One of my very favourite radio series has started again on BBC Radio 4 and I thought it’s worth mentioning here. It’s called Soul Music and each week focuses on a single piece of music; either a song or piece of classical music.
It’s not a technical guide to the craft – however we often hear a variety of perspectives around one song, alongside intricate detail, that gets right into the heart of the history of the piece. For me, Soul Music regularly gets closer to somehow explaining why a piece of music is wonderful than any other radio or TV programme. Which is a magical feat. It also has a (still rare) lack of snobbery about classical versus contemporary work.
Anyway, if you can access the iPlayer, HERE is a link to episode 2, about the Shaker spiritual song ‘Simple Gifts’, which had the lyrics re-written to become ‘Lord Of The Dance’ and also appears in Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’. I pick this one because episode 1 was Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet which, though gorgeous, is less relevant to songwriting.
Chris T-T's Songnostic 
March 9th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Chris – good series, ‘Soul Music’. Guess who I’m just about to run a masterclass with. Owen Parker! I’ll say hello from you to him. S