Rota [2:12, 2:12]
Medieval radio transcript 1994

 

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1. i know you want us to
hear something of the piece
rota versatilis
2. the turning wheel which
i know you’ve worked on a
good deal
3. tell us a little bit about it
it’s an english piece i think
4. it’s an english piece
5. we are jumping back
now more than a century to
the early fourteenth
century
6. it was obviously quite
widely circulated
7. because it survives in no
fewer than four different
manuscript sources
8. which is a lot for any
piece at that time
9. but all of them are
extremely fragmentary
10. some of them are the
wretched little postage
stamp sized strips that
were used to reinforce
sewing holes in a book
11. but they can be jigsawed
together to produce some
idea of this piece
12. it’s a big motet on saint
catherine
13. the turning wheel which
you mentioned seems to be
both the wheel on which
saint catherine was
tortured
14. and it also seems to
refer to the wheel of
fortune and its action on
her persecutors
15. so lets hear the opening
of the piece
16. and then a section from
the middle
17–20. […]
21. it’s a promising opening
but that’s all there is of it
with the top part and then
the texture recedes
22. lets go to a complete
chunk now from the
middle of the piece
23–30. […]
31. that certainly makes its
presence felt doesn’t it
32. well it does
33. and it’s so tantalising
because it’s a big piece it’s
a very ambitious piece
34. and it’s not quite like
any other english piece that
we know from this time
35. i am very glad you said
that because I was about to
say that i’ve never heard
anything like that
36. no no
1. i know you want us to
hear something of the piece
rota versatilis
2. the turning wheel which
i know you’ve worked on a
good deal
3. tell us a little bit about it
it’s an english piece i think
4. it’s an english piece
5. we are jumping back
now more than a century to
the early fourteenth
century
6. it was obviously quite
widely circulated
7. because it survives in no
fewer than four different
manuscript sources
8. which is a lot for any
piece at that time
9. but all of them are
extremely fragmentary
10. some of them are the
wretched little postage
stamp sized strips that
were used to reinforce
sewing holes in a book
11. but they can be jigsawed
together to produce some
idea of this piece
12. it’s a big motet on saint
catherine
13. the turning wheel which
you mentioned seems to be
both the wheel on which
saint catherine was
tortured
14. and it also seems to
refer to the wheel of
fortune and its action on
her persecutors
15. so lets hear the opening
of the piece
16. and then a section from
the middle
17–20. […]
21. it’s a promising opening
but that’s all there is of it
with the top part and then
the texture recedes
22. lets go to a complete
chunk now from the
middle of the piece
23–30. […]
31. that certainly makes its
presence felt doesn’t it
32. well it does
33. and it’s so tantalising
because it’s a big piece it’s
a very ambitious piece
34. and it’s not quite like
any other english piece that
we know from this time
35. i am very glad you said
that because I was about to
say that i’ve never heard
anything like that
36. no no

 

Hereabouts

1997

 

“… to Land’s End, up the Bristol Channel to near Cardiff, and then along the coast of South Wales to the far end of the Tenby peninsular. The route then follows the Pembrokeshire coast, Cardigan Bay, and the Lleyn Peninsular to the Menai Strait. A brief reconnaissance
of Anglesey precedes the continuation along the coast of North Wales, Lancashire, and Cumberland to the Solway Firth. The journey recommences at Berwick and follows the east coast as far as the Thames … from London via the Channel coast …”

After J. A. Steers The Coast of England and Wales in Pictures, Cambridge 1960.


axe by deflected mouth of seaton shingle slightly spit … at bay beer chalk cliffs head seaton … at beer chalk cliffs devon foundered hooken landslip masses of south under … bay ladram near showing sidmouth stacks … almost at bar blocking estuary sand teign teignmouth … and arch caves corbyn cut head in natural permian rocks torquay … and cliffs composed dart devonian drowned estuary mudstones of slates valley … bee sands … point start … bay cornwall lantivet south … drowned estuary fowey inland of over polruan river … dodman the … and beach black cherts cove deposits eroded gravelly head in killas nellys obliquely of on platform porthallow raised resting rock sandy series slates stratified veryan … also basse bay beach blown enys formed forms from head horneblende hot in is kennack lizard made of platform point reefs sand schist serpentine storm which with … along and cove cut detail due erosion faults in is its kynance partly rocks serpentine to … mount stmichaels … castellated character emphatic end granite is lands of … beach perran … coastline devonian head in indented kelsey newquay slates west … bay cliffs cliff-top devonian fort head in iron-age slates trevelgue watergate … camel composed country devonian estuary harbour here of padstow rock slates … age all buildings but dark famous from head headland is mainland of on scattered separated settlement this tintagel which … at cut devonian gorge hanging in is mouth of phyllites rocky tintagel upper valley … along back boscastle cut harbour has into joints land sea … active bude coast composed cornish culm dipping erosion here in measures north of on progress south steeply … anticline are basset begins cliffs composed consist culm dips edges hartland limb measures milford mill mouth near of other pinnacle quay sandstone second shore-reefs spekes that towards water where … along and at culm down fall flowing foot in is limb milford mill mouth of sandstones sharp spekes stream strike syncline water waterfall … ho pebble ridge westward … baggy bay forms headland morte point sands that woolacombe … and bull coast forms hardly in is it jagged morte of point promontory really reefs right-angled shows slates true turn … almost and at bounded by castle coast end grits hard is it lynton now of parallel road rock rocks rugged runs shales streamless valley wall weathered where with … at coast composed devon devonian dipping foreland here north of point rocks steeply … anchor and anticline are at axis beds been being blue by capped cliffs collapse due erosion folded formed have headland horizontal into is lias mainly marine of point produced profile rhaetic rocks shallow somerset to trias undercutting vertical … at bay bridgwater by coast ledges lias low lower of out picked rock seaweed tide … island low mud-flats steart tide … bay brean carboniferous down limestone of outlier weston … and breaksea clays coast form lias limestone lower of point … burrows dunes kenfig sand steel works … bay beaches gower peninsular pwll-du storm … along carboniferous cliffs coast cut gower head in limestone peninsular south to well-bedded worms … and are beds carboniferous carved cliffs coast foxhole gower highly in inclined limestone of peninsular plateau port-eynon slade south-east … backed bay by drift dunes glacial gower hills of old peninsular red rhossili sand sandstone terrace … estuary of point river taf wharley … cliffs coastal cut date foreland fronting geological in line of old recent red sandstone sea … caldy erosion island marine of plain well-developed … age bedded cliffs grit in lydstep millstone of point sandstone vertically … bay beds coastline eroded is lie manorbier nearly of old out red sandstone that vertical … along been bosherston by eroded fault gash has huntsmans leap pembrokeshire sea vertical-fault … and arch are bridge carboniferous caves cut green head in limestone of pembrokeshire plateau saddle wales … at bay end gateholm island marloes of west … island isle midland ordovician point rocks skomer volcanic wooltack … broad coal haven in measures monocline pembrokeshire sandstone sleek stone … at cambrian coast cut drowned interior middle nature of pembrokeshire plateau rocks scenery solva through valley … and carn erosional ffald head island llidi of outliers ramsey stdavids to … cliffs gwaelod in llandovery mudstones pwll … at bay coast cwm eglwys newport pembrokeshire yr … cemmaes cliffs coastal folding head in mudstones of ordovician south … aberayron bay cardigan coast new quay of … coastal foreshore fronting llanrhystyd narrow near plain … aberystwyth and at mouths of rheidol ystwyth … aberystwyth alternations consist cormorant cut evenly-bedded grits hereabouts in near of on platform regular rock sea shales shore stack which … aberystwyth bay by cardigan clarach deflected drowned is misfit near of one running shingle-bar smaller stream this to valleys … aberystwyth bedding coastal cliffs in mudstones north of planes silurian well-developed with … barmouth bay enclosing estuary mawddach ro sand-spit wen … at estuary low mawddach tide … dome dyffryn fringe harlech morfa mountains of sand-dunes west … and harlech morfa mountains snowdonian … creek on marshes talsarnau … castle criccieth … at hooked llanbedrog pwllheli sand-spit trwyn … aber at menai newborough point sand-spit warren … dinorwic menai port strait … anglesey boulder-clay church islet llangwyfan of on … anglesey at bay bays beaches coast complex composed heads here mona of on rocks sandy short small tre-arddur west … are cliffs hereabouts highest holyhead in islands south stack two … allt and coastal composed conway low-lying mountain of ordovician rocks strip to volcanic wen … almost carboniferous cliffs horizontally-bedded in limestone … and bay colwyn great head little orme penmaen tan … are beach bunter cliffs dingle facing liverpool low marine-eroded mersey mottled of point sandstone south upper … along alt and blundellsands by changed characteristic coast course erosion expanse flowing foreshore formally frequently its led of river sand serious shore this to wide … and carboniferous composed escarpment estuary fault head is leven limestone of park rocks silurian topography … above and are below between boulder-clay clay cliffs foreshore glacial gravel gutterby hill laminated loamy mainly material miles north of on probably rest sand silecroft spa summer they two with … annaside banks boulder-clay cliffs erosion in of … and are at by deflected details drigg esk eskmeals estuary evolution form in irt its mite north obscure of part point sands sand-spit single south to … and are beach beck beneath boulder-clay by capped cliffs course distant formed glacial gravels hill is isolated mid-glacial now of old on reaches resting rottington sands sandstone sea scar small stbees storm through turns westward … boulders coast form head large of one scars stbees this … age cliffs in of sandstone stbees triassic well-bedded … and beach between boulder-clay bowness bridge by foreshore marine narrow of raised road solway strip warp with … forshore greens group haven in limestone middle of strata syncline … bamburgh castle dunes knoll on rocky sand stands surround that which … and beadnell behind dyke foreshore harbour limestone north of sandbanks sandstone underlying whin white … bay beadnell dunes … and castle craster dip dunstanburgh harbour of scarp sill slopes small whin … and columnar contorted cullernose limestone point whin … alnmouth at bay end far harbour of to warkworth … bedded caves holey limestones permian rock roker upper thin with … bedded black caves hall limestones permian rocks with … bedded black brecciated dolomites hall in limestones on permian reef rocks same stack succession … at base boulby boulder- clay cliffs lias lower middle nab show staithes … and cliffs fine lias north staithes thereof … alum and beck bed beds cliff dogger eller estuarine foreshore forms highest is jet lias mulgrave near of part port rock shales top upper with … bay runswick … alum and are at bay beds black cliff cliffs dogger estuarine exposed floor foot forming is jet lias lowest nab of old only opposite outlying platform rock saltwick sandstone shale stacks tides upper works … and backed bay boulder-clay by cliffs enclosed fine fylingdales give hood’s ledges lias lofty moor north of place robin south steep sweeps to which within … and at beds cliffs cornbrash clay corallian dipping gently in nab oxford yons … bay filey … flamborough head … blow-hole boulder-clay chalk covered flamborough formed head is of with … active boulder-clay cliffs coast erosion grimston holderness in of … head spurn … eroded forshore lincolnshire near sutton … and beach coast cusps dunes lincolnshire … gibraltar point ridges sand skegness … at holbeach low mud-flats outfall stmatthew tide welland … at base bed carstone chalk cliffs greensand hunstanton lower red sponge white … head island scolt … and head island laterals marsh salt scolt shingle … and holkham marshes natural reclaimed wells-next-the-sea woods … blakeney church marshes morston … and are cliffs common fallen glacial gradually material materials of removes sea sherringham slips … boulder-clay cliffs coast in norfolk on overstrand … bacton by cliffs erosion exposed medieval of wall … sand-dunes winterton … by deflected great is mouth of spit yare yarmouth … beach benacre broad by dammed sea … beach minsmere … alde at ness orford river slaughden … haven ness orford … clay estuary foreshore freston hall london on orwell … and colne marshes point salt sand spit … mersea west … creek low mud-flats ray ridge sand tide … at coast kent north reculver … and are by church defences erosion is preserved reculver sea severe strong towers … and at bay birchington chalk cliffs erosion exposed foreshore gently low of sloping tide … birchington chalk cliffs … and at chalk cliffs in folkestone landslips steep warren … by dungeness growth picked of out ridges shingle vegetation … alluvial and ashdown former gate marsh meadow of sand sea-cliff strand winchelsea … abandoned along altered and coast guards level much near new now pett sea-cliff sea-wall station … and ashdown clay cliffs fairlight formed glen hastings of sand south-east … ashdown below cliffs cut ecclesbourne glen hastings in is ravine sand … birling chalk cliffs gap near seven sisters … as estuary harbour impounding known pagham sandspits shallow … channel chichester … at estuary hamble low tide … beaulieu estuary in marsh of river salt spartina … at keyhaven marshes salt … and at castle hurst keyhaven marshes salt spit … barton bay christchurch eastern of part sands … beds country dune harbour heath of on poole sandy side south studland tertiary … and chalk cliffs foreland in point stacks vertical … coast dorset eastwards from lulworth … cove east forest fossil lulworth of … and coast cove dorset lulworth of to west … chalk cliffs coast door dorset durdle from west … beach chesil … and bridport cliff inferior of oolite sands … bay cap golden lyme … and black coastal forward gault greensand landslips lias lower over sliding ven