Soul Music

In 1942, Benjamin Britten boarded the M.S. Axel Johnson, a Swedish cargo vessel, to make the journey home to England after three years in America. During the voyage, the ship stopped at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Britten came across a poetry anthology in a bookshop - The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems. In his cabin, he began work on setting some of these poems for voices and harp. Originally conceived as a series of unrelated songs, the piece developed into an extended choral composition for Christmas.

There are some pieces of music we return to at special moments and, for many, Britten's A Ceremony of Carols is a beloved winter piece - "Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a performance of it" says harpist Sally Pryce, who recalls performing the piece in deepest winter, desperately trying to keep her fingers warm as she prepared to play the first harp notes. Music writer Gavin Plumley tells the story of Britten's wartime voyage home and reflects on Christmases past and present. Matt Peacock remembers a very special performance of the work bringing together professional musicians, choristers and people experiencing homelessness in an Oxford college chapel. Dr Imani Mosley reflects on how the piece has helped her create a winter ritual in sunny Florida and how its meaning has changed since losing her partner. Conductor and composer Graham Ross is Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge; he takes us deep into Britten's sound world and reflects on the genius of his approach to setting texts and the mastery of his writing for harp and voices. And Johanna Rehbaum remembers the joy of singing the work with the women of her choir, days before giving birth to her son.

Produced in Bristol by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

More gospel than rock, this 1987 hit has inspired great change in people's lives and created memories for music lovers across the world.

Brendan McManus was a corporate high flyer with an inexplicable sense that his life needed to change direction. This song was the tipping point that encouraged him to make a huge decision.

Raghav Prasad writes a music blog about the songs he grew up with as a young man in India. This track takes him back to the 'chummery' where he lived in Bombay (now Mumbai) when he was starting out on what became a globe-trotting career. This song reflects both his continued urge to travel but also how he regards his Hindu faith.

Neil Brand is a musician and broadcaster and a regular Soul Music contributor. He explains that the roots of this track are more gospel than rock.

Pauline Henry was the lead singer of The Chimes. Their version of this track, with Pauline's stirring vocals, not only changed her life but was said to be Bono's favourite interpretation of the song.

Rory Coleman is a world-class athlete and life coach who loves nothing more than to run for hundreds of miles across inhospitable terrain. However, in his 20s, his life was out of control. Something had to change and this song provided inspiration.

Gail Mullin, in Kansas City, describes how much her husband loved U2 and especially this track. Shortly before he died he received a personal letter from Bono explaining what motivated him to write this song.

Producer: Karen Gregor for BBC Audio in Bristol

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2021.

"Long afloat in shipless oceans":

So begins ‘Song To The Siren’ whose lyrics were inspired by Homer's Odyssey and the story of the Sirens who lured unwitting sailors to their deaths on the rocks.

There is something so ancient and enchanting about the Siren that appeals to us.

For wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson listening to the song reinforced his belief that the eerie calls of seals at night, were in fact the original siren voices whose sound and shape convinced sailors that they were being called by strange mer-creatures.

His collaboration with poet Alec Finlay led to Chris recording two singers singing to each other across a bay in the North East of England "Here I am waiting to enfold you". Song To The Siren fills him with melancholy.

The image of lives lost at sea is one that Meg Bignell strongly associates with the song.

When a family friend drowned in the ocean surrounding her native Tasmania she was comforted by the version by This Mortal Coil and Elizabeth Fraser's haunting vocals.

Larry Beckett regrets the song's association with death as he intended the lyrics to tell a more hopeful story about love.

However Tim Buckley's death at 28 and the tragedy of his son Jeff's drowning in 1997 weigh Song To The Siren with a heavy sorrow that comforts those who have lost a loved one.

Former Olympic runner Anthony Famiglietti lost his childhood friend Rob in an accident when they were both 21.

Rob introduced Anthony to the music of John Frusciante whose version of Song To The Siren astounded him when he first heard it. It has a profound effect on him and it speaks to him of fathers and sons communicating across time and space, when one has passed on as in the case of Tim and Jeff Buckley, and Anthony's friend Rob and his father, the man who inspired Anthony's career as a runner.

When Director Zack Snyder lost his daughter he stopped working on his Justice League film but when he completed it four years on he wanted to include Song To The Siren.

Singer Rose Betts who recorded it for him explains how she immersed herself in the song to express the love, longing, grief and loss that it evokes.

Musician and singer Dominic Stichbury sets out the musical elements that make this such a simple yet devastatingly powerful song.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2021.

Personal stories inspired by Massive Attack's breakthrough single.

Featuring the vocals of Shara Nelson, the track together with its iconic video would help catapult this band from Bristol onto the global stage.

Stories include the photographer Giles Duley whose work was displayed during the song at the band's 2016 homecoming show in Bristol.

Mountaineer Dmitry Golovchenko who named an attempt on the Nepalese mountain of Jannu after the track*.

Solicitor Marti Burgess who saw early sets from The Wild Bunch, the collective from which Massive Attack emerged, and for whom 'Unfinished Sympathy' helped crystallise her identity.

Music Producer Ski Oakenfull deconstructs the track, peeling back the layers of beats, bells and samples. Belgian singer Liz Aku recorded a version of the track during lockdown, bringing back memories of her first love.

Melissa Chemam, author of 'Massive Attack Out Of The Comfort Zone' explains the origins of Massive Attack, how 'Unfinished Sympathy' was written and why, when the track was released in 1991, the band had to drop the word 'Attack' from their name.

A radio producer and DJ who spent New Year's Eve in a detox centre in London was asked to pick the tune to be played at midnight, and she chose 'Unfinished Sympathy'.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Toby Field

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2021.

*Since this programme was recorded, climbers Dmitry Golovchenko and Sergey Nilov have both sadly died in climbing accidents.

Ezio Pinza was the first person to sing Some Enchanted Evening when South Pacific opened on Broadway in 1949.

His granddaughter, Sarah Goodyear, recounts his extraordinary life story: from international opera singer, to political prisoner, then a star of musical theatre.

Perhaps best known for its 1958 film version, South Pacific famously starred Rossano Brazzi as Emile de Becque. However his singing voice was provided by opera star, Giorgio Tozzi. His son, Eric Tozzi, recalls hearing his father practise Some Enchanted Evening in their California beach-side home.

Canan Maxton runs the charity, Talent Unlimited, which supports student musicians. Some Enchanted Evening was the signature tune to her own love story, which inspired her to launch that organisation.

Alan Titchmarsh is best known as a TV gardener, but he has a surprisingly good voice. Some Enchanted Evening is a childhood favourite which reminds him of his parents, but he couldn't have foreseen the day when he would sing it live at the London Palladium for an ITV audience (credit to ITV All Star Musicals, produced by Multistory Media for the extract used).

Daniel Evans is the Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre. He staged a well-reviewed production of South Pacific, one which explores the racist theme Rodgers and Hammerstein originally sought to address in their Broadway production. He explains the role Some Enchanted Evening plays in the storyline of the show.

Julian Ovenden played Emile de Becque in the Chichester production. He describes what it's like to perform this very famous and much anticipated song.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

BBC Audio Producer: Karen Gregor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2021.

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell made Ain't No Mountain High Enough a hit for Motown in 1967.

Diana Ross followed suit in 1970 as a solo artist with her version of the song.

It has a place in people's hearts with its anthemic themes of love, loyalty, triumph and perseverance.

Cynthia Dagnal-Miron is an African American who grew up in the 1960s and she says the song gave black people a sense of comfort and of being loved.

Kevin Patterson recalls meeting an elderly lady in a store in Philadelphia and hearing the song. He learned she had been part of a movement to desegregate a local school in the 1960s and she had sung it then at a talent show.

John Harris says music and being part of a choir were what saved him when he sank into drug addiction and crime and ended up in court. When he got clean he sang that song at the Court's 25th anniversary celebration.

"No wind no rain no winters cold can stop me from getting to you" were the words Lesley Pearl sang to her birth mother as she lay gravely ill in hospital. Lesley had braved Hurricane Sandy to fly to Charleston to be with her and it brought them closer towards the end of her life.

At the height of the pandemic in 2020 when New York was suffering huge numbers of Covid deaths and hospitalisations, nurse Kym Villamer sang it to staff and patients at the hospital where she works to remind them of the perseverance of the human spirit and the goodness of humanity.

An Assistant Professor of Music at Washington University in St Louis breaks down the various musical elements that make it such an enduring powerful uplifting anthem.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2021.

"Country roads, take me home

'Take Me Home, Country Roads' was written by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert with and for their friend John Denver.

The song went on to be covered by Ray Charles, Toots and the Maytals, Olivia Newton John and many more.

A song about the longing for home and the desire to be back with the people you love, 'Country Roads' has become one of the official state songs of West Virginia but it also speaks to people from around the world and across political divides.

It's a song about togetherness, belonging, homesickness, the immigrant experience and the hold that the landscape of your 'home place' can have on you.

Featuring contributions from:

Bill Danoff

And from Molly Sarlé, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath of the band Mountain Man.

Produced for BBA Audio in Bristol by Mair Bosworth.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2021.

"But since it falls unto my lot

The Parting Glass was written in Scotland and has criss-crossed the Irish Sea, becoming a popular song among Celtic peoples around the world.

Folk singer Karine Polwart, talks of its fragile beauty as a song that can be a rousing drinking song at the end of the night but equally a poignant farewell at a funeral.

For Alaskan Fire Chief Benjamin Fleagle, there was no more fitting song to honour his mentor and colleague at his Fire Department when he passed away over a decade ago.

Alissa McCulloch 'clung' to the song when she heard the Irish singer Hozier sing a version of it at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. At the time, Alissa was mentally unwell at home in Australia and was admitted to hospital where she listened to the song over and over finding comfort in its timeless beauty.

After Canada's worst mass shooting in its history, Pete MacDonald and his sisters recorded an acapella version of the song as a musical tribute to those who lost their lives. It's a tradition in Nova Scotia to sing in the kitchen at parties, wakes and celebrations and they wanted to pay their respects to the dead.

Irish singer Finbar Furey has performed the song with his band the Fureys and talks about its appeal not only in Scotland and Ireland but throughout the Scots-Irish diaspora.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact

Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2021.

The Carpenters - brother and sister duo Richard and Karen - were one of the most popular groups of the 1970s.

His outstanding compositions and her stunning vocals created several massive hits including We've Only Just Begun.

Originally written as a TV advert for a bank portraying happy young couples embarking on married life full of hope, they loved it and released it as their third single in 1970. Karen's wistful voice gave the song a melancholy that has long resonated with fans.

After her premature death from heart failure due to anorexia nervosa, the song took on an extra poignancy with lyrics like "so much of life ahead".

Fans tell their stories about the song and how it relates to their own life journeys.

For Professor Karen Tongson (named after the singer), We've Only Just Begun is about growing up in the Philippines where The Carpenters epitomised the American Dream. When she emigrated to the USA, the song became a metaphor for the immigrant experience.

Nomad and writer Jeff Read remembers his childhood in a poor part of Los Angeles brought up by a single mother who eventually died homeless on the street. The song brings back memories of childhood optimism and his longing for a stable family life.

Poet Abigail George recalls seeing a film about Karen Carpenter's life and identifying with the singer's struggles with an eating disorder as she herself had to cope with a difficult family life in South Africa.

Retired policeman John Weiss was reminded of the song when he attended the death of an elderly person at a care home. John looked at the deceased man's wedding photos and was struck by the brevity of life.

The singer Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes always loved The Carpenters and recorded her own version of We've Only Just Begun as part of an album where things don't end well for the young bride. Ironically, her version now features in a commercial for a British bank so the song has come full circle.

Randy Schmidt is the author of Little Girl Blue (The Life of Karen Carpenter).

Versions of the song featured are by

Grant Lee Buffalo

Producer: Maggie Ayre

A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in July 2021.

This disco classic tells a powerful story: that of a young, gay man leaving his homophobic small town for the freedom of the big city.

Released in 1984, Smalltown Boy continues to resonate and has become an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community.

The track appeared on their album 'The Age of Consent' which drew attention to the inequality between the ages at which heterosexual people and homosexual men were legally able to have sex.

Taking part in the programme:

Shaun Dellenty, an ex primary school leader and author who developed an award winning LGBT+ training programme 'Celebrating Difference-Inclusion For All' which he now delivers to students and staff around the world.

Paul Flynn, journalist and author of 'Good As You, 30 Years of Gay Britain'.

Diane Anderson-Minshall, CEO and Editorial Director of Pride Media.

Colin Crummy, freelance journalist

Neil Brand, pianist, composer, writer and broadcaster

Adam Carver aka Fatt Butcher, drag artist, creative producer, and community organiser.

Archive: The audio of Jimmy Somerville is taken from the BBC archives

Music: various versions of Smalltown Boy by Jimmy Somerville, and Bronski Beat. Also covers by Dido, and Orville Peck.

Producer: Karen Gregor for BBC Audio in Bristol

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2021.