.

Chopin's Ballade clearly tells a story, and yet that story differs for each person who hears or plays it. Pianist Peter Donohoe heads a cast of people whose lives have been shaped and changed by hearing and playing this technically demanding, emotionally turbulent piece of music.Featuring: Peter Donohoe Pete Rosskamm Edi Bilimoria Richard Bielecki Andrew Armstrong Dr Jay B. Hess Joshua WrightSeries exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2008.

On 2nd March 1959, Miles Davis and his sextet began recording a new album: "Kind of Blue". The first track was "So What" and the album became the best selling Jazz album of all time. This programme tells the stories of people whose lives have been changed by this piece of music.Featuring: Clemency Burton-Hill Jonathan Eno Estelle Kokot Ashley Kahn Dr Richard Niles Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosa Boulton First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2008.

Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is based on a children's show he wrote for his nephews and nieces. Discover the story behind the famous ballet And what is the impact on those who hear it and dance to it? Featuring: Dr. Elena Denzhkina-Campbell Dr. Margaret Reynolds Tom Conlon John Warrack Francesca Allen Jane Hackett Barbara Hughes Sir Roy Strong Matthew Drury, piano Marion Tait Gaylene Cummerfield Matthew Lawrence Scott AmblerSeries about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impactProducer: Sarah ConkeyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2008.

Thomas Tallis's work is one of the most elaborate and spectacular pieces of choral music ever written. Scored for 40 voices, the piece is best sung and heard in the round in order to appreciate an extraordinary sonic experience. Choral conductor Simon Halsey and Michael Morpurgo discuss the music's spine-tingling effect on both performers and listeners.Featuring: Graeme Fife John Davies Clive Stafford-SmithSeries about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.Producers: Rosie Boulton & Melvin RickarbyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2008.

This programme was first broadcast in 2008. Soft Cell hitmaker Dave Ball has died aged 66.Originally a Motown song written by Ed Cobb and recorded by Gloria Jones, Tainted Love became famous on the UK's Northern Soul scene in the late 1970s. It was heard by Marc Almond and Dave Ball who later became Soft Cell, and recorded a classic version. Featuring: Mark Ravenhill Peter Christopherson Ray Harris Russ Winstanley Alan King Dave Ball Mike Thorne Danny McNamara Nev FountainSeries about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.Producer: Sara Conkey First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2008.

Jean Sibelius's glorious orchestral work was adopted by the Finnish people as a symbol of its fight for independence from Russia.Well over 100 years later it is still regarded as Finland's second national anthem. Its popularity is international, both in orchestral form and also in shorter form as the Finlandia Hymn. Featuring:* Jean Sibelius's great-grandson Jaakko Ilves * Conductor John Storgards.Series about music that makes the hairs stand up on the back of our necks.Producer: Karen GregorFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2008.

Andrew Collins and Mark Shenton present the story behind the classic song New York, New York. Songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote the title song for the film. Unfortunately, the star Robert de Niro didn't like it, so they furiously wrote another one.John Kander talks about the story behind the classic song.Featuring: Lorrena Turner Michael Freedland Huw Madoc-Jones Terry Bennett Alun Howells Gareth Valentine John Kander Patrick Sasso Rosemary WattsSeries about music that makes the hairs stand up on the back of our necks.Producer: Sara ConkeyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2008.