The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
On My Wavelength
Looking ahead to International Women’s Day on Wednesday, Kate Molleson presents a live edition of Music Matters (Saturday, Radio 3, 11.45am), in which a panel of guests, including writer and broadcaster Leah Broad, and composer Anna Clyne chair contributions from 10 inspirational women in music.
One such inspiring woman in music was the American ethnologist and folk song collector, Sidney Robertson Cowell, who lived from the beginning until the end of the
20th century and made an enormous contribution to the collection and preservation of American folk songs. Of being a woman travelling alone in remote places in search of music, she once wrote, “I don’t scare easily”. Cowell is the focus of Government Song Woman (Sunday, Radio 3, 6.45pm), presented by Grammy Awardwinning American folk musician Rhiannon Giddens.
ChatGPT and language generating AIs are rapidly revolutionising the world we live in. It’s starting to seem as if AI can now passably emulate all the enriching things that make human life worth living, such as literature, music and painting.
But can AI make a radio documentary about itself, its strengths, weaknesses and dangers? A Documentary: By ChatGPT (Monday, Radio 4, 8pm) is an attempt to find out, with
“a bit of human help” (we’ll find out just how much) from journalist Lara Lewington.
The number of young people studying music in the UK has declined over the last 10 years, with state schools increasingly prioritising other subjects in the wake of stricter curriculums and budget cuts. With the future looking murky for British music, where will the skilled musicians of tomorrow come from? In a three-part series, Rethinking Music (Tuesday, Radio 4, 11.30am), Soweto Kinch discusses the future of music education with Nicola Benedetti and Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason.
Scala is leading radio’s celebration of International Women’s Day (Wednesday, Scala Radio, from 9am) on the day itself by playing only music by women artists or featuring women soloists and conductors. There are special guests throughout the day, including Norwegian classical trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, performing at 1pm in the Scala Sessions with Sam Hughes, while the eminent American conductor Marin Alsop selects an hour of recordings starring women at 4pm.
It’s hard to fathom in the age of the motor car, but horses used to be a key part of city life across Europe until as recently as the middle of the 20th century. In Assignment: Ireland’s Urban Horses (Thursday, World Service, 9.30am), Katie Flannery travels to Limerick and Dublin to hear about horses that are still kept in urban environments, from housing estates to city centres, despite authorities attempting to dissuade the practice.
And Book of the Week: Travellers to Unimaginable Lands (Monday to Friday,
Radio 4FM, 9.45am) is Dasha Kiper’s exploration of dementia and how it changes family relationships, leading to all sorts of difficult existential dilemmas. Drawing on case studies that focus on both the person with dementia and the care-giver, the book makes use of neuroscience and psychology to provide a new perspective on the condition and its effects.