#2490: New English Pastoral

New Sounds | May 24, 2010
There’s music in the English “pastoral” tradition on this edition of New Sounds. Some 30 years ago or so, after the success of “Tubular Bells,” the newly-financially liberated composer Mike Oldfield retreated into the English countryside to make more music. We’ll hear a work infused with serenity, Mike Oldfield’s second masterpiece “Hergest Ridge.” We also sample "15 Wild Decembers" by Geoff Smith, a compilation of songs using texts by 19th-century poets (including Shelley, Emily Brontë, and Keats), all of whose lives were cut tragically short either by illness or suicide. Plus, Michael Nyman’s music from the Peter Greenaway film, "Drowning by Numbers" rounds out the show.

PROGRAM #2490, The English Pastoral Tradition (First aired on Wednesday, 12-28-05)

ARTIST(S)

RECORDING

CUT(S)

SOURCE

George Butterworth

The Spirit of England

The Banks of Green Willow, excerpt [1:30]

Nimbus #5210 (3 CD set) www.wyastone.co.uk

Mike Oldfield

Hergest Ridge

Pt. 1 [21:00]

Virgin #2013 Out of print. And the CD reissue (available at Amazon.com**) is a *remastered* version, not the LP version heard here.

Michael Nyman

Drowning By Numbers

Trysting Fields [3:30]
Sheep And Tides [1:30]
Drowning By Number 3 [3:30]
Wheelbarrow Walk [2:00]
Drowning By Number 2 [6:00]
Fish Beach [2:30]

Virgin Venture #CDVE #23.** / Caroline #1646, Try Amazon.com** Also reissued for Nyman’s 60th birthday in 2004 as Virgin EMI CDVE 967. Amazon.co.uk **

Geoff Smith

Fifteen Wild Decembers

Summer’s Last Will And Testament [4:00]

Sony Classical #66605. Available for purchase at Amazon.com**

*, ** - Find the recordings you've heard - go to the New Sounds Recordings Information page

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