Third-year PhD music student Mark Seow will present this Sunday's edition of BBC Radio 3's The Early Music Show, 'On Bach's Farm'.
As Seow explains: 'In the episode, I move through different types of musical agriculture, from the cliché of the Baroque pastorale to the theological ‘digging’ in ‘Mache dich, mein Herze, rein’ from Bach’s St Matthew Passion. I interpret the circularity of chaconne and ritornello structure to embody the tedium that was a life working in the fields. Musicking farmers abound everywhere. I envisage the performers of Bach’s music as farmers, reconfiguring bows as seed-scattering arms, as well as imagining music itself as a kind of agricultural tool.
Read more about Seow's experience of writing for radio, on the Faculty Research Blog.
'On Bach's Farm' will be broadcast on Sunday 21 February, at 2pm, and then available to listen to again via BBC sounds.