How do you describe a teaspoon in music?
Tom Service explores how music is able to tell stories and create pictures in sound, from everyday actions to the most heartfelt emotions. With musicologist Kenneth Hamilton.
Can you describe a teaspoon in music? Why would you even want to? Tom Service explores how music is able to tell stories in sound
Tom is joined by musicologist Ken Hamilton for a journey through musical history to reveal music's ability to describe the most everyday actions and the most heartfelt emotions.
From Vivaldi and Beethoven, to the epic tone poems of Richard Strauss (which may or may not contain teaspoons), to Hollywood blockbusters - how does music paint those pictures in our mind, and do those pictures always look the same?
Rethink Music, with The Listening Service.
Each week, Tom aims to open our ears to different ways of imagining a musical idea, a work, or a musical conundrum, on the premise that "to listen" is a decidedly active verb.
How does music connect with us, make us feel that gamut of sensations from the fiercely passionate to the rationally intellectual, from the expressively poetic to the overwhelmingly visceral? What's happening in the pieces we love that takes us on that emotional rollercoaster? And what's going on in our brains when we hear them?
When we listen - really listen - we're not just attending to the way that songs, symphonies, and string quartets work as collections of notes and melodies. We're also creating meanings and connections that reverberate powerfully with other worlds of ideas, of history and culture, as well as the widest range of musical genres. We're engaging the world with our ears.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
Music Played
-
Camille Saint鈥怱a毛ns
Danse Macabre Op.40
Performer: Andr茅s C谩rdenes. Orchestra: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Lorin Maazel.- Saint-Saens: Organ Symphony/Tone Poems: Pittsburgh Symphony/Maazel.
- Sony Classical.
- 6.
-
Paul Dukas
The Sorcerer's apprentice
Performer: Simon Preston. Conductor: James Levine. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker.- Saint-Saens/Dukas: Symphony no.3 etc.: Berliner Philharmoniker/Levine.
- Deutsche Grammophon.
- 5.
-
Antonio Vivaldi
Violin Concerto in G minor, RV 315, 'Summer' (3rd mvt)
Performer: Nigel Kennedy. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker.- Vivaldi: Nigel Kennedy, Berliner Philharmoniker.
- EMI.
- 9.
-
Felix Mendelssohn
The Hebrides, Op 26
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.- Mendelssohn: Overtures: LSO/Abbado.
- Deutsche Grammophon.
- 7.
-
Joseph Haydn
String Quartet in D, Op. 64 No. 5 'The Lark' (1st mvt)
Ensemble: Amadeus Quartet.- Haydn: String Quartets: Amadeus Quartet.
- Deutsche Grammophon.
- 1.
-
Richard Strauss
Don Quixote
Performer: Los Angeles Philharmonic. Performer: Zubin Mehta.- Decca.
-
Richard Strauss
An Alpine Symphony
Performer: Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Performer: Franz Welser鈥怣枚st.- EMI.
-
Richard Strauss
Sinfonia Domestica, op.53
Performer: Los Angeles Philharmonic. Performer: Zubin Mehta.- Decca.
-
Claude Debussy
De l'aube 脿 midi sur la mer (La mer)
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.- Debussy: La Mer etc.: Rattle.
- EMI.
-
John Williams
Theme From Jaws
Performer: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.- 100 Greatest Film Themes.
- Silva America.
-
John Williams
ET theme
Performer: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.- 100 Greatest Film Themes.
- Silva America.
-
John Williams
Raiders of the Lost Ark March
Performer: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.- 100 Greatest Film Themes.
- Silva America.
-
Arnold Bax
Elegiac trio for viola, flute and harp
Ensemble: Nash Ensemble.- Bax: Nonet/Elegiac Trio etc: The Nash Ensemble.
- Hyperion.
- 6.
-
Annie Lennox
No More I Love Yous
- Medusa.
- BMG.
- 1.
-
Denis King
Galloping 91热爆 (Black Beauty)
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Stanley Black.- ITV Themes.
- Pickwick.
- 6.
-
Franz Liszt
Mazeppa
Performer: Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Performer: Kurt Masur.- EMI.
-
Jean Sibelius
Pohjola鈥檚 Daughter
Performer: Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Osmo V盲nsk盲.- BIS.
-
Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra (Fanfare)
Performer: Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Fran莽ois鈥怷avier Roth.- H盲nssler Classic.
-
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony no. 6 (Op. 68) in F major "Pastoral" 1st mvt, Erwachen heiterer Gefuhle
Orchestra: Orchestre R茅volutionnaire et Romantique. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.- Beethoven: The Symphonies, John Eliot Gardiner.
- Archiv Produktion.
- 5.
-
Harrison Birtwistle
Earth Dances
Performer: Ensemble Modern Orchestra. Performer: Pierre Boulez.- Harrison Birtwistle - Theseus Game / Earth Dances.
- DG.
-
Napalm Death
Private Death
- From Enslavement to Obliteration.
- Relativity.
-
Iannis Xenakis
Jonchaies
Performer: Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Performer: Arturo Tamayo.- Timpani.
-
Francisco T谩rrega
Capricho arabe
Performer: Carlos Bonell.- The Private Collection: Carlos Bonell.
- Upbeat Classics.
-
Ralph Vaughan Williams
March Past of the Kitchen Utensils (The Wasps)
Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: James Judd.- Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto.
- Naxos.
- 3.
Broadcasts
- Sun 12 Jun 2016 17:0091热爆 Radio 3
- Sun 18 Jun 2017 17:0091热爆 Radio 3
Why do we call it 'classical' music?
Tom Service poses a very simple question (with a not-so-simple answer).
Six of the world's most extreme voices
From babies to Mongolian throat singers: whose voice is the most extreme of all?
How did the number 12 revolutionise music?
Why are we all addicted to bass?
Watch the animations
Join Tom Service on a musical journey through beginnings, repetition and bass lines.
When does noise become music?
We like to think we can separate 鈥渘oise鈥 from 鈥渕usic鈥, but is it that simple?
Podcast
-
The Listening Service
An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service