CACOPHONY: GREAT CLASSICAL MUSIC

English folk music is often typically nostalgic and melancholy. Cacophony goes in search of happiness with Malcolm Arnold's English Dances - pretty, witty and bright!

Listening time 24 mins (podcast 6', music 18')

Music here, played by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Penny on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music (tracks 1-8 English Dances Set 1 op.27 and Set 2, op.33) and Amazon (tracks 1-8). You can buy a whole cd (also including the other 'national'(and Cornish!) dances as a high quality download here

The Dvořák Slavonic Dances talked about in this episode were covered previously on Cacophony.

What do you think? Tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution  or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com: https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline

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More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/

Thanks for listening!

Haunting and melancholy music from my hometown, Vaughan Williams's Norfolk Rhapsody No.1 features the old songs of fisherman and the last days of a way of life. Like the local landscape it's bleak but beautiful! 

Total listening time 18 mins (podcast 7', music 11')

Here's Joe Anderson, James ‘Duggie’ Carter and the Reverend Alfred Huddle:

The music is here on Youtube, Spotify Apple Music and Amazon., played by The Hallé conducted by Mark Elder (and it's available to buy as a high-quality download from Presto Music ). What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution  or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

The picture credit goes to William Norris - who's visited King's Lynn as a tourist more recently than me!

Thanks for listening!

Packed with memorable Czech songs about pigeons, nightingales, love, life and unploughed fields, Vítěslava Kaprálová's Rustic Suite mixes countryside charm with the confident orchestral swagger of a 23 year old receiving acclaim in Paris and London. Music full of life and good tunes!

Listening time 21 mins (music 16', podcast 5')

The music is here, played by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marko Ivanovic on Youtube, Spotify, and links to the album (where you want tracks 1-3) at Apple Music and Amazon.

What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution  or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

Small but perfectly formed, Germaine Tailleferre's Little Suite is seven minutes of innocent delight from a composer looking to escape from the trials of a difficult life. It may be short, but it's packed with memorable tunes and a joyous spirit. Irresistible! 

Listening time c14 minutes (podcast 7', music 7')

It's not available commercially, but this Youtube video has an excellent performance from the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France with conductor Mikko Franck.

Enjoy it? Let us know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com

Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose, mentioned in this episode, featured in Cacophony some time ago and it's here.

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If you'd like to support us more directly you can make a one-off or regular financial contribution at ko-fi.com

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It's a riot of colour at the carnival in Stravinsky's wonderful ballet, Petrushka, with dancing (of course), puppets, romance (kind of), fighting, and a wild bear. It's got everything - even a French song about a woman's prosthetic limb, but you have to listen for an explanation...!

Total listening time 48 mins (podcast 13', music 35')

The music is here in full, played by The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez - a master of clarity and excitement on Youtube, Apple Music and Amazon.

What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!

The recording linked above is available to buy as a high-quality download from Presto Music (where it seems to be cheaper by track than to buy the whole album).

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution  or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

Who doesn't love gazing at the sea? It's something that brings out the meditative in all of us as we stare at it and think deep thoughts. Claude Debussy didn't want us to think too hard - just to listen. In La Mer, he brings The Sea to us wherever we are, in all its beauty and wonder.

Total listening time 36 mins (podcast 11', music 25')

The music is here in full, played by The Hallé Orchestra (from Manchester, UK) conducted by Mark Elder on Youtube, Spotify, and links to the album at Apple Music and Amazon.

The recordings linked above are available to buy as high-quality downloads from Presto Music for under GB£5!

This episode's title is a line borrowed from an epic poem by Spike Milligan.

What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!

There are more great episodes featuring the sea at Cacophony. Check out episodes: 29, 63 and 81 for music by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Benjamin Britten and Ethel Smyth. Also, the previous episode, 136, which takes us on a journey ending at Finisterre on the Atlantic coast of Spain.

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution  or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

An epic and spiritual adventure for choir, Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles captures the hope, the expectation and the moments of overwhelm (both positive and negative) of travellers on the ancient and still popular pilgrimage trail the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James).

Simon Clark, scientist, author and singer joins me to share his passion for the piece and guide us on a journey of musical and maybe spiritual fulfilment! Listening time: podcast 24 mins, music 62'

Music here on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon.

f you like to see your singers in action, there's a live concert video performance on Youtube here.

Path of Miracles was commissioned and premiered by the choir Tenebrae and their conductor Nigel Short. Their recording and performances remain the 'benchmark' for this increasingly popular piece. You can buy the above recording as a cd or high-quality download here, direct from the choir.

The text is a mix of ancient Latin and early European languages (often taken from religious writings or music) alongside an English text writen by the poet Robert Dickinson. The complete words are here (starting on Page 4).

Simon Clark’s The Wikicast is on all major podcast platforms and his science videos are on his Youtube channel. Simon also appears on Cacophony episode 134, unpicking some celestial science as we investigate The sound of the solar system?

What do you think? Let me know with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com. I ‘d love to hear from you!

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– send us a little something or make a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

Music that seems to conjure all the tastes, smells and senses of Spain - or my expectations of them (as someone who's hardly been there): Spanish dances for piano by Enrique Granados. Perfect music if you just want to feel warmer, but it's also an opportunity to bask (Basque? [sorry]) in some gloriously wistful melancholy that seems to underpin all six of these pieces. Somehow it's not a melancholy that makes one feel sad - it seems as uplifting and nourishing as the warm sun on a cold winter's day. Listening time 12 mins plus music 25'.

The music is here in full, played by Alicia de Larrocha on Youtube, Spotify, and links to the album on Apple Music and Amazon.

Alicia de Larrocha was one of the great interpreters of Spanish music. These pieces haven't been recorded by many pianists, but de Larrocha did more than once. The recordings linked above are available to buy as high-quality downloads from Presto Music. You can also get her earlier recording (pretty much as good, maybe with slightly less good sound) and it's cheaper if you buy the whole album not individual tracks (a bit of care is required with your basket!).

What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– send us a little something or make a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

Not the World Cup was a "glorious celebration of classical and world music" that ran alongside a small men's football competition in late 2022.

Each team in each game of the football was represented by a short piece of (largely classical) music - 110 pieces in all from 107 composers (including 41 pieces by women): loads of great music and loads of new discoveries.

I got together with my friend the conductor and writer Lev Parikian to pick some highlights and talk about a few of the things we learnt - about music, about how we listen and how it makes us feel.

Listening time 41 mins.

Here's a Youtube playlist of our favourite things of all from Not the World Cup

and a playlist of everything that was clipped in the episode.

What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!

You can learn more about Lev Parikian, his books, gigs, writing, nature projects, etc., at: https://levparikian.com and also on Substack & Twitter.

It's a fluid conversation but things break down a bit like this:

01:56 Wistful piano pieces and surprise winners [Music by Dolores Castegnaro, Enrique Granados, Julio Fonseca]

04:30 Giving things a chance/ deciding quickly this isn’t for you/ music that transports you/ powerful openings [Iris Szeghy, Karl Jenkins, John Williams]

08:16 Curation - contrasts and similarities [Hector Villa Lobos, Arthur Honegger, Reena Esmail, Kamancheh music played by Narges Dehghani, Sufi music from the group Hadarrattes Souiriyattes]

11:45 Universal music in a world of nationalism, colonialism, borders and nationality

16:10 Strange new worlds: non-western music to western ears and sensibilities -  Korea Republic and Africa [M. Birvaa, Unsuk Chin, Anne-Marie Nzie]

21:27 Moods and complexity: Joy, sadness and sheer energy [John Adams, ND Jobins balafon music]

24:49 Authenticity and craft [Astor Piazzolla, Dana al Fardan]

26:28 Biases, choosing pieces from classical music’s ‘big players’ & pre-conceptions [Orlande de Lassus, Hector Berlioz, Johann Sebastian Bach]

32:55 Music that’s not by white guys and a Mayer detour

34:48 The final matches and final thoughts [Felix Mendelssohn, Eddie Mora, José Pablo Moncayo, Gabriela Ortiz]

The Cacophony episode on Emilie Mayer's 7th symphony, which excited Lev so much, can be found here.

ALL the music from the epic NWC adventure can be found by exploring the Cacophony website.

...and some of the pieces discussed have their own 'normal' Cacophony podcast episodes where they're discussed in a bit more depth:

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No.3, "Scottish" (the 'winner' for Germany) 

Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose suite ('should' have been the winner...)

Reena Esmail: Darshan

John Adams: Short ride in a fast machine

John Williams: Olympic fanfare and theme

Cacophony podcast episodes are normally released on the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month. It's a podcast bringing you great music that you may or may not know, but I think you'll love, all aimed at helping us Hear more, feel more and 'be' more! All at www.cacophonyonline.com or direct to your podcast player at bit.ly/cacolink

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– send us a little something or make a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

An extraordinary, ambitious, blend of art and science, Johanes Kepler's Harmony of the World is a 17th century attempt to understand what the then known universe sounded like - on a planetary level! In the 1970s, using the latest technology Professors Willie Ruff and John Rodgers were able to make Kepler's Harmony into music - an extended piece of electronica, hypnotic and thought provoking.

Launched to great acclaim, Harmony of the World was then included on the famous Voyager spacecraft Gold Records, an explainer-for-aliens of earth and its people, currently somewhere in interstellar space!

Prof Ruff tells the story with Dr Simon Clark alongside me to explain the science and what it all means. There's more from the great Willie Ruff on his website

Listening time: 25mins+ (podcast 23', Harmony of the World up to 45')

Harmony of the World is here on Youtube.

There's a comprehensive website on the Voyager missions which includes loads of interesting information on the Gold Record: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

Simon Clark's podcast The Wikicast is available on all major podcast hosts and his science videos are on his Youtube channel

What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I 'd love to hear from you!

If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

– send us a little something or make a regular payment at ko-fi.com

– share this episode with someone you know

– share the 100 second trailer

– subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

Photo credit: NASA/ JPL