Sacred River Sunday 26th November BBC Radio 3 Sacred River celebrates what is spiritual in music – all sorts of music, it’s inspiration from some of the great world religious traditions, and music that is spiritual of itself alone. In a seamless flow, the music will lead the listener through the major themes of religion and belief, encompassing the whole gamut of human experience of the divine. Showcasing music, spanning all periods, which is inspired by the world faiths, we will take a broad view of what it is to believe. We begin by astounding the listener with the wonders of creation and the cosmos, and as darkness is dispelled we see the theme of light emerge, a significant element of many belief systems. From there the pieces chosen will explore the concept of love from the perspective of the sacred and this will lead into pieces inspired by nature and the world around us before turning the focus to ritual, the prayerful, contemplative and meditative part of the human condition as well as the joyous and ecstatic. We finally turn our thoughts to life, death and eternity with music that explores transience, human mortality and beliefs about the world to come. Peppered throughout the day, the audience will hear lived experience of faith in carefully curated vignettes, opening the intimate and personal world of belief to the wider audience. These will connect with the music, bringing the themes and ideas explored from the conceptual to the actual. We will hear prayer chants, bells and sacred rituals taking place, as well as delving into the innermost depths of the believer’s soul to explore how they relate to the divine. 0630-0900 Breakfast trails ahead to Sacred River. We suggest interviews with: Jonathan Sacks or Rowan Williams, and James MacMillan or Tarik O’Regan (all TBC). The presenter gives info about the purpose of the day, the website, blogs, vlogs, twitter, and other opportunities for audience engagement. Principal points: - It IS a sacred river – a seemless flow of music. No annos on air but there will be lots of information, opinion and anecdotes on the specially constructed and curated R3 webpage as well as the opportunity for the audience to have their say about their favourite sacred music, places and experiences on the R3 social media pages. - Sacred River is for everyone. It touches on the spiritual side of life that so many encounter through music, no matter what their faith or tradition. - The day comprises a creative arc which focusses on universal ideas which our culture inhabits as we think about lived experience. It will lead from Creation and the Cosmos, through valued and inspiring elements of life, light, love and nature, turning to how people experience the sacred through ritual and contemplation before moving to the end of things with music inspired by life, death and eternity. - Exploration of the themes will feature prominently in blogs, vlogs and social media, brief comments from the online hosts succinctly illustrating music choices. - This arc will inform the day’s running order and the mood and content of each hour. We intend to take the listener on an emotional journey, conscious of the impact that each piece will have. We will incorporate pieces that encompass the whole range of human emotion, from despair to ecstasy, peaceful contemplation to riotous joy. - ‘Marks of Faith’ will appear throughout the day which portray the lived experience of the world religions. These will be expertly curated vignettes that will complement the music. - The music – all from the best or most relevant recordings available – displays a stimulating variety of texture, orchestration, tempo and timbre, maximising the impact of a Radio 3 day virtually without speech. - At 0859 The Breakfast presenter sets up Sacred River and announces its inception, pointing listeners to the Radio 3 web pages. 1 09:00’00 LIVE News 3’00 09:03’00 VCS Introduction from Neil McGregor 3’02 …ends with ‘it begins with the dawning of Creation and the magnificence of the Cosmos.’ 09:06’02 VCS PLAINCHANT Veni creator The Cistercian Monks Of Stift Heiligenkreuz UCJ Music 4766778 Tr.27 2’32 09:08’34 VCS Drop in (Creation and the Cosmos) 1’00 This musical representation of order from chaos from the most famous music on Creation in existence. 09:09’34 VCS HAYDN The Creation (Einleitung, 'Die Vorstellung des Chaos') Orchestre des Champs-Elysees Philippe Herreweghe (cond) PH LPH018 Tr.01 4’51 A track from one of the most important artists to bring Sufi Qawwali to a worldwide audience. Translation includes text: ‘When there was no moon, sun or sky, When the secret of the truth was still unknown, When there was nothing, there was you.’ 09:14’25 VCS NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN Allah Hoo Allah Hoo Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan And Party Real World Records RWBK 1 Tr.3 3’49 No sacred day would be complete without this iconic choral masterpiece from the Golden Age of English Church Music which is a setting of a Latin text taken from the office of Matins ‘Lord God, creator of Heaven and Earth regard our humility’. 09:18’14 VCS TALLIS Spem in Alium The Sixteen Harry Christophers Coro CORSACD16016 Tr.9 9’34 The title refers to the cluster of stars in the Taurus constellation, named after the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology. Several of the daughters had affairs with the male Olympian gods, resulting in the birth of a number of children. The work leads to ‘notions of clouds, nebulas, galaxies of the fragmented dust of beats organized by the rhythm’ – Xenakis. 2 09:27’48 VCS XENAKIS Pleiades (Melanges) Kroumata Percussion Ensemble BIS BIS-CD-482 Tr.3 7’55 Rebel’s musical depiction of the creation of the earth begins with one of the most striking chords in all Baroque music. 09:35’43 VCS REBEL Les elemens (Le Chaos) Musica Antiqua Koln Reinhard Goebel (conductor) Archiv 445824-2 Tr.1 6’11 The King of Instruments with a piece based on the Te Deum plainchant: ‘All the earth doth worship thee, the Father Everlasting…To thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the Powers therein’. 09:41’54 VCS DEMESSIEUX Te Deum, Op 11 Francesca Massey (organ) Priory PRCD1078 Tr.12 7’50 Bach’s B Minor Mass is hailed as one of the greatest choral works of all time: The Sanctus includes the text: ‘Heaven and earth are full of thy glory’. 09:49’44 VCS BACH Mass in B minor (Sanctus) Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra John Eliot Gardiner (cond) Archiv 415514-2 CD.2 Tr.10 5’24 A setting in Zulu of the call to the wise men to follow the star – the biblical story in which man and the cosmos are inextricably linked. 09:55’08 VCS SHABALALA Inkanyezi Nezazi (The Star and the Wisemen) Ladysmith Black Mambazo Wrasse WRASS139 Tr.3 4’48 09:59’56 VCS Drop in (Light) 0’58 The section opens with Handel’s sublime representation of the ‘Eternal source of light divine’ from the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne. 3 10:00’54 VCS HANDEL Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne 'Eternal source of light divine' (Eternal source of light divine) Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano) David Blackadder (trumpet) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Harry Christophers (cond) Heliodor 4765970 Tr.2 3’52 This piece is in the tintinnabuli style, inspired by Gregorian chant, and by church bells heard in Pärt’s native Estonia - Translation of title is ‘Mirror in the mirror’. 10:04’46 VCS PÄRT Spiegel im Spiegel Dietmar Schwalke (cello) Alexander Malter (piano) ECM 4499582 Tr.3 9’02 Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass’ collaboration is based on the Vedic Text: ‘Oh, Lord. Be benevolent to us. Drive the darkness away. Shed upon us the light of wisdom. Take the jealousy, envy, greed and anger from us, and fill our hearts with love and peace’. 10:13’48 VCS SHANKAR & GLASS Passages (Prashanti) Philip Glass Ensemble Sony Classical 88985337612 CD6 Tr.23 13’39 The light of the moon shimmers on an East Asian temple, and there are atmospheric gamelan references within 10:27’27 VCS DEBUSSY Images Book 2 (Et la Lune Descend sur le temple qui fut) Mark-Andre Hamelin (piano) Hyperion CDA67920 Tr.05 5’51 The final movement of Mozart’s Symphony 41 has its origins in the four-note motif of the ancient Gregorian Chant hymn ‘Lucis creator’ – ‘O blest creator of the light’. 10:33’18 VCS MOZART Symphony No 41 (K.551) in C major ‘Jupiter’ (Molto allegro) Dresden Straatskapelle Colin Davis (cond) Philips 4100462 Tr.08 8’40 Tavener’s Buddhist Miniature sets a text from the teaching of the Buddha exalting the listener to ‘cease to do evil and learn to do good’, moral concepts which are often represented as a battle between light and darkness. 4 10:41’58 VCS TAVENER A Buddhist Miniature Cappella Nova Alan Tavener (cond) LINN CKD 539 Tr.4 2’22 10:44’20 VCS Drop in (Nature) 1’02 This section of Radio 3’s Sacred River contemplates Nature and begins with Delius’ pantheistic ecstasy inspired by the mountains of Norway ‘Song of the High Hills’. 10:45’22 VCS DELIUS The Song of the High Hills (First movement) – N.B doesn’t finish BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis (cond) Chandos CHSA5088 Tr.15 9’32 Many psalms are inspired by the natural world including Psalm 42 ‘Sicut Cervus’ – ‘Like as the Hart desireth the waterbrook so longeth my soul for thee O God’.