The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #171922 Message #4233082
Posted By: FreddyHeadey
16-Dec-25 - 09:53 PM
Thread Name: BBC Radio Available for over a year
Subject: RE: BBC Radio Available for over a year
Bad Husbands and Scottish Songs [by Carolina Lady Nairne] - 2020 Time Travels Susan Morrison chats to Dr Nicky Small of the Perthshire duo Plaidsong who combines being a Jacobite historian with singing Jacobite songs. You’ve probably heard of songs like Land o the Leal, Will Ye No Come Back Again, Wi' a hundred pipers an' a', but you maybe don’t know the name Carolina Lady Nairne. Nicky sings her songs and tells her story. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kg56 first 10 minutes more discussion about Carolina Lady Nairne on mudcat thread https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4488
Can singing improve our health? - 2019 CrowdScience - World Service Singing can lift our spirits, but research suggests it could also benefit our health, improving breathing for people with lung conditions and helping us cope with dementia. Could it even have a preventative effect? Dr Daisy Fancourt, Senior Research Associate in Behavioural Science, Dr Simon Opher, family doctor and Clinical Lead for Social Prescribing, Maggie Grady, Director of Music Therapy at charity Mindsong www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz1t0 mostly about choirs & dementia.
A Colombian Christmas in February - 2024 Heart and Soul - World Service In the heart of Colombia, very special Christmas celebrations take place not in December but in February. Its roots lie in the days of slavery when many Afro-Colombians were serving their masters' festivities during that time. In an act of cultural and racial resistance that has been preserved for nearly 200 years, Christmas celebrations in Quinamayo are held 40 days after the traditional birth date of Jesus and the amount of time that the Virgin Mary is said to have rested after delivery. The town becomes abuzz with music and dancing. Brass bands parade through the streets, local children gather around a black baby Jesus playing biblical characters from the New Testament and female leaders known as Matronas are resplendent in their traditional colourful costumes. A celebratory dance - the juga - is performed with shuffling feet, a reference to how their ancestors were once burdened with chains around their ankles. Once a symbol of repression, it is now reinterpreted as an act of resistance and freedom. Christina Noreiga asks how the celebrations came about and why they have a special magic for both young and old. A Play it by Ear production for BBC World Service www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5tf0
The Djembe Drum: Beyond West Africa - 2023 The Essay - Multitrack - Radio 3 Drummer Eric Hippolyte tells the story of the Djembe drum - a West African drum created in the 12th century which has travelled the world. Eric joins teacher and drum maker Souleymane Compo to talk about what drumming means to them, why the Djembe is the drum which speaks, and they play the Djembe rhythms that soundtrack funerals, christenings and weddings. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001s65v
Dolmetsch - Haslemere's musical gift - 2024 Secret Surrey - Radio Surrey Emily Jeffery reveals how a family from Haslemere played a leading role in a woodwind revival from their instrument-making workshop. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0k9b7qm longer article www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y9ly230zzo
Edward Thomas and the Song of the Path - 2022 Edward Thomas was a great writer, a great walker, and he loved to sing. In 1907 these attributes came together when he compiled The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs for the Open Air. Two contemporary walkers, Robert Macfarlane and Johnny Flynn, one a terrific writer and the other a wonderful actor and musician, met through their love of Thomas's work. They set off with copies of The Pocket Book in their pockets, trying it out, walking in the footsteps of Thomas himself, near his home at Steep. The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs for the Open Air includes poems by Yeats, de la Mare, Masefield, W. H. Davies (the Super-Tramp) and Housman. Macfarlane and Flynn recite from what is, Thomas wrote, a volume for those 'who like a book that can always lighten some of their burdens or give wings to their delight, whether in the open air by day, or under the roof at evening. Working on their new song Macfarlane and Flynn walk up a songline, interrogating the ancient connections between walking, poetry and singing.They might stray from the path, too - musically and geographically. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001g8nx
Freedom Songs - 2014 The Documentary - BBC World Service Immortalised by Nina Simone, I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free, was recorded in the early 60s by Jazz pianist Billy Taylor for his young daughter. Candace Piette talks to Kim Taylor Thomson, to Nina Simone’s guitarist and to poets and writers and singers about what the song meant when it was first written and what resonance it has now in contemporary America. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01rmj90 mudcat thread https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=84171#1552878
The Folk - 2025 Heart & Stone Meg Elliot delves into the changing world of British folk music, asking who is remembered in folk stories and song, and who has been written out? Beginning in the breath-taking joy of a ceilidh dance, Meg meets Sophie Crawford and George Samson of Queer Folk, a group unearthing songs that document and celebrate the LGBTQ+ experience. Meg also meets singer/songwriter Angeline Morrison, who has created the first body of Black British folk song. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ks7by5
John's Songs - A Day with a Music Hall Master - 2017 Born near Euston Station in 1931, John Foreman is a singer of Music Hall songs, folk songs and more. He has been singing at clubs across Britain since the great folk revival of the 1950s. Recovering well from a recent stroke, John has decided to clear out his North London home. We join him as he picks through a lifetime of memorabilia and his own beautiful self-printed songsheets, hearing him burst into song. After a childhood in the blitz, he worked as a teacher, busker and Punch and Judy man. As The Broadsheet King, he has printed and bound countless pamphlets, songsheets and books. We eavesdrop as John looks back on his life and the songs that he has loved. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07kpy3v mudcat obit 2024 https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=173251
Here We Go! The Art of the Football Chant - 2025 Archive on 4 Sociologist, musician and Millwall fan Les Back is obsessed with the symphony of the spontaneous folk song of football chants. He’s on a tour of British clubs to chart the rise (and fall) of these chants and discover why they’re an important barometer of social change. He starts at The Den, his home club of Millwall in south-east London where he meets with former player Tony Witter (’94-’98). He and Tony discuss recordings they made during the 90s to see what’s changed in terms of the relationship between players and fans. Les travels from London to Glasgow to speak to fans, players and musicians from Norwich City, Dulwich Hamlet, AFC Wimbledon, Newcastle United, Rangers, Celtic and Hibernian. He wants to know what their club chants tell us about their hyper-local identity and whether the folk musician Martin Carthy is right. Are chants “the one surviving embodiment of an organic living folk tradition"? With thanks to Andy Lawn, Ceylon Andi Hickman, Charlotte Robson, Dan Hancox, Davie and Joan, Louis Abbott, Martin Carthy and Tony Witter. Also to David Taylor, Mark Burman and Jonny Hurst. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002dkk4
Joining the dots - 200 years of Braille Music - 2025 Sunday Feature 2025 marks 200 years since Louis Braille invented his revolutionary 6-dot tactile writing system for blind people. Braille was also an organist, and he went on to adapt his system into Braille Music, allowing blind musicians to access and study scores like never before. Award-winning lutenist Matthew Wadsworth travels to France to learn about the origins of Braille Music and explores the impact it's had on blind musicians over the last 200 years. Matthew visits the Musée Louis Braille (Braille's childhood home) in Coupvray, France to learn about Louis Braille’s early life. He also travels to the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (The National Institute for Blind Youth) in Paris - the institute for blind students where Louis Braille was a student and teacher. ,,, And Dr Sarah Morley Wilkins from the Daisy Consortium Braille Music project and Jay Pocknell (Project Manager at Sound Without Sight and Music officer at the Royal National Institute for Blind People) discuss their work with music publishers to improve access to Braille Music scores in the digital age. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jst7
Loftus's Sword Dancing Rockstars - 2025 Secret Tees (BBC Radio Tees) Eve Kennedy explores the rich history of sword dancing in Loftus, including a personal connection. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ls7tmp
Kei Miller on Louise Bennett - 2021 The Essay - Caribbean Voices The poet, folklorist and performer ‘Miss Lou’ made waves on air on both sides of the Atlantic. Coming to study at Rada in London shortly after WWII, her dialect verse was picked up and celebrated on the BBC through radio programmes like Caribbean Voices. For writer Kei Miller, who lovingly recalls the magic her words worked on his mother, she is rightly seen as a hero back home in Jamaica. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xd17 ,,, and two minutes from a 1976 interview Louise Bennett, Woman’s Hour History of the BBC - 2018 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06d19nx mudcat threads https://www.google.com/search?q=%22louise+bennett%22+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmudcat.org
O Little Town Of Bethlehem The Surrey folk tune that became a cherished carol - 2025 Secret Surrey - BBC Radio Surrey First heard in a Surrey hamlet, a simple folk tune grew into the melody for one of the world’s most cherished Christmas carols. Simon Furber explores the Surrey roots of O Little Town, tracing its journey from rural tradition to global celebration. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0mmxhlr mudcat December Songs https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=170618#4213192
Our Sacred Harp - 2025 Heart and Soul - BBC World Service Sacred Harp pioneer and former punk frontman, Tim Eriksen, takes us into the hair-raising sound of shape note singing – an American choral tradition experiencing a resurgence across the US and in Europe. As a new edition of the songbook approaches publication, Tim explores why this music is drawing more singers and how it’s managing to remain inclusive despite increasing political polarisation in the wider culture. Historically the Sacred Harp community has continued to sing and build bonds through chapters of political polarisation in the US. But how have recent political divides affected the community and how can it continue to remain an inclusive space? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6vnp
Peggy Seeger - 2021 Private Passions ,,,she chooses contemporary a cappella music that reminds her of her wife, Irene. And we hear a piece of extraordinary complexity by Peggy’s mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, one of the most important modernist composers of the 20th century, whose early death changed the course of Peggy’s life. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zddr
The Power of One - 2022 The Listening Service Music where the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many - but also where the many can become one... Tom Service looks at music performed solo or in unison. What is happening in music where there is no harmony? And how can a single musical line build a sense of community? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004092
The Sisterhood Of The Sea Shanty Singers - 2024 Outlook When Naomi was expecting her first first child, she joined an all-female singing group in the English county of Cornwall. The group was called Femmes de la Mer and they sang sea shanties. Their music became the soundtrack to Naomi's pregnancy. But after a complex birth, her newborn struggled to survive. Naomi sang to him, not knowing how powerful that would be. All female singing groups weren't common but Claire Ingleheart, who founded the group, had decided to shake things up in the male dominated-world of sea shanties. Claire also wanted to raise awareness about the history of extraordinary sea-faring Cornish women and co-wrote new songs for them to sing together. Naomi sang to her growing son about powerful Cornish women and looked forward to becoming a mum. But his birth didn't go to plan. As she sat with her baby in hospital, Naomi began to realise the extraordinary power of the songs she was learning. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5nxp About twenty minutes is about the choir. About fifteen minutes is about the pregnancy. About ten minutes is about women saving lives at sea.
What Happened to Counter-Culture? - 2025 1. Absolute Beginners Radio4 Artworks Absolute Beginners, explores why the counter-culture happened when it did and the uniquely placed generation driving it forwards - the Beat poets, the folk scene and its ties to the growing peace movement. A younger generation rejected ideas of security and hyper-conformity – a fear of the automated society and of a repressed ‘One Dimensional Man’ - the life being lived by their parents, still shaken by World War Two. Contributors include musician Brian Eno, authors Iain Sinclair and Olivia Laing, music producer Joe Boyd, sculptor Emily Young, cultural historian Jon Savage and folk singer Shirley Collins, with Ian Kearey playing The Instrument. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002gqy5 mudcat thread https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=174244
Wren Day - Ritual Revival - 2025 Heart & Stone What attracts us to folk rituals and story telling, dressing up and singing together? There’s something in the air. People are practising hundreds of years old traditions. Morris dancers are clamouring to squeeze into town squares and stick men are dancing through the streets. One ritual - forgotten until winter 2024 - is about to be revived in one small market town on the Welsh-English border. It’s Wren Day. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ks7bz4