Edith Sitwell: The Spoken Word

Synopsis: Edith Sitwell was the queen of twentieth-century English poetry, majestically attired in performance and distinctly regal in her delivery. Drawing on previously unpublished BBC broadcasts, this CD presents a complete programme from 1948 in which she discusses her poetry in great technical detail - illustrating her talk with performed poems and extracts - and a live poetry performance recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival of 1956. Among the poems she reads are ‘Aubade’, ‘Dark Song’, ‘The Youth with the Red-Gold Hair’ and ‘The Canticle of the Rose’. The collection is completed with a recording of ‘Still Falls the Rain’, perhaps her most popular poem, taken from a 1946 disc issued with the aim of improving cultural relations with the U.S.S.R.
Series: Spoken Word, The
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Year of release: 2008
Year of production: 1948-1956
Availability: out of distribution
Documentation: Booklet including introductory essay
Subjects: Drama; English language and literature; Literature
Keywords: archive sound recordings; literary criticism; radio broadcasting; poetry - 20th century; Sitwell, Edith; creative writing

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Notes: A range of audio publications related to the collections of the British Library’s Sound Archive. Historical topics, wildlife sounds, world music, art and literature are particularly strongly represented. There are also a few DVDs, videos and CD-ROMs based on holdings in the BL. Some of the titles are available for paid audio download.

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