Tearjerker, Downtown Symphony, Piano Flow, Happy Harmonies and other Saturday padding

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This doesn't sound too hopeful. 5 a.m. every morning from 9th January



A bit like CFM's Smooth Classics?

[jayne lee wilson]

Looks like it..... but then I often enjoy Smooth Classics after 2200.......(especially if the News is simply revising Brexit or Covid....) .....often alternate Newsnight/Smooth Classics....

Not that I'll ever hear it at 0500.......iPlayer later perhaps....

Not sure about the title though......"tearjerker"...to bring you "comfort and escape"? (Sci-fi and football work better for me in that....)
More like "Catharsis"......

[Edgy 2]

The beginning of the end for Through the Night (best thing on Radio 3 for me ) ?

[french frank]

Not sure about the title though......"tearjerker"...to bring you "comfort and escape"?

My thought exactly. Tearjerker seems almost the opposite. Upsetting, harrowing, misery-making … bring it on

[Tony Halstead]

Any takers for Warlock's / Yeats' 'The Curlew'?

[teamsaint]

Looks like it..... but then I often enjoy Smooth Classics after 2200.......(especially if the News is simply revising Brexit or Covid....) .....often alternate Newsnight/Smooth Classics....

Not that I'll ever hear it at 0500.......iPlayer later perhaps....

Not sure about the title though......"tearjerker"...to bring you "comfort and escape"? (Sci-fi and football work better for me in that....)
More like "Catharsis"......

Mrs TS found Smooth Classics at 7 ideal for marking 90 books.......

Somehow, creating shows like this to create a “ mood” seems to me somewhat arrogant, and doomed to failure.
As an example, I find The Smiths quite funny at times, but I probably wouldn’t programme them in a show designed to be humorous.......

[french frank]

Somehow, creating shows like this to create a “ mood” seems to me somewhat arrogant, and doomed to failure.

Even manipulative - in a way that the creators aren't (in my view).

[teamsaint]

Even manipulative - in a way that the creators aren't (in my view).

Sorry, which creators ? The musicians ?

[french frank]

Sorry, which creators ? The musicians ?

I meant the composers. Whatever effect a work might have on hearers, I don't think that composers think, "Can I make the listeners feel sad, comforted, healed, drained etc?" Do they? Perhaps that's the whole point of the exercise I (naively?) thought that they would be putting their own feelings into the work.

[Andrew Slater]

This doesn't sound too hopeful. 5 a.m. every morning from 9th January


A bit like CFM's Smooth Classics?

I think it's just Saturdays. On the 16th "Tearjerker" again appears in the 5am-6am slot, but the 6am-7am slot is filled with another programme entitled "Downtime Symphony", but I don't think it will be a symphony:

"An hour of wind-down music to help you press pause and reset your mind. With chilled sounds of orchestral, jazz, ambient and lo-fi beats to power your downtime."

The beginning of the end for Through the Night (best thing on Radio 3 for me ) ?

It looks as if R3 will be tapping into the EBU feed of "Notturno" (which I think the BBC originates) at 1am and running through to the end, and then not patching in the first part as is the practice for other days.

Alternative broadcasters of Notturno / TTN are listed on the Notturno site here.

[teamsaint]

I meant the composers. Whatever effect a work might have on hearers, I don't think that composers think, "Can I make the listeners feel sad, comforted, healed, drained etc?" Do they? Perhaps that's the whole point of the exercise I (naively?) thought that they would be putting their own feelings into the work.

Well I suppose some composers, EG for some film music, set out with a specific intention for effect on the listener. But in the main, I would think that, as you say, they are attempting to reflect or describe personal feeling , as part of their creative effort.

Going back to the prog, do the focus groups really say that this is what they want at 5.00 AM ? (I’m assuming the BBC can still afford focus groups....) I suppose that commissioning decisions over a pub lunch are a thing of the past.......though you might not think so, given this particular outcome.

[french frank]

Well I suppose some composers, EG for some film music, set out with a specific intention for effect on the listener.

Which is why I find that sort of music 'manipulative' too And, whisper it not, composers like Puccini

Going back to the prog, do the focus groups really say that this is what they want at 5.00 AM ? (I’m assuming the BBC can still afford focus groups....) I suppose that commissioning decisions over a pub lunch are a thing of the past.......though you might not think so, given this particular outcome.

I've always mistrusted this so-called 'focus group' research as I don't think an R3 focus group is 'representative' of the R3 audience, but representative of a general audience - hence the call for R3 to be more accessible and less 'serious'.

[oddoneout]

I think it's just Saturdays. On the 16th "Tearjerker" again appears in the 5am-6am slot, but the 6am-7am slot is filled with another programme entitled "Downtime Symphony", but I don't think it will be a symphony:

"An hour of wind-down music to help you press pause and reset your mind. With chilled sounds of orchestral, jazz, ambient and lo-fi beats to power your downtime."



It looks as if R3 will be tapping into the EBU feed of "Notturno" (which I think the BBC originates) at 1am and running through to the end, and then not patching in the first part as is the practice for other days.

Alternative broadcasters of Notturno / TTN are listed on the Notturno site here.

And people worry about the morning schedule... As one of those sad deficients who do listen between 6-30 am and 12 I have to say that description sends shivers down my spine - and not in a good way as the saying goes. Saturdays on R3 have become something of a desert listening wise for me and the radio is off all day apart from an hour or so before 9am, possibly catching the last of TTN, and sometimes 'Inside Music' in the afternoon, so if this goes ahead it likely won't even be switched on in the first place. Having just looked up 'lo-fi beats' that's most certainly not what I want to start my day, when tolerance levels are not good!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Mrs TS found Smooth Classics at 7 ideal for marking 90 books.......

Somehow, creating shows like this to create a “ mood” seems to me somewhat arrogant, and doomed to failure.
As an example, I find The Smiths quite funny at times, but I probably wouldn’t programme them in a show designed to be humorous.......

Unfortunately mood themed programming is very popular . It’s a key money spinner on Spotify and this looks like R3’s response to it. A UK composer who writes a lot of the piano mood music for Spotify is one one the highest paid non vocal- composers in Britain - up there with the top game / film / tv composers . It’s one way of avoiding the garret starvation scenario...

[Ein Heldenleben]

Which is why I find that sort of music 'manipulative' too And, whisper it not, composers like Puccini



I've always mistrusted this so-called 'focus group' research as I don't think an R3 focus group is 'representative' of the R3 audience, but representative of a general audience - hence the call for R3 to be more accessible and less 'serious'.

It’s more a response to the way music is consumed nowadays - playlists , streams and music to suit a mood or as a background to an activity without any particular interest in who wrote it (or indeed its quality ) . But there’s always been music like that . It’s just that only Electors, Princes and Archbishops could afford it .(oh yes and it produced more than one masterpiece...)