Righteo, something to help us calm down and cool off after yesterday.
BBC Radio 4 has a weekly programme called Desert Island Discs. It's been running since 1942, making it the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio. Each week, a famous guest ("castaway") is asked to choose eight pieces of music, a book and a luxury item (i.e. something that cannot help them survive or ask for rescue!) for their imaginary stay on the island, while discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices. They're given an appropriate religious text (usually the Bible, but in recent years they've had non-Christians so have substituted) and the Complete Works of Shakespeare for free. At the very end of the show, they're asked for their favourite 'disc' through the scenario of the tide washing away their music collection so they can only save one.
Last month, they asked their listeners which eight discs they would take with them if they were going to be cast away alone on the mythical desert island. They've compiled the results, and the results are here. You can tell Radio 4 listeners are a cultured lot - Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb were the only two pop songs in the top ten, with Elgar making a double bill appearance.
So, as a bit of fun, name one (for the sake of brevity) disc you'd like to take with you, and if you feel like it, your choice of book and/or luxury item.
And no, you can't have a solar powered netbook and satellite broadband to keep up with 'Bike' during your stay :)
-oOo-
As for me, I'd probably go with the 1812 Overture (a recording with cannon, not timpani!), a piano for the luxury item (with all that time, I might be able to learn a few tunes properly, rather than just the melody and chord sequences!) - bundled with a selection of scores if allowed so I could take Richard Wiseman's "Quirkology" as the reading material, otherwise I'd take the scores as the book.
Comments
Desert Island Disccs
Sounds cool.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Re: Desert island discs.
For me it would be "The Fame Monster" (CD
)
"Flowers in the attic" by Virginia Andrews (Book)
And a trunk full of designer clothes and shoes.
I'm just person of simple tastes.
My Items...Hmm
I'd likely go with a really good medical kit as my luxury item.
The boxed set of The Dire Straits best of collection for my music.
As for my reading material likely the Dragonlance entire series, I've only read the first three books and i can stand to read them so most of it'd be new. Or the complete Starwars novel and offshoot books to date since I've never read much of those either.
I'm Kinda hoping there's a sharp tool and firemaking stuff I can salvage otherwise I'm screwed.
Bailey Summers
The Big Eight Discs
I enjoyed the British tilt to the selections, and there are some interesting things about them:
1. Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending
He wrote some beautiful music and some of his other tone poems are equally deserving. In the Fen country and his Norfolk Rhapsodies are particularly beautiful.
2. Sir Edward Elgar - Enigma Variations
Great piece of music, probably based on Pi (31416 - try it in G minor!). There's also some evidence that it might be based on part of the slow movement of Mozart's Prague Symphony.
3. Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No 9 in D minor 'Choral'
A must!
4. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody - Not familiar with this piece of music. I will have to listen to it.
5. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb - Ditto
6. Sir Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto in E Minor
Heart wrenching lament
7. George Frideric Handel - Messiah
A German adopted by England and buried in Westminster, I believe. Imagine how difficult it must have been for him to write this in English. He was an exact contemporary of Bach. I think his music is more palatable.
8. Gustav Holst - The Planets
The name sounds German, but he is English. One of the more underrated composers around. The music has an astrological basis, not astronomical. Holst wrote some great band music. The St. Pauls Suite is a very nice work.
I probably would have substituted Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony and Third Piano Concerto for numbers 4 and 5. But what about Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Gershwin, Bantock, Butterworth, Britten, Verdi, Puccini, Tschaikovsky, etc., etc.? This is totally unfair.
Portia
Portia
Portia
Beethoven
Its Beethoven for me :)
My choice Kirsty would be...
No female artist in the top eight though sadly which surprised me as I'd have though Joni Mitchell or Eva Cassidy would have done better given the audience demographic.
For my choices I'd go with Edvard Grieg - 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' if I was actually on the show but really it would be 'Sunshine on a rainy day' by Zoe. It's a bit more obscure than Greig but a lot more fun. My luxury item would be a hammock as lying on all that sand might be a bit hot!
"Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life."
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."