'Captain's Apprentice' - RVW on BBC4

Subject: 'Captain's Apprentice' - RVW on BBC4
From: Hagman
Date: 29 Dec 22 - 06:01 PM

BBC4 Radio reading of Caroline Davidson's book "The Captain's Apprentice - Ralph Vaughan Williams and the story of a folk song." Originally broadcast in five parts in September 2022. Now no longer available, and apparently no plans to re-broadcast.

Did anyone manage to capture? Would like to hear the programs, as an accompaniment to reading the just-received book.

Details here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bktp

TIA.

Subject: RE: 'Captain's Apprentice' - RVW on BBC4
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 30 Dec 22 - 05:28 AM

I can't help with the reading, I'm afraid. But here are two connected sites;

The Captain's Apprentice Twenty Minutes https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m2n8t BBC Twenty Minutes

Roy Palmer explores the history of the traditional song The Captain's Apprentice'. George Crabbe drew on it for his poem The Borough, which in turn influenced Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes. Its basic plot, of an apprentice being taken from the workhouse and fatally mistreated, is unchanged.

This brilliant, if bleak, song was collected in Kings Lynn from the fisherman James Carter by Ralph Vaughan Williams and is still sung by folk singers. But the song dates back to at least the 18th Century and has travelled widely. Roy Palmer, an eminent authority on traditional song, explores this song, its history and influence, with the help of archive and some recent recordings.


https://carolinedavison.substack.com/p/vaughan-williamss-journey-into-folk-c0c?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Vaughan Williams’s Journey into Folk: 26 December 1904
‘Adieu to Lovely Nancy’, Mr Cooper, Plaistow, Sussex

Next post: 31 December 2022

Subject: RE: 'Captain's Apprentice' - RVW on BBC4
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 31 Dec 22 - 06:52 AM

https://carolinedavison.substack.com/p/vaughan-williamss-journey-into-folk-dbe?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
31 December 1904

Vaughan Williams’s Journey into Folk: 31 December 1904 ‘Tom Block’, Mr & Mrs Truell, Gravesend, Kent
CAROLINE DAVISON DEC 31 2022

Subject: RE: 'Captain's Apprentice' - RVW on BBC4
From: Hagman
Date: 31 Dec 22 - 09:16 PM

Thanks, henryp. It's a great blog; been following it from the start. Thanks also for the link to the Roy Palmer clip!