Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Archaeologist and author.
On the island
Eight records
Well, my first record that I've chosen is a Welsh hymn tune. But it's not a a choir singing a hymn. It is in fact the most beautiful tune Rosamedre. The place is in Anglesey, and it's in the form of an organ prelude. Written by Vaughan Williams, he wrote very few organ works, but he did do these three hymn tunes, and they're very beautiful, and this, I think, is the most beautiful one.
Missa Brevis: Sanctus and Benedictus
Choir of St John's College, Cambridge
And my next record is of the Sanctus and the beginning of the Benedictus. in Benjamin Britton's Missa Brevis. And it's played and sung by the choir of my own college, Saint John's College, directed by George Guest.
Partita No. 1 in B-flat major, BWV 825: GigueFavourite
Well, my next record is uh the Frenchman Jacques Lussier with his two colleagues, Caros and Michelau. And what I have selected is the Gigu from the Partita number one in B-flat major.
Well, my fourth record is based on the fact that I have been very friendly with all the musicians in Cambridge in my time. And what I have selected is one piece that was written by my very close friend, Robin Orr, who went away to be a professor in Glasgow and then came back to be professor in Cambridge. And it's the beginning of his symphony in one movement.
Violin Sonata No. 6 in E major, BWV 1006: Prelude
Well Because we've been talking about broadcasting, I must have this record that brings back all the fifties to me. It said that was it somebody had Calais engraved on her heart. Well, I have this tune certainly engraved for ever on my mind, because it was the signature tune of Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.
Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor
We've got a number six, and the one I've chosen is my association again with organ music and with France. I'm tremendously interested and excited by the great French organists and composers like Vienne and Vidor and Boyleman and the rest of them. But the one I've chosen is by Poulanc, and it's from his organ concerto or his concerto for organ strings and timpani and I think is one of the most remarkable works of modern French music.
I've always had the great pleasure of going to festivals in various parts. particularly those in East Anglia, the Festivals at Aldborough, and particularly the festival in King's Lynn, and it was there I met and heard for the first time Catherine Seria. whose voice is surely one of the great voices of this or any other century. And I would like to hear her voice. As my seventh record.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Well, my last record is what I regard as one of the most beautiful pieces of music. It's the Allegri miserare, and I think it's one of really the most uh moving things i i in all church music.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:41Whereabouts in Wales do you come from?
Well, I was brought up in the Vale of [Glamorgan] in [Llantwit] Major, where my father was schoolmaster. and he was also a deacon and choir master in the local chapel, and he was also very fascinated by Welsh hymns.
Presenter asks
1:51What was your ambition as a schoolboy?
Well, I don't think I had one and uh I suppose that by the time I left school and went as an undergraduate first to the University of Wales, And then later to Cambridge, I suppose if I had asked myself what I thought I was going to do, I would say, Oh, well, you will end up as a schoolmaster teaching geography.
Presenter asks
6:59What was the subject of your [doctoral] thesis?
Well the subject of my thesis was in fact megalithic monuments in England and Wales and to do that I had to travel the whole country. My parents were Very kind and lent me their car and so during the period nineteen thirty five to thirty eight I visited every single megalithic monument in southern Britain.
The keepsakes
The book
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
I think that what one needs is a compressed anthology book, not so much a dictionary of quotations, but something like Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. And that would make endlessly fascinating reading.
The luxury
Presenter asks
During your years as a practical archaeologist, which have been the most useful technical advances which you've seen?
Oh, well, without any question, there is one that has completely revolutionized archaeology, and that is the discovery of radiocarbon dating. ... And the technique of radiocarbon dating was developed by Libby in Chicago and enabled us to have absolute dates that are unquestioned dates. And so for the first time And really archaeology started all over again in the fifties when carbon fourteen dating started.
Presenter asks
29:24Do you think you could look after yourself [on a desert island]?
Ooh, I I expect so, yes. ... I could build a shelter, yes.
“I was brought up in an atmosphere of chapel music, not church music, chapel music. Indeed, I played the harmonium in several chapels, very badly, I may say.”
“And it was then that I realized that there was a kinship between the classical simplicity and severity of Bach And modern jazz music.”
“I must say that at first I thought that [Animal, Vegetable, Mineral] wasn't going to be a success at all, because the formula seemed a difficult one. It consisted of three people, three experts, sitting around a table and being shown things from a particular museum. and asked to identify them.”