by BBC Radio 4
<p>Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact</p>
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Publishing Since
1/8/2008
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April 26, 2025
<p>The Mexican pianist and composer Consuelo Velázquez was only 16 years old when she wrote Bésame Mucho, and she was yet to have her first kiss. </p><p>Composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez remembers hearing the song on the radio as a child in Cuba. She translates the Spanish lyrics - "Kiss me, kiss me passionately, as if tonight was the last time... Kiss me, because I'm afraid to lose you, afterwards". It's an achingly romantic bolero that has been translated into more than 20 languages and recorded by hundreds of artists, including João Gilberto, Frank Sinatra, Cesaria Evora, Diana Krall, Josephine Baker, Trio Los Panchos and The Beatles. Music writer Richard Williams talks about the eternal appeal of the melody and how it creates its emotional impact. </p><p>German singer and composer Roland Kunz tells the tragic story behind the melody which inspired Consuelo to write the song: a piece by the Catalan composer Enrique Granados, who died the year Velázquez was born. At the height of WWI, Granados and his wife were on their way home to Spain from New York, when their passenger ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The story goes that Enrique was picked up by a lifeboat but saw his wife struggling in the water and dived in to save her. They perished, along with 50 other passengers.</p><p>We hear stories of three very different couples who loved to dance to the song. Peter and Dorothy Tozer met at a dance school in Acton in 1962 when they were 17 and 16 years old. When the song played during the lesson on the night they met, the dance instructor suggested that - as it was Valentine's Day - everyone should give a kiss to whoever they were dancing with at that moment. The two complete strangers shared a kiss, and have been together ever since. </p><p>When Stephen Miller met his Mexican wife Maria, love wasn't on either of their minds. Stephen was in his fifties and had lost his first wife to cancer. Maria had been a single mum for many years. He didn't speak much Spanish, and she didn't speak much English, but they fell in love and had many wonderful adventures together. One day Stephen was backing the car out of the driveway when he hit the wall. He had begun to lose his sight. As the couple were still adjusting to their new reality, Stephen realised that Maria's memory was beginning to slip. He talks about navigating blindness and dementia, and how they would drop everything to dance together to Bésame Mucho, the lyrics of which grew ever more poignant over time. </p><p>And Denis Ledoux remembers his wife Martha, who died at 56. They loved to dance to the Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora's version of the song, practicing their dance steps in the living room. After Martha's death, he would listen to the song all the time, sometimes every day. The song became a way to hold onto her and the life they has shared. Denis reflects on how the song's lyric "kiss me, as if tonight was the last time" made him think of all the last times with Martha that he didn't know were last times. </p><p>Produced by Mair Bosworth Mixed by Ilse Lademann Soul Music is a BBC Audio Bristol production for BBC Radio 4</p>
April 19, 2025
<p>"May you never lay your head down without a hand to hold / May you never make your bed out in the cold."</p><p>A perfect folk song of brotherly affection, with simply voice and guitar, John's Martyn's May You Never has captured listeners' hearts since 1971. </p><p>John Martyn was born in Surrey in 1948 and grew up in Glasgow. Part of the potent London folk scene in the late 60s early 70s, John's style evolved from these folk roots. Written in his early 20s, the enduring version of May You Never was recorded in one take in the early hours of recording his beloved 1973 album, Solid Air. The lyrics encapsulate something of the essence of John Martyn: sweet, joyful and affectionate, yet with a hint of danger ("And may you never lose your temper / If you get in a bar room fight"). John's life was beset by substance abuse and addiction and he died in 2009, age 60. </p><p>May You Never, perhaps his most famous song, is remembered by those whose lives became entwined with the song, and by others who knew John or have covered it. </p><p>Featuring: Michael Volpe, Executive Director of If Opera; Lauren Bensted, a writer based in London; Graeme Thomson, author of Small Hours: The Long Night of John Martyn; Spencer Cozens, keyboard player and Musical Director in John Martyn's band from 1990-2009; Blythe Pepino, Kit Hawes, Pete Josef and Sam Brookes from The John Martyn Project.</p><p>With thanks to Kit Hawes and Spencer Cozens for the instrumental recordings.</p>
April 12, 2025
<p>Burns began a correspondence with Agnes McElhose, also known as Clarinda and Nancy, a married woman he was besotted with. When she left Scotland to reunite with her husband he wrote Ae Fond Kiss as a heartfelt farewell. It was later set to music and is one of his most famous 'songs' along with Auld Lang Syne and My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose.</p><p>Karen Matheson the singer with Capercaillie talks about its meaning to her and how performing it at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 was a very special moment.</p><p>Joan Donaldson from Michigan grew up with Scottish music and has called her latest historical novel Ae Fond Kiss. She says she channelled her grief into the characters as a way of dealing with a devastating loss.</p><p>Sir Geoff Palmer discovered the song when he arrived in Edinburgh in the 1960s. He has traced Burns' and the song's connection to his home country of Jamaica and feels proud of the links he discovered.</p><p>For film maker Karen Guthrie from Ayrshire - Burns' birthplace - coping with and caring for her estranged parents meant long drives home through the countryside he inhabited. It was a journey of rediscovering Scotland's national poet and relating her family's story to Ae Fond Kiss.</p><p>Musician Seonaid Aitken plays both versions of the song on the violin and explains how the music conveys the feelings of longing after an unresolved love affair.</p><p>Producer: Maggie Ayre</p>
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