The Listening Service

BBC Radio 3

4.1 (54)
MUSIC

Rethink music with The Listening Service. Tom Service presents a journey of imagination and insight, exploring how music works

MAR 31

What's the point of Listening?

Isn’t it great to be able to listen to so much music, to be able to search and scroll and find anything you want…? Or to have tracks suggested for you without even thinking about it…? Or is it? Perhaps you miss the days when you had to save up to buy a recording, and you loved it so much you listened over and over again. Or you waited for something to be played on the radio, knowing it might be the only chance you’d have to hear it. Tom Service explores how we listen today in the digital age and reflects on the pieces of music that changed his life when he heard them first, and then really listened to them, again and again. Producer: Ruth Thomson

29 min
MAR 10

Needle Drop: the power of classical music in film

Tom Service discovers the mighty musical power of needle drop - the use of pre-existing music in film soundtracks. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Barbie, from The Shining to Maestro, Tom listens in to some of the most iconic film scenes using needle-dropped classical music. He explores how directors harness the resonance and meanings of a piece of music to enrich the film's storytelling, and how a successful fusion of sound and image can leave such a deep impression in viewers' minds that music and film become inextricably entwined in popular consciousness. Plus, Maggie Rodford - one of the film industry's most sought-after music supervisors - pulls back the curtain on the processes and thinking behind choosing the right needle drop for the right scene to make the most meaningful movie. Producer: David Fay

28 min
MAR 3

Impassioned argument: Elizabeth Maconchy's string quartets

"For me, the best music is an impassioned argument". So said one of Britain's greatest 20th-century composers, Elizabeth Maconchy. Who?? Despite her many awards and medals - including a damehood in 1987 - and a lifetime spent promoting new music, Elizabeth's work slipped out of fashion and out of view in the latter part of her remarkable career. With concertos and symphonies, vocal music, chamber works, five operas, an operetta and three ballets to her name, Elizabeth's voice is that of economy, elegance and rich expression. And it is in her century-spanning 13 string quartets that her development - and musical outlook - as an artist are most closely expressed. With a cultural resurgence in all things mid-century, Tom Service chats to Janell Yeo of the Bloomsbury Quartet and considers whether the time is now ripe for a reclamation of Elizabeth's place at our musical top table.

29 min
FEB 25

Songs of the Moon

Many of the most instantly recognisable works in classical music are inspired by the Earth’s moon – Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’, Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’, Dvořák’s ‘Song to the Moon’. Tom Service takes us on a musical voyage to the moon (and back), from the cosmic-scale classical to the lesser known music invoking and inspired by our mysterious celestial companion. With Professor Monica Grady CBE, leading British space scientist. Producer: Lola Grieve

28 min
FEB 5

'Pathétique'

Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony is given the subtitle "Pathétique", the use of the French word removing some of the negative connotations that the word pathetic has in English, which is the literal translation. Pathétique suggests something of great passion with perhaps a sense of great sadness too. Tom Service examines how this word might apply to one of Tchaikovsky's most profound and intense works.

29 min
JAN 21

Turangalila!

It made Pierre Boulez want to vomit: Francis Poulenc thought it was atrocious: and Igor Stravinsky said all you needed to write it was enough manuscript paper. But its composer wrote all 80 minutes of it as a love song, and a hymn to joy. So just what is Olivier Messiaen’s epic Turangalila Symphony, premiered in 1949 by Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, why did it divide opinion so much, and what does it mean today? Producer: Ruth Thomson

29 min
JAN 16

Jumping Fleas: the rise and rise of the Ukulele

Tom Service explores the world of the Ukulele, from the Hawaiian Royal Court of King Kalakaua to Blackpool Pier with George Formby, the Royal Albert Hall where hundreds of ukulele players performed Beethoven's Ode to Joy at the 2009 BBC Proms, and into thousands of classrooms where it's now the most widely taught instrument in British primary schools. With Hawaiian born ukulele virtuoso and composer Taimane Gardner. Producer: Ruth Thomson

29 min
12/31/2023

Resolutions

The word 'resolution' has several meanings. It can refer to something that has been settled or resolved. It can infer a desire to do something differently or to behave in a changed way - as in a New Year resolution. It can also mark the final unravelling of some great complication or drama. In music, it means something more specific: the progression from discord to consonance. With New Year in mind, Tom Service considers the idea of resolution in music in the widest sense of the word; including a look at how composers set about creating a resolve to their musical ideas. Tom's guest expert is the composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

29 min

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4.1

out of 5

54 Ratings

My current favorite podcast!

02/12/2023

LongFamilySF

I came upon this when searching for info on Thomas Tallis and went down the rabbit hole! Love Tom Service and the variety of subjects explored in this wonderful podcast that touches on music of all types and styles.
Well, I *did* love it . . .

05/29/2023

axejudge

1. It would never play or download unless you went to the BBC website. 2. Now it won’t even let you listen if you’re in the US. Anything from April forward is blocked. Extremely disappointed. I can’t see any reason to alienate listeners.
The Listening Service

09/21/2022

Andante'

He’s wonderful. Thank you so much Bravo Bravissimo!!! Excellent Thank you DDH
Outstanding

09/24/2021

Destael

I enjoy all of these presentations. The podcast on Part was especially wonderful on all levels. I’m not a musician so the technical descriptions and musical explanation of how Part works was actually rather thrilling. I’ve long enjoyed and bought his work but didn’t know much about his biographical information or the influences of Bach or Mozart Thank you!