Can & Dec’s Thursday Night Takeaway

Series One
(2020–21)

Episode 1 – Emily Hazrati
7pm, Thursday 1st October (repeated on Friday 2nd October)

The show’s very first guest is composer Emily Hazrati! This week we discuss composing during lockdown, female composers through the ages, and the relevance of ancient texts in the modern world.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up on snippets of our conversation and listen to the music featured below:

Drop Down, ye Heavens, from Above (2018)
Emily Hazrati

Sweeter than Honey (2019)
Emily Hazrati

Adoramus te, Christe (1630)
Claudia Rusca

Episode 2 – Nacho Mañá Mesas and Katrina Toner
7pm, Thursday 15th October

This week’s guests are Nacho Mañá Mesas and Katrina Toner! In today’s episode we explore narrative in composing, tailoring a piece to suit an ensemble or venue, and the influence of the English choral tradition when setting religious texts.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up on snippets of our conversation and listen to the music featured below:

Magnificat (2020)
Nacho Mañá Mesas

Nunc Dimittis (2020)
Katrina Toner

I Was Glad (1993)
David Hurd

Episode 3 – Joanna Ward
7pm, Thursday 29th October (postponed until Thursday 5th November)

This week’s guest is composer and activist Joanna Ward! In today’s episode we discuss the significance of writing music by hand, how to interpret graphic scores, and new ways to address inequality and diversity in music, in both educational and professional spheres.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up on snippets of our conversation and listen to the music featured below:

Gloria tibi trinitas (2019)
Joanna Ward

(WE’VE GOT) HONEY LOVE (2020)
Joanna Ward

I cannot get to my love (2019)
Joanna Ward

Lullaby for the Witching Hour (2004)
Kerry Andrew

Episode 4 – Rajan Lal
7pm, Thursday 12th November

This week’s guest is Rajan Lal! In commemoration of Remembrance Day, we discuss compositions related to war and peace.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up on snippets of our conversation and listen to the music featured below:

In Flanders Fields (2018)
Rajan Lal

There Will Come Soft Rains
from Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices From The Great War (2018)
Kirsten Volness

Episode 5 – Nat Jobbins, Louis Watkins, and George Herbert
7pm, Thursday 26th November

For a packed festive episode, this week’s guests are Nat Jobbins, Louis Watkins, and George Herbert! In celebration of “Bridgemas” (Christmas during Cambridge term time), we discuss arrangements of carols and Christmas tunes. Nat’s arrangement was written for the Charter Choir of Homerton College, while Louis and George discuss the music arranged by and for The Gentlemen of St John’s.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up on snippets of our conversation and listen to the music featured below:

In the Bleak Midwinter (2018)
Harold Darke, arr. Nat Jobbins

All I Have to Do Is Dream (2019)
Boudleaux Bryant, arr. Louis Watkins
[the original was made famous by The Everly Brothers]

Santa Claus is Coming To Town (2017)
J. Fred Coots, arr. Piers Kennedy

Episode 6 – Anna Semple
7pm, Thursday 10th December (postponed until Thursday 17th December)

This week’s guest is Anna Semple! In today’s episode we discuss setting Emily Dickinson’s poetry, creating sound collages, and composing at Christmas.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up online.

The Bells A Winter Night (2019)
Anna Semple

There Was Silence (2020)
Anna Semple (with animations by Lucy Harper)

Naomi and Ruth, Op. 27 (1947)
Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco

Episode 7 – Sarah Cattley
7pm, Thursday 24th December

For the show’s Christmas Eve special, our guest is composer Sarah Cattley! In today’s episode we discuss medieval texts on festive greenery, the presence of works by female composers in the standard Christmas repertoire, and our favourite sounds of Christmas!

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up online.

There Is No Rose (1983)
Elizabeth Maconchy

Ivy, Chief of Trees is is (2019)
Sarah Cattley

As I Sat Under A Holly Tree (1967)
Imogen Holst

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (1967)
Elizabeth Poston

Peace on Earth (2019)
Errollyn Wallen

Now May We Singen (2007)
Cecilia McDowall

There Is No Rose (1995)
Cheryl Frances-Hoad

Episode 8 – Pia Rose Scattergood
7pm, Thursday 7th January

The show’s first guest of 2021 is Pia Rose Scattergood! As we begin a new year, this week’s episode focuses on music and environmental activism.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up online.

Alleluia
from Mass for the Endangered (2020)
Sarah Kirkland Snider

i remember when all this was trees
[excerpt 1] (2020)
Pia Rose Scattergood

Epiphany (1995)
Judith Bingham

Beyond the Night Sky (2017)
Cheryl Frances-Hoad

Episode 9 – Leia Devadason
7pm, Thursday 21st January (postponed until 10pm, Friday 29th January)

As a new term begins, Leia Devadason introduces the third annual Minerva Festival, which aims to amplify the voices of female and non-binary composers. Our conversation covers a variety of topics, from the fluid distinction between music, poetry, and language, to composition via Zoom!

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up online.

Occam’s Razor (2017)
Leia Devadason

these are the words we all have read (wordtupat) (2020)
Leia Devadason

All Shall Be Well (2009)
Roxanna Panufnik

Episode 10 – Oliver Jones
7pm, Thursday 4th February (postponed until Thursday 25th February)

For the show’s tenth episode, Oliver Jones joins me to discuss the earliest known opera by a female composer within the tradition of Western art music––Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero––and connections between the Renaissance and the modern day.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can catch up online.

Episode 11 – Kavi Pau
7pm, Thursday 18th February

This week’s guest is Kavi Pau! In today’s episode we discuss the upcoming launch of the Third Culture Collective, a project founded by Kavi to celebrate music from both the Western art tradition and the Indian classical tradition – and everything in between!

If you missed the radio broadcast, you you can catch up on snippets of our conversation and listen to the music featured below:

Chaiyya Chaiyya (1998)
A.R. Rahman,
adapted for Western forces by Kavi Pau

Ashray Pad (2020)
Kavi Pau

Raga Yaman (????)
Kanniks Kaneswaran

Shanta Karam (????)
Traditional, arr. Kavi Pau

Ich habe genug (1727)
J.S. Bach,
adapted for Western forces by Kavi Pau

Wachet auf ruft uns die stimme (1731)
J.S. Bach,
adapted for Western forces by Kavi Pau

Unending Love (2017)
Roxanna Panufnik

Episode 12 – Lucy Walker and Mary Offer
7pm, Thursday 4th March

In celebration of International Women’s Day (8th March 2021), this week’s guests are Lucy Walker and Mary Offer! Lucy is organising this year’s Minerva Festival Composition Competition, which Mary won last year. In today’s episode we discuss different approaches to setting texts, as well as the emotion and collective connection inherent in choral music.