Episodes
Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
01 | Fantasia On A Theme, Bushes And Briars | 20080724 | Roy Palmer discusses Bushes and Briars, the first folk song Vaughan Williams collected. |
02 | Fantasia On A Theme, Dives And Lazarus | 20080808 | Roy Palmer explores Vaughan Williams's intense love of the folksong Dives and Lazarus and the way he used it in one of his finest works, which was played at his funeral. He uncovers a recording made by Alan Lomax of Aunt Molly Jackson singing the song in Kentucky in 1939, another made for the BBC in 1952, featuring Emily Bishop in Herefordshire, as well as a recent version by Martin Simpson. A talented guitar player and singer, who will be performing at the Proms Folk Day, Simpson telly Roy about his approach to the song. Roy Palmer explores Vaughan Williams's intense love of the folksong Dives and Lazarus. |
03 | Fantasia On A Theme, The Captain's Apprentice | 20080817 | Roy Palmer's series on the folksongs Vaughan Williams collected concludes with The Captain's Apprentice, quoted in Flos Campi, performed in this evening's Prom and which provides the haunting melody in the Norfolk Rhapsody. Roy explains the social as well as musical significance of this song of an apprentice destroyed by a brutal ship's captain. Vaughan Williams heard the song, uncannily close to the plot of Peter Grimes, from 'Duggie' Carter, a King's Lynn fisherman and, in the very pub where he sat in the corner and noted it down, historian Dr Paul Richards explains the social as well as musical significance of the song. And Roy also unearths recordings from North America and the Norfolk traditional singer Harry Cox. Roy Palmer's explores socially and musically significant song The Captain's Apprentice. |