Podcast
Words on Wordlessness
Hosted by Nicholas Swett · EN
In September of 1957, the BBC aired an experiment designed by writer and broadcaster Hans Keller. He had composed interludes that wove between the movements of a Mozart string quartet and were meant to express something about that music without leaning on language for explanation. This podcast examines Keller’s approach to communicating about music through music and important questions about instrumental music and its role in our lives that are raised by listening to his wordless analyses.
4episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Episode 1.4: The riches of re-composition with Bruce Adolphe
Feb 5, 202500:51:33Tap to summarizeOn this session, host Nicky Swett and composer Bruce Adolphe delve into the delights and the value of re-working music written by other people.
Transcribe →Episode 1.3: Wordless pedagogy with Kate Guthrie
Feb 5, 202500:55:48Tap to summarizeThe session probes the intended audiences and educational merits of Keller's wordless analyses, and includes an interview with Dr. Kate Guthrie, author of The Art of Appreciation: Music and Middlebrow Culture in Modern Britain.
Transcribe →Episode 1.2: Analysis in performance with Sini Simonen
Feb 5, 202500:44:02Tap to summarizeThis session of Words on Wordlessness focuses on the relationships between music analysis and performance, and includes a conversation between host Nicky Swett and Sini Simonen, the first violinist of the Castalian Quartet.
Transcribe →Episode 1.1: Hans Keller's FA No. 7 on Haydn's "Fifths" Quartet
Jan 30, 202500:46:29Tap to summarizeIn this first session, host Nicky Swett introduces Hans Keller's method of Wordless Functional Analysis and the Castalian Quartet perform his analysis of Joseph Haydn's "Fifths" Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2.
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