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Tucked up by Mum and Dad

Texts and music about parents, with readings by Harriet Walter and James Garnon. Including Larkin, Anna Laetitia Barbauld and Michael Rosen, plus Ligeti, Bach and Tom Lehrer.

Parents of all sorts feature in this edition of Words and Music, from their own and their children's perspective. So we hear about dysfunctional families from ancient Greece and Philip Larkin; the joys of parenthood from Anna Laetitia Barbauld and a dewy-eyed Coleridge - and its dark side from Abraham and Rachel Cusk. Michael Rosen grieves for his son, while Alan Bennett and Elizabeth Jennings describe relationships with elderly parents. Plus (in case you're confused) parenting advice from Erasmus and Dr Benjamin Spock. Readings by Harriet Walter and James Garnon and music from Ligeti, Bach and Tom Lehrer, among others.

Contains some strong language.

David Papp (producer).

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Tue 23 Dec 2014 16:30
麻豆社 Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • 00:00

    Domenico Scarlatti

    Sonata in E major, K. 531

    Performer: Wendy Carlos Moog Synthesiser

    • ESD 81612.

  • Dr Benjamin Spock

    Baby & Child Care, reader James Garnon

  • Anna Laetitia Barbauld

    To a Little Invisible Being who is Expected Soon to Become Visible, reader Harriet Walter

  • 00:02

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Andante (from Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058)

    Performer: Murray Perahia (piano)

    • Sony SK 89690.

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    Sonnet to a Friend Who Asked How I Felt When the Nurse First Presented My Infant to Me, reader James Garnon

  • Sylvia Plath

    Child, reader Harriet Walter

  • 00:09

    Gy枚rgy Ligeti

    Continuum

    Performer: Pierre Charial (barrel organ)

    • Sony SK 62310.

  • Rachel Cusk

    A Life鈥檚 Work, reader Harriet Walter

  • 00:12

    Engelbert Humperdinck

    Evening Prayer & Dream Pantomime (from H盲nsel und Gretel)

    Performer: Ann-Sofie von Otter Performer: Barbara Bonney Performer: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Jeffrey Tate

    • EMI CDS7540222 CD 1.

  • Adrian Mitchell

    This be the Worst, reader Harriet Walter

  • William Blake

    The Land of Dreams, reader James Garnon

  • 00:20

    Adrien Leroy

    Bransle de Champaigne

    Performer: Eric de Bellocq (lute)

    • Harmonia Mundi HMC 901729.

  • Erasmus (trans. Robert Whittington)

    On the Manners of Children, reader James Garnon

  • 00:22

    Nicolas Gombert

    La chasse au lievre

    Performer: Ensemble Cl茅ment Janequin/Dominique Visse

    • Harmonia Mundi HMC 901729.
  • 00:23

    Adrien Le Roy

    Allemande du pied du cheval

    Performer: Eric de Bellocq (lute)

    • Harmonia Mundi HMC 901729.
  • 00:24

    Anon.

    O Maria, stella maris

    Performer: Trio Mediaeval

    • ECM 476 3021.

  • Kahil Gibran

    On Children (from The Prophet), reader Harriet Walter

  • 00:28

    Arvo P盲rt

    Silentium (from Tabula rasa)

    Performer: Adele Anthony & Gil Shaham (violins) Performer: Erik Risberg (prepared piano) Performer: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra/Neeme J盲rvi

    • Deutsche Grammophon 457 647 2.

  • Michael Rosen

    Carrying the Elephant, reader James Garnon

  • Robert Louis Stevenson

    To Any Reader, reader Harriet Walter

  • 00:38

    Samuel Scheidt

    Canzona super cantionem gallicam 'Est-ce Mars?'

    Performer: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts

    • Helios CDH55344.

  • Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (trans. John Florio)

    Essays: Of the institution and education of children, reader James Garnon

  • 00:43

    Arthur Sullivan

    Onward Christian Soldiers

    Performer: Musical box

    • Saydisc CD-SDL 331.

  • Edmund Gosse

    Father and Son, reader James Garnon

  • 00:45

    Arthur Sullivan

    Onward Christian Soldiers

    Performer: Musical box

    • Saydisc CD-SDL 331.

  • Roald Dahl

    Matilda, reader Harriet Walter

  • 00:48

    Tim Minchin

    Telly (from Matilda)

    Performer: Original Cast recording Paul Kaye (Mr Wormwood)

    • RSC RSCE 002.

  • Stevie Smith

    N鈥檈st-ce pas assez de ne me point hair, reader Harriet Walter

  • 00:51

    John Cage

    First Interlude (from Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano)

    Performer: Boris Berman (prepared piano)

    • Naxos 8.554345.

  • Philip Larkin

    This be the Verse, reader James Garnon

  • X. J. Kennedy

    Blues for Oedipus, reader James Garnon

  • 00:55

    Tom Lehrer

    Oedipus Rex

    Performer: Tom Lehrer (voice and piano)

    • Reprise 61992.
  • 00:56

    Jonathan Harvey

    mortuos plango, vivos voco

    • Sargasso SCD28023.

  • The Bible, Genesis 1 -18

    Abraham & Isaac, reader Harriet Walter

  • Elizabeth Jennings

    To My Mother at 73, reader Harriet Walter

  • 01:01

    Fr茅d茅ric Chopin

    Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 45

    Performer: Alexei Lubimov (piano)

    • ECM 461 812 2.

  • Alan Bennett

    Untold Stories, reader James Garnon

  • 01:08

    George Frideric Handel

    As with rosy steps the morn (from Theodora)

    Performer: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (mezzo) Performer: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Harry Bicket

    • Avie AV 0030.

Producer Note

In this edition of Words and Music, parents and children mete out misery and joy.

In 鈥楾his be the Verse鈥� Philip Larkin squarely lays the blame for being messed-up with 聽mum and dad. But as Alan Bennett has pointed out, writers who are messed-up by their parents are 鈥榝ine because then you鈥檝e got something to write about鈥�.聽

Edmund Gosse certainly proved the point in his autobiographical 鈥楩ather and Son鈥� which describes a Victorian upbringing at the hands of a religious fundamentalist father.聽 Oedipus could reasonably claim to have been more messed up than most by his parents but then he certainly paid it back to them in spades: all neatly summed-up here by XJ Kennedy and Tom Lehrer.聽 Then there鈥檚 the Old Testament鈥檚 Abraham, willing to sacrifice his son if God tells him to. Roald Dahl鈥檚 Matilda and Stevie Smith both need to escape their oppressive parents.

Of course, children have an impact on their parents. A pregnant Anna Laetitia Barbauld can鈥檛 wait for the joy and love she thinks her child will bring; Coleridge鈥檚 newborn son provokes a similar ecstatic response.聽 But the realities of coping with young children take Sylvia Plath and Rachel Cusk beyond the brink of sanity. The Land of Dreams is 鈥榖etter far鈥� than the real world for the little boy in Blake鈥檚 poem 鈥� a pitiful exchange between a recently widowed father and his motherless son.

Kahil Gibran鈥檚 鈥極n Children鈥� exhorts parents to let go of their offspring and to acknowledge their separateness and individuality; Robert Louis Stevenson鈥檚 鈥楾o Any Reader鈥� is also about parental letting-go.聽 Forced to let go is Michael Rosen, broken by grief after the death from meningitis of his teenage son.

Elderly parents feature in two texts: Elizabeth Jennings鈥� mother leaves her with pent up tears of frustration, and Alan Bennett is witness to a poignant exchange.

There are happy parents and children here, too! In a witty parody of Larkin, the parents in Adrian Mitchell鈥檚 鈥楾his be the Worst鈥� 鈥榯uck you up鈥� in boundless love and security. And in his 鈥楨ssays鈥� Montaigne has nothing but praise both for his father鈥檚 educational methods and his way of waking him up in the morning.

Every parent will be aware of countless books on bringing up children. One of the first, from 1430 and full of good advice, was Erasmus鈥檚 bestselling 鈥極n the Education of Children鈥�.聽 Here is advice on that perennial parental headache: table manners. Dr Benjamin Spock鈥檚 1946 鈥楤aby & Childcare鈥� begins the programme. With its exhortation to parents to trust their instincts and common sense it, too, became a bestseller (at over forty-five million copies, and still counting). Many of us will have experienced it in one way or the other.

I have chosen music which seems to fit the feeling of the texts, rather than for any more overt significance to the programme鈥檚 theme. (Although as father to twenty children, Bach surely merits inclusion on that score alone and Jonathan Harvey鈥檚 great electroacoustic 鈥榤ortuos plango, vivos voco鈥� features the recorded voice of his son, Dominic.)

David Papp (producer)

Broadcasts

  • Sun 20 Jan 2013 18:30
    麻豆社 Radio 3
  • Tue 23 Dec 2014 16:30
    麻豆社 Radio 3

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