Sisters

Available for 25 days

For there is no friend like a sister, and in this International Women’s Day edition of Words and Music, readings performed by Pippa Nixon and Sarah Amankwah explore the complex relationships between sisters. From delighting in each other’s company in a poem by Wordsworth to his sister Dorothy and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; to seething with jealousy in extracts from Arifa Akbar’s Consumed and CS Lewis’s Narnia; to sadness at parting in Diana Hendry’s Parting and Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half. There are many types of sisters: not just blood relatives, but friends, loved ones, and those rallying together to change the world. Emily Dickinson celebrates a sister-in-law, and Rupi Kaur celebrates sisters-in-heart, while Magi Gibson makes a call to arms for sisters in her poem ‘Wild Women of a Certain Age’. We also hear about musical sisters Nannerl Mozart and Fanny Mendelssohn, and there are musical figures twisting around one another like sisters in Bach’s Double Concerto and Brahms’s Concerto for Violin and Cello. Our soundtrack also includes piano duets played by the Labeque Sisters, and music from sisters Nadia and Lili Boulanger. We explore jealousy and sadness in songs from Hamilton and by the Unthank Sisters, and celebrate sisterhood with Angelique Kidjo. Producer: Sofie Vilcins Image: Susannah Harker (L) and Jennifer Ehle (R) as sisters Jane and Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC's 1996 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice READINGS: Christina Rossetti - Goblin Market William Wordsworth - To My Sister Spike Milligan - My Sister Laura Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice Brit Bennett - The Vanishing Half Rupi Kaur - It isn’t blood Emily Dickinson - One Sister Have I In Our House Colm Tóibín - Brooklyn Daisy Johnson - Sisters Diane Hendy - Parting Vicki Feaver - The Witches Louisa May Alcott - Little Women Arifa Akbar - Consumed CS Lewis - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Letter Anna Beer - Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music Cecily Hamilton - Marriage as a Trade Magi Gibson - Wild Women of a Certain Age Charlotte Mew - The Peddlar