The Uncanny
Morfydd Clark and Arinze Kene with some familiar and some distinctly unsettling readings and music. Follow an uncanny thread linking Poe, Britten, Miles Davis and Stevie Smith.
A programme exploring both the familiar and the eerie in music and readings, which are performed by actors Morfydd Clark and Arinzé Kene. The idea of the uncanny is associated with a sense of being unsettled and Freud published an essay in 1919 - Das Unheimliche - in which he looked at horror, disgust and idea of hidden and repressed experiences and emotions. This selection of words and music takes listeners on a path through stories, poems and sounds by Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin Britten, Miles Davis and Stevie Smith among others.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod.
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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00:00
Hector Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 Songe dune nuit du Sabbat
Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim (Conductor).- CBS CD39859.
- Tr5.
-
Dannie Abse
The Uninvited, read by Arinze Kene
00:00The Residents
On The Way (To Oklahoma)
Performer: The Residents.- Mute STUMM 247.
- CD1 Tr1.
00:01Hector Berlioz
Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat (Symphonie Fantastique)
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.00:02The Residents
On the Way (To Oklahoma)
00:02Benjamin Britten
The Turn of the Screw: Variation III Scene 4: The Tower
Performer: Camilla Tilling (Soprano), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner (Conductor).- GLYNDEBOURNE GFOCD01107.
- CD1 Tr5.
00:04Benjamin Britten
The Turn of the Screw (Variation III, sc.4: The Tower)
Singer: Camilla Tilling. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Edward Gardner.Robert Frost
Ghost House, read by Morfydd Clark
00:09Léo Delibes
Coppélia Acte Deux Scène I - Scène et valse de la poupée
Performer: National Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Bonynge (Conductor).- DECCA 4145022.
- CD2 Tr3.
00:11Léo Delibes
Coppelia Act 2, sc.1 (Scene et valse de la poupee)
Orchestra: National Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Bonynge.00:13György Ligeti
Lux Aeterna
Choir: Schola Cantorum Stuttgart. Conductor: Clytus Gottwald.- EMI CDODEON28.
- Tr11.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher, read by Arinze Kene
00:15György Ligeti
Lux Aeterna
Choir: Stuttgart Schola Cantorum. Conductor: Clytus Gottwald.Elizabeth Bishop
Some Dreams They Forgot, read by Morfydd Clark
00:20Franz Schubert
Schwanengesang - Der Doppelgänger
Performer: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), Gerald Moore (piano).- ORFEO C294921.
- Tr6.
00:22Franz Schubert
Der Doppelganger (Schwanengesang)
Performer: Gerald Moore. Singer: Dietrich Fischer‐Dieskau.Catherine Smith
Original Residents, read by Arinze Kene (taken from Lip, published by Smith Doorstop, 2007)
00:26Claude Debussy
String Quartet in G minor 2. Scherzo
Performer: Quartetto Italiano.- PHILIPS 4208942.
- Tr2.
00:28Claude Debussy
String Quartet in G minor (2nd mvt: Scherzo)
Ensemble: Quartetto Italiano.Robert Graves
Welsh Incident, read by Morfydd Clark
00:33Jacques Offenbach
Tales of Hoffmann Acte I Les oiseaux dans la charmille
Performer: Renée Doria (Soprano), Choir and Orchestra of the Théâtre National de lOpéra-Comique, André Cluytens (Conductor).- PAPERBACK OPERA 20004.
- CD1 Tr11.
00:34Jacques Offenbach
Les oiseaux dans la charmille (Tales of Hoffmann)
Singer: Renée Doria. Orchestra: Orchestre du Théâtre National de l’Opéra‐Comique. Conductor: André Cluytens.Lionel Fogarty
Weather Comes, read by Arinze Kene
00:41Miles Davis
Great Expectations
Performer: Miles Davis.- Columbia COL 516251 2.
- CD2 Tr3.
00:42Miles Davis
Great Expectations
Vernon Scannell
The Visitation, read by Morfydd Clark
00:47Igor Stravinsky
Petrushka - Scene 2: Petrushkas Room
Performer: Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky (Conductor).- Sony 88697103112.
- CD2 Tr5.
00:48Igor Stravinsky
Petrushka's Cell (Petrushka)
Orchestra: Columbia Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Igor Stravinsky.00:52Salvatore Sciarrino
Volubile (Caprices for violin)
Performer: Marco Rogliano.00:53Salvatore Sciarrino
Caprices for violin 4: Volubile
Performer: Marco Rogliano (violin).- ACCORD 202862.
- Tr4.
00:53György Ligeti
Atmospheres
Orchestra: South West German Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Ernest Bour.00:54György Ligeti
Overture: Atmospheres
Orchestra: Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Ernest Bour.- EMI CDODEON28.
- Tr1.
Sarah Waters
The Little Stranger, read by Morfydd Clark
Edmund Blunden
Illusions, read by Arinze Kene
00:57Franz Schubert
Der Doppelganger (Schwanengesang)
Performer: Vladimir Sofronitsky. Music Arranger: Franz Liszt.00:57Franz Schubert
Der Doppelgänger
Performer: Vladimir Sofronitzki (piano).- HARMONIA MUNDI HM905169.
- Tr9.
Edwin Muir
The Horses, read by Morfydd Clark
01:02David Bowie
After All
01:02David Bowie
After All
Performer: David Bowie.- EMI 7243 521901 0 2.
- Tr4.
01:05Hans Zimmer
The Mole
01:06Hans Zimmer
The Mole
Performer: Hans Zimmer.- Sony Classical 88985461482.
- Tr1.
W. B. Yeats
The Apparitions, read by Arinze Kene
Stevie Smith
Fairy Story, read by Morfydd Clark
01:08Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni (Finale)
Singer: Roger Soyer. Singer: Peter Lagger. Singer: Geraint Evans. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.01:08Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni Act 2, Scene 5 Don Giovanni, a cenar teco
Performer: Roger Soyer (Baritone), Peter Lagger (Bass), Geraint Evans (Bass), English Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (Conductor).- EMI CMS7639762.
- CD3 Tr8.
01:11Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni Act 2, Scene 5 Da qual tremore insolito
Performer: Roger Soyer (Baritone), Peter Lagger (Bass), Geraint Evans (Bass), English Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (Conductor).- EMI CMS7639762.
- CD3 Tr9.
01:13Franz Schubert
Rastlose Liebe D138
Performer: Simon Lepper. Singer: Ilker Arcayürek.- Franz Schubert: Der Einsame.
- CHAMPS HILL RECORDS.
- 18.
Producer's Notes: The Uncanny
[I found the following notes in my junk mail folder, apparently sent from my own email address. I had never read them before. I have no recollection of writing them. They proved invaluable in constructing this programme]
Das Unheimliche
Twins
Déjà vu
Robots
Golem
Doppelganger
Ventriloquist’s dummy
Deserted villages
Sense of being watched
Apparitions
Dreams
Whispering
The appearance of life in the inanimate – Olympia in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann (adapted from Freud’s original source) and Delibes’s Coppélia. The Statue comes to life and drags Don Giovanni to hell.
The sense that our homes – safe and comforting - carry echoes of those who occupied them before us – eerie, unknowable - Original Residents (Catherine Smith). Deserted buildings shelter these memories more vividly – the fragment of wallpaper, broken furniture - Ghost House/Robert Frost.
Some ghost stories – Turn of the Screw (Henry James), The Little Stranger (Sarah Waters) – especially at a point when source of phenomena is still ambiguous.
Elements that make music unsettling. Tritone (Debussy’s String Quartet). Shepard tone – sense of infinite rising or falling scale – all over Hans Zimmer’s Dunkirk and Inception scores. Incorporating minor 3rd into major key melody. Progression that doesn’t resolve. (What makes Great Expectations by Miles Davis feel like it does?)
Doppelganger
Producer: Torquil MacLeodBroadcasts
- Sun 6 May 2018 17:30鶹 Radio 3
- Sun 31 Oct 2021 17:30鶹 Radio 3