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We're thinking big as we contemplate giants, looking at the expanse of the sea, sky and cosmos and meeting a host of fictional giants - and the odd elephant

From the biggest African elephant ever recorded, which weighed the same amount as a rubbish truck carrying a vending machine and a grand piano, described in Katherine Rundell's essays about endangered animals; to a diamond as 'big as the Ritz' in F Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story: in this edition of Words and Music, we鈥檙e thinking big. We鈥檙e contemplating the vastness of the sea with John Keats and looking up to the huge expanse of sky above with Virginia Woolf 鈥� but we鈥檙e not stopping there as we try to comprehend the stars with Holst鈥檚 Jupiter and poetry from Sarah Howe and Robert Frost. We鈥檙e also joined by an earth-shaking selection of fictional giants and trolls, including Benjamin Britten鈥檚 Paul Bunyan and Oscar Wilde鈥檚 The Selfish Giant.

The readers are John Leader and Saskia Reeves.

Producer in Salford: Jessica Treen

Readings:
The Iron Man - Ted Hughes
On The Sea - John Keats
The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde
The Diamond as big as the Ritz - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Giant O'Brien - Hilary Mantel
The Elephant - Hilare Belloc
The Golden Mole - Katherine Rundell
The Miniature Woman - Nazim Hikmet
The Brave Tailor - The Brothers Grimm
O Sun of Real Peace - Walt Whitman
The Perfect Wagnerite - George Bernard Shaw
Life, Death and Giants - Emily Dickinson
The Four Big Trolls and Little Peter Pastureman - Cyrus Graner
But Outer Space - Robert Frost
On Being Ill - Virginia Woolf
Relativity - Sarah Howe

26 days left to listen

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sunday 18:00
麻豆社 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:59

    Claude Debussy

    La Mer - 3 symphonic sketches for orchestra: no.3; Dialogue du vent et de la mer

    Performer: Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France.
    • Alpha Classics.
    • TR3.

  • Ted Hughes

    The Iron Man

  • John Keats

    On the Sea

  • 00:02

    Konstantia Gourzi

    Melodies from the sea, Op 86, No 5: whale

    Performer: Nils M枚nkemeyer.
    • Sony Classical.
    • Tr22.
  • 00:05

    Stephen Sondheim

    Giants in the Sky

    Performer: Daniel Huttlestone.
    • Walt Disney Records.
    • Tr14.
  • 00:08

    Eric Coates

    The Selfish Giant

    Performer: 麻豆社 Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • CHANDOS.
    • Tr2.

  • Oscar Wilde

    The Selfish Giant

  • 00:14

    Lester Young

    Gigantic Blues

    Performer: The Jazz Giants 鈥�56.
    • Jatap Publ Co.
    • Tr3.

  • F Scott Fitzgerald

    The Diamond as Big as The Ritz

  • 00:18

    Benjamin Britten

    Paul Bunyan reconstr./arr. for orchestra: Overture

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra.
    • Naxos.
    • Tr1.

  • Hilary Mantel

    The Giant O鈥橞rien

  • 00:22

    Benjamin Britten

    Paul Bunyan, Op. 17: First Ballad Interlude. "The Cold Wind Blew Through the Crooked Thorn" (Narrator)

    Performer: Philip Brunelle.
    • Warner Classics.
    • Tr2.

  • Hilaire Belloc

    The Elephant

  • 00:25

    Camille Saint鈥怱a毛ns

    Le Carnaval des animaux, no.5; L' Elephant [pf II, db]

    Performer: Georg H枚rtnagel.
    • Philips.
    • Tr5.

  • Katherine Rundell

    The Golden Mole

  • 00:28

    Fats Waller

    Your Feet's Too Big

    Performer: Fats Waller.
    • Nostalgia Music Catalog.
    • Tr3.

  • Nazim Hikmet

    The Miniature Woman

  • 00:33

    Kow Otani

    Shadow of the Colossus "Sign of the Colossus"

    Performer: Studio Orchestra.
    • Shadow of the Colossus 鈥楻oar of the Earth鈥�.
    • Iam8bit.
    • 6.

  • Brothers Grimm

    The Brave Tailor

  • 00:36

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no. 1 in D major vers. standard, in 4 mvts: 4th mvt; Allegro furioso

    Performer: Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
    • MAHLER, G.: Symphony No. 1, "Titan" / Blumine (Finnish Radio Symphony, Lintu).
    • Ondine.
    • 2.
  • 00:36

    Pixies

    Gigantic

    • 4AD.
    • Tr5.

  • Walt Whitman

    O Sun of real Peace

  • 00:39

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    The 'Giant' Fugue

    Performer: 麻豆社 Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • CHANDOS.
    • Tr9.
  • 00:39

    Pixies

    Gigantic

    • Surfer Rosa.
    • 4AD.
    • 5.
  • 00:44

    Richard Wagner

    Das Rheingold, Scene 2 "Wotan, Gemahl! erwache!...Endlich Loge" (Wotan, Donner,

    Performer: Daniel Barenboim.
    • Barenboim - Complete Wagner Operas.
    • Warner Classicals.
    • 1.

  • George Bernard Shaw

    The Perfect Wagnerite

  • 00:46

    Richard Strauss

    Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Von den Hinterweltlern

    Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Andris Nelsons.
    • Orfeo.
    • Tr2.

  • Emily Dickinson

    Life Death and Giants

  • 00:48

    Edvard Grieg

    Lyric pieces - book 5 for piano (Op.54), no.3; Troldtog [March of the trolls]

    Performer: Eva Knardahl.
    • BIS.
    • Tr3.

  • Cyrus Graner

    The Four Big Trolls and Little Peter Pastureman

  • 00:51

    Edvard Grieg

    Lyric pieces - book 5 for piano (Op.54), no.3; Troldtog [March of the trolls]

    Performer: Eva Knardahl.
    • Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Books 5-7: Knardahl.
    • BIS.
    • 3.
  • 00:51

    Edvard Grieg

    In the Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt) arr. for hardanger fiddle & strings

    Performer: Ragnhild Hemsing.
    • Berlin Classics.
    • Tr12.
  • 00:55

    Gustav Holst

    The Planets - suite Op.32: Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker.
    • Warner Classics.
    • Tr4.
  • 00:57

    Gustav Holst

    The Planets - suite Op.32: Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker.
    • Rhythm and Colours.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 4.

  • Robert Frost

    But Outer Space

  • 01:03

    Anna Phoebe

    Galaxies

    Performer: Anna Phoebe.
    • Anna Phoebe Music.
    • Tr1.

  • Virginia Woolf

    On Being Ill

  • 01:06

    叠箩枚谤办

    Cosmogony

    Performer: The Hamrahlid Choir.
    • One Little Independent Records.
    • Tr1.

  • Sarah Howe

    Relativity

Broadcast

  • Sunday 18:00
    麻豆社 Radio 3

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