Words and Music

A sequence of poetry, prose and music on the theme of aspects of the divine, with Natalie Simpson and Ray Fearon reading from texts that point to this feeling of something transcendent from different angles. For Wordsworth it was found in nature, for Old Testament prophet Isaiah it was the potential for the parched desert to suddenly blossom abundantly. Mystics like Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich glimpsed it in a life of contemplation, while contemporary novelists Marilynne Robinson and Caleb Azumah Nelson found it in the rituals of organised religion, while Philip Larkin sensed something precious and holy as he visited a slightly dull church on a cycling trip. Many of the great composers, from Beethoven to Bruckner, caught this far-off melody in their music, with the sense of something beyond perfectly captured in Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music.