Soul Music (radio series)

Soul Music is a music documentary series on BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in November 2000 which aims to focus on the emotional impact of famous pieces of music.[1] The works chosen can be anything from classical, popular, jazz or religious. The first episode examined Sir Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor.[2]

The programme doesn't have a presenter, but features a montage of interviews interspersed with clips of the work in question. Each programme usually has three to five contributors who have a personal story connected to the piece of music. One is usually a musicologist, conductor or performer who discusses the background to the work or composer, the other contributors are people who have a personal story connected to the piece.[3] For example, a 2010 episode on Gabriel Fauré's Requiem featured Fauré biographer Jessica Duchen discussing the history of the work; veteran choral conductor Sir David Willcocks, who reflected on his experience in the artillery during World War II; Christina Schmid, widow of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid GC; and Paul Hawkins, vicar of St Pancras New Church who organised a performance the weekend after the 7 July 2005 London bombings.[4]

The series has been broadcast for 26 series, as of 2020, and has featured works as diverse as "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins, George Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad Rhapsody, Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman and the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.[1] Antonia Quirke, writing in the New Statesman notes that each episode is produced by one person and can take up to five years before a suitable range of speakers can be compiled, citing the episode on Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll.[3]