
Miniatures
It's a small, small world this week with musical miniatures and readings by Simon Chandler and Yasmin Taheri on all things pocket-sized.
Simon Chandler and Yasmin Taheri read a selection of prose and poetry exploring tiny things in this week's Words and Music small but perfectly formed episode taking a microscope to the miniature. We'll hear about dolls and their houses, model making and netsuke figures as well as examples of small literary forms such as limericks, haiku and flash fiction. Musically our soundtrack includes piano miniatures from Erik Satie (who died 100 years ago this month), Debussy's Petite Suite and Rolfe Kent's score for the film 'Downsizing'.
You can find plenty more about Satie on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sounds as part of Radio 3's Satie day
Producer: Jessica Treen
Readings:
Matsuo Basho – The Old Pond
Enid Blyton – The Enchanted Village
Tim Dunn – Model Villages
Edward Lear – The Was An Old Man With A Beard
William Shakespeare – Romeo & Juliet
TH White – Mistress Masham’s Repose
Edward Lear – There Was A Young Lady Whose Nose
The World’s Smallest Vacuum Cleaner – European Cleaning Journal
Edward Lear – There Was An Old Man In A Boat
Simon Garfield – In Miniature
Anon – For Want of A Nail
Edmund de Waal – The Hare with Amber Eyes
Margaret Atwood – Cat’s Eyes
WB Yeats – The Dolls
Emily Dickinson – It’s Such A Little Thing To Weep
Jessie Burton – The Miniaturist
Aingelda Ardizzone – The Little Girl and The Tiny Doll
Ray Bradbury – A Sound Of Thunder
Matsuo Basho – Wake, Butterfly
Jo Shapcott – Quark
Neil Jordan - The Well of Saint Nobody
Lydia Davis – Lost Things
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – The Little Prince
Matsuo Basho – Spring is Passing
Last on
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
Basho
The Old Pond
00:00Claude Debussy
The Little shepherd (from 'Children's corner') arr. Robert Aitken for flute...
Performer: Judith Hall.- Nimbus.
- Tr2.
00:01Claude Debussy
The Little shepherd (from 'Children's corner') arr. Robert Aitken for flute
Performer: Judith Hall.- Images and Impressions: Music for Flute & Harp.
- Nimbus.
- 2.
Enid Blyton
The enchanted Village
00:04Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Nutcracker - suite (Op.71a), no.1; Miniature overture
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra.- Tchaikovsky: 1812/Romeo & Juliet/Nutcracker Suite: Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
- Decca.
- 1.
00:06Benjamin Britten
Simple symphony for string orch... (Op.4), 2nd mvt; Playful pizzicato
Performer: English Chamber Orchestra.- Decca.
- Tr3.
Tim Dunn
Model Villages
00:09Adalgiso Ferraris
It’s A Small World
Performer: Walt Disney World Band.- Walt Disney Records.
- Tr3.
00:10Anne Shelton
It's A Small World
- Jane Records.
- Tr1.
00:10Stephen Sondheim
Small World
Performer: Bette Midler.- Gypsy.
- Rhino Atlantic.
- 4.
Edward Lear
There Was An Old Man With A Beard
00:13Frédéric Chopin
3 Waltzes for piano, Op 64 no 1 in D flat major: "Minute"
Performer: Alexandre Tharaud.- Harmonia Mundi.
- Tr12.
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
00:16Georg Philipp Telemann
Susanna, HWV 66, Gulliver Suite for two violins: Lilliputsche Chaconne
Performer: Andrew Manze.- Harmonia Mundi.
- Tr14.
TH White
Mistress Masham’s Repose
00:18Georg Philipp Telemann
Susanna, HWV 66, Gulliver Suite for two violins: Lilliputsche Chaconne
Performer: Andrew Manze.- Telemann: 12 Fantasias for Violin Solo: Gulliver Suite for Two Violins.
- Harmonia Mundi.
- 14.
Edward Lear
here Is A Young Lady Whose Nose
00:20Andrew Manze
Telemann: 12 Fantasias for Violin Solo: Gulliver Suite for Two Violins
- Telemann: 12 Fantasias for Violin Solo: Gulliver Suite for Two Violins.
- Harmonia Mundi.
- 15.
00:21Al Dubin
Tip Toe Thru' the Tulips with me
Performer: Tiny Tim.- God Bless Tiny Tim.
- Reprise.
- 2.
European Cleaning Journal
The World’s Smallest Vacuum Cleaner
00:22Rolfe Kent
Downsizing Waltz
Performer: Rolfe Kent.- Downsizing (Music from the Motion Picture).
- Water Tower Music.
- 1.
Edward Lear
There Was An Old Man In A Boat
00:25Amy Beach
Children's Carnival, Op 25; Columbine
Performer: Elise Williams.- Children's Carnival, Op. 25 and Children's Album.
- Pastel Records.
- 7.
Simon Garfield
In Miniature
00:26Robert Schumann
Marchenerzahlungen (Fairy Tales), Op 132, No.4
Performer: Michael Collins.- BIS.
- Tr6.
00:27Fritz Kreisler
Marche Miniature Viennoise
Performer: Tine Thing Helseth.- EMI.
- Tr24.
00:28Fritz Kreisler
Marche Miniature Viennoise
Performer: Tine Thing Helseth.- Tine Thing Helseth: Tine.
- EMI.
- 24.
Anon
For Want Of A Nail
Edmund de Waal
The Hare with Amber Eyes
00:31Toru Takemitsu
In the woods for guitar: no.1; Wainscot Pond - after a painting by Cornelia Foss
Performer: Ji Hyung Park.- Scarlatti, Albéniz, Takemitsu & Others: Works for Guitar.
- Naxos.
- 6.
00:33Cécile Chaminade
Les Sylvains, Op. 60
Performer: Mitra Kotte.- Cécile Chaminade – Les Sylvains.
- Genuin.
- 1.
Margaret Atwood
Cat’s Eyes
WB Yeats
The Dolls
00:36Gioachino Rossini
Petite messe solennelle for soloists, chorus, 2 pianos and harmonium: Sanctus
Performer: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.- EMI Classics.
- Tr4.
Emily Dickinson
It’s Such A Little Thing to Weep
00:41Johann Sebastian Bach
6 Little preludes for keyboard (BWV.933-8), no.2 in C minor (BWV.934)
Performer: Angela Hewitt.- Hyperion.
- Tr2.
Jessie Burton
The Miniaturist
00:44Alla Pavlova
Thumbelina Suite: III. Tango
Orchestra: Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra.- Pavlova: Symphony No. 6 - Thumbelina Suite.
- Naxos.
- 3.
00:48Ludwig van Beethoven
6 Bagatelles for piano (Op.126), no.2 in G minor;
Performer: Alfred Brendel.- Beethoven: Alfred Brendel plays, vol.4.
- Vox Box.
- 2.
Aingelda Ardizzone
The Little Girl and The Tiny Doll
00:51Paul Schoenfield
Vaudeville: A Concerto for Piccolo Trumpet - 2. Bear dance
Performer: Paul Schoenfield.- Schoenfield: 4 Parables; Vaudeville; Klezmer Rondos.
- Decca.
- 1.
00:54Keith Textor
Doll House
Composer: Marilyn Scott. Performer: Count von Count. Performer: Dolly Pardon.- Sesame Street: The Count Counts, Vol. 2 (The Count's Countdown Show from Radio 1.
- Sesame Workshop Catalog.
- 11.
Karen McCarthy Woolf
Top Doll
00:55Hole
Doll Parts
- Sesame Workshop Catalog.
- Tr6.
00:56Pauline Oliveros
Bye Bye Butterfly
Performer: Pauline Oliveros.- New World Records.
- Tr3.
Ray Bradbury
The Sound of Thunder
00:57Pauline Oliveros
Bye Bye Butterfly
Performer: Pauline Oliveros.- New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media: Women In Electronic Music - 1977.
- New World Records.
- 3.
00:57Kate Simko
The Creative Part
Performer: Kate Simko.- The Ghostly International Company.
- Tr4.
Jo Shapcott
Quark
Neil Jordan
The Well of Saint Nobody
01:02Erik Satie
The Creative Part
Performer: Pascal Rogé.- Satie: Piano Focus.
- UME.
- 4.
01:05Shirley Horn
Wee Small Hours
- Verve Reissues.
- Tr12.
Lydia Davis
Lost Things
01:06David Mann
Wee Small Hours
Composer: Bob Hilliard. Performer: Shirley Horn.- Shirley Horn With Horns.
- Verve Reissues.
- 12.
Lydia Davis
Lost Things
01:09Gustav Holst
The Planets - suite Op.32: Mercury, the winged messenger
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker.- Shirley Horn With Horns.
- EMI Classics.
- 3.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince
Matsuo Basho
Spring is Passing
Broadcast
- Sun 6 Jul 2025 18:00³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3