Entertainment For Lively Minds
Pastoral music
Posted by Steve Hill on 16 April 2009 - 7:33pm.
I'm running the London Marathon a week on Sunday and have been doing a lot of training whilst listening to my ipod. Near where I live there is miles of cycle tracks (built upon old railway tracks) and whilst running along these paths, through the trees certain songs sound, well, just perfect. I'd loosely describe the kind of music as "pastoral". A kind of acoustic, birds chirping, English countyside kind of music. A few artists that have really hit the spot are Nick Drake, Vaughan Williams and Skylarking era-XTC. Could anyone please recommend any more to make my runs more enjoyable on my ears. Ta chaps and chapesses.
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Paul Weller - Wild Wood ?
Especially Shadow Of The Sun, 5th Season or Foot Of The Mountain.
Saint Etienne
Their album What Have You Done Today,Mervyn Day? is a soundtrack to a film about Lea Valley in East London. It's an instrumental album, but I'd say it would fit in with what you're looking for. It's not necessarily acoustic pastoral pop but it's close.
Also I'd recommend Virginia Astley's 'From Gardens Where We Feel Secure', again an instrumental album, but as you can see from the title I'd put it in with what you're talking about.
Other contenders would be the High Llamas, and whilst Welsh, some of Super Furry Animals work would sit in this field quite nicely, especially their Welsh language album Mwng and the Phantom Power album.
Tunng
Oh and Tunng, very English, folk meets electronics. Kind of eccentric in a Bagpuss kind of way.
Early
Genesis?
I was just
about to recommend Trespass
Epic 45
Highly recommended - English 'post rock', I belive the young people call it...
Top notch
and try July Skies as well from the same stable...
Air France
I thoroughly recommend 'No Way Down' by Air France...utterly, utterly beautiful, summery, hypnotic, melodic....its up on Spotify if you want to sample it first!
Couldn't agree more
It's absolutely excellent.
Grantchester Meadows
The Floyd. Perfect.
..or Fat Old Sun....
...or A Pillow of Winds...
I am in awe of anyone who takes on the London Marathon
Good for you, Steve.
But why not leave the iPod at home and listen to actual birds chirping? There's not going to be a better time.
Traffic
John Barleycorn Must Die. Steeped in English folk tradition without sounding self-consciously "folkie." One of the forgotten gems from the golden age.
Some Delius wouldn't go amiss.
Bert Jansch:Avocet
Kate Bush:Sky of Honey (2nd.CD of Aerial)
Incredible String Band:The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Donovan:a gift from a flower to a garden
Midnight Mushrumps
By Gryphon, side 1, i.e. the title track. Otherwise it is more Floyd, viz Atom Heart Mother followed by Echoes.
The Lilac Time?
Vaughan Williams is the sound of the English countryside....
not sure if you're looking for classical suggestions, but try 'Lark Ascending', 'Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis', 'Suite of English Folk Songs', 5th Symphony or, with voice, 'Songs of Travel' (Bryn Terfel is the best bet here).
Sorry - see you already have him on your list...
but maybe there are a couple more ideas here for RVW's music.
Songs of Travel...
...is so utterly wonderful there are now words to do it justice. Tunes by RVW, words by RLS - surely it can't get much better. It makes you want to pack your spotted hankie, tie it around the end of a stout stick and go wandering the byways of jolly old Albion, relying no the generosity of strangers and facing down the caprices of the seasons.
I've got a copy that came free with BBC Music magazine several years ago and am ashamed to say I can't remember the singer but I might give the Terfel one a shot also.
Totally agree - my best ever car journey...
if you've got a moment, was in southern Spain, driving from Tarifa up to Ronda. I dropped my family off at the train station as an anti-car sickness measure and drove the hire car plus luggage on my own up into the mountains on a beautiful sunny day. I put the radio on and there, on a spanish classical station, was Bryn singing Songs of Travel...absolutely magical. I've loved it ever since. I do a spot of singing and am trying to learn it - perfect for me as an Englishman living in Scotland with, as you say, the RVW/RLS combination.
Gerald Finzi
Somewhere between RVW and Britten lies Finzi, only "a few" works but they include Dies Natalis and the Clarinet Concerto, see if you like this:
http://www.geraldfinzi.org/
Thanks for that tip - Finzi's songs are great too...
in fact, to pick up Bryn's Songs of Travel, Finzi's 'Let us Garlands Bring', plus some Butterworth and Ireland (including Sea Fever), the CD to get is:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bryn-Terfel-Vagabond/dp/B000001GPD/ref=sr_1_7?ie...
- this'll keep you going for a few miles.
What a cultured way to spend Friday afternoon!
Ben & Jason
Try "Ten Songs About You" or "Hello".
Dan Arborise
"John Martyn meets Nick Drake for the 21st Century" as someone once said.
http://www.myspace.com/arborise
Why isn't this bloke massive??
Because
Neither were Martyn or Drake. Sadly, as a USP, "John Martyn meets Nick Drake for the 21st Century" couldn't be more guaranteed to strangle sales at birth.
He'll be very popular when he's dead though.
Vernon Elliott
He composed and played the music to Bagpuss and The Clangers.
Available on Trunk Records
very English and bucolic...
he also did Pogle's Wood and the origianl Ivor the Engine - this is a beautiful CD (sorry again for the Amazon link - not on any sort of commission):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivor-Engine-Pogles-Vernon-Elliott/dp/B000WWNPY4/...
White Horses
I think this is quite pastoral.
Available on this...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Return-Fiction-Various-Artists/dp/B000026LY...
If you're going down the classical route
Try Taillfeirre (I THINK that's how it's spelled and her name begins with a G or a J!!)
Also, Joby Talbot's Once Around the Sun Album (the one he wrote as the composer in residence for Classic FM) is really really good to run to!
Good luck with the marathon! Do you have a justgiving page we can sponsor you at?!
B x
If you're feeling generous
Just Giving site
www.justgiving.co.uk/stevejackswan
Any little helps, its all for a good cause....
Ta Word posse.
Ronnie Lane, Goldfrapp
Ronnie Lane, Godfather of Neckerchief Rock (and so much more) - go for "Anymore for Anymore".
Goldfrapp's "Seventh Tree". Like Britt Ekland in "Wicker Man", but beautiful instead of freaky.
That wasn't Britt Ekland ... ;-)
Steve: [the men are in the pub talking about screen nudity] Britt Ekland!
Patrick: Oh, oh, oh... Britt! Britt Ekland spells naked!
Steve: Can I just mention the film..."The Wicker Man"?
Patrick: The dance in the hotel room?
Steve: Birth of my libido!
Jeff: Mine too!
Patrick: It was on the other night. I think I taped it.
Jeff: Let's all go to Patrick's.
Steve: No, no, no! I was only six. I had seen parts of Britt Ekland I couldn't even name!
Jeff: I was seven. I didn't realize television could do that! I started watching it all day every day, just in case it did it again.
Steve: I'm with you on that one.
Jeff: My parents thought I was in love with the TV set.
Patrick: 'Cause you were watching it all the time?
Jeff: Well... yeah.
Steve: With you there,too.
Jeff: But also, I'd get aroused the moment it was switched on. You know, even if it was just the news or "Doctor Who".
Steve: Okay, not quite so with you now.
Jeff: One day... one day I lost control in front of my whole family during "Songs of Praise".
Steve: Lost control?
Jeff: Completely rubbed off the television.
Steve: Sorry... so you're telling us that, as a young child, and despite the obvious electrical dangers, you sexually assaulted the television during "Songs of Praise"?
Patrick: Is... is that what happened to your hair?
(From http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756830/quotes)
Turner and Crowther I get
but who's Jeff?
Jeffisms
Probably me-he speaks for all men I fear at least at some point ...
Seriously though, that bit of dialogue from Coupling (see IMDB link), with Jeff played by the estimable Richard Coyle, shows Steven Moffatt at the top of his game. I am rather glad he's taken over Dr Who.
Not incredibly relevant to the thread I grant you, but hey ...
The poacher
is just wonderful.
Parhaps a little left field - but Indian classical music is gorgeous. The compositions and are often evocations of the rural Indian landscapes. If you run early or at eventide they are a harmonic echo. The combination of flute, sitar and tabla in its slow builds and varying rhythmic intensities can be a powerful runner's accompaniment. Dip around work by Hariprasad Chaurasia/Ravi Shankar/Zakir Hussain.
Also - just a thought, the marathon itself takes place in some gritty urban landscapes - so perhaps something to match the less than idyllic plains of Plaistow might suit.
Used to pound pavement to early 70s Blues/R&B. Ain't no love in the Heart of the City Bobby Bland and Crosscut Saw by Albert King amongst others
Sonny Liston used to roadwork to Night Train by James Brown
http://open.spotify.com/track/6cItBz11NsVLmNxrnL6R9p
Stackridge
God Speed The Plough, by Stackridge, from The Man In The Bowler Hat. Should hit the right spot.
Watership Down OST - Angela Morley
Angela Morley's soundtrack for "Watership Down" is beautifully pastoral. Here's a highlight - "Kehaar's Theme", one of the best pieces of music to evoke flight ever composed (Kehaar's the seagull):
Cheers folks......
Ta all of the Word posse for your kind replies. I'm knee deep in Spotify at the moment and no doubt my credit card will be getting a hammering very soon. Thanks again.