Anyone know what this piece is called?

I sent a link to this thread to ehBeth, maybe she can help you (she lives in Tranna).

You can contact the station through:

http://www.classical963fm.com/contact_us.php

Good luck!

thank you very much for your enthusiasm, I tried to email the host of the program Arlene Meadows on several occasions (earliest was 1 year ago) and her email address, surprisingly, is not her personal email address, so I guess that's why I've not received any response to my enquiry. But thank you so much for trying to help, I appreciate it.

Setanta listens to this station, literally around the clock.

I'll poke him to see what the theme music is if I can't track it down.

(thanks for the heads-up, l'k)

Rachmaninoff, Second Symphony, the adagio (third) movement.

Miss Meadows also often refers to this one hour program as Tempo Adagio. All music of this type has specified tempi (plural of tempo, which in Italian means "time"--and refers to the "speed" at which music is played), with one tempo usually governing an entire movement. There are exceptions--such as the first movement of Tschaikowski's Sixth Symphony, which has nine changes of tempo in that one movement--but basically, all symphonies have four tempos corresponding to the four movements. Originally, symphonies had three movement, were very short (ten to fifteen minutes), and went, basically: fast, slow, fast. Haydn created the modern symphony of four movements, adding a dance tempo movement, and lengthening all of the movements, so that his symphonies last form 15 to 30 minutes. Sometimes the "dance" movement is the second movement, sometimes the third. Sometimes a "scherzo" movement is used, scherzo basically meaning a musical joke, or a humerous or exaggerated exploration of the theme of the work. The most common "dance" movement for most of the history of the symphony was a minuet, but Beethoven (i believe) introduced the scherzo as a movement, and unsettled all the rules (for example, in his Third Symphony, the second movement is very slow and grave, and is marked marche funebre--funeral march).

Tempo adagio simply means played slowly.

One of my favorite adagios is from the "Platoon" soundtrack, simply titled Adagio For Strings...it's one of the most calming pieces of music that I own.

I'm well aware that everyone is not a hip-hop fan, so feel free to ignore this...The {long} intro to Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You", is an adagio...very similar to the one found on the Platoon soundtrack. The entire song {Missing You} is simply pieces and parts of other songs from varying genres, meshed together to form something new...which is one of the main elements of hip-hop. When done correctly, you get a cool song like "Missing You", which uses Classical, the adagio intro...Rock, the underlying base of the song, Sting/The Police's "Every Breath You Take"...Gospel, the chorus...and Rap, the lyrics. On the Platoon ST, as well as in the movie...Charlie Sheens thoughts can be heard on top of the Adagio, and Puffy does the same in his song.

That's Adagio for Strings by the English composer Samuel Barber. An excellent piece of music. You might be interested in the work of a near contemporary of Barber, who was an important influence on him, Rafe Vaughan Williams (a Welshman, his first name is often rendered "Ralph" by the English). Try The Lark Ascending by Williams, i think you'd really enjoy it.

thank you! i've been trying to find its name, without much success, for quite a while now, and it only took 2 days to find the answer to the question I've been meaning to ask! Thanks a lot guys! xD

Set, thanks for the Williams piece...very nice, lots of violin, and of course I love the "swells", very enjoyable, especially with the aid of a sub-woofer.

Found this...

The composer's surname is Vaughan Williams, though following family precedent, it is not hypenated. For those confused by the pronunciation of the name 'Ralph', it seems that 'Rafe' is the old English style, English actor Ralph Fiennes' name is also pronounced the same. The composer was reputedly maddened when mistakenly called 'Ralf'.

Wow... I'm replying to a thread that has been idle for ten years! The Nocturne theme piece is the third movement Adagio from Rachmaninoff's Symphony No 2.

How did I find this thread? I have been also searching for an Arlene Meadows theme, but it has proven much more elusive. It's the theme from "Luncheon Date", her program of early 20-century/Edwardian music, ie salon pieces, palm court orchestra, and "a touch of ragtime" which has been off the air since the pre-internet days, thus info/recordings not available anywhere. I wrote to CFMX aka Classical 96.3 and John van Driel replied and indicated it was the Tartuffe from Moliere Imaginaire by Nino Rota, but I listed to the whole Moliere on YouTube and it wasn't there (I have yet to find the Tartuffe by itself.) Perhaps someone else will know.

Edit: I just noticed that Setanta already answered this ten years ago as well. Hah!

I found this thread much like the others of you did looking for this haunting song. I did some work in Toronto many years ago and on my lunch hour, I got hooked on Luncheon Date. I called the station and found the info already discussed here. I even took a cassette tape recorder with FM built into it and prayed that I'd have a good signal and a clean recording. I did and of over the course of time, I lost the recordings.

I later contacted CMFX and found that they had a 2 CD set of some of the Luncheon Dates favorite songs. I bought that from them and also 2 other CD sets. One was A Fine Romance and the other a Christmas CD set. The first song on disc 1 was the Tartuffe theme. I've scoured youtube and other sites looking for it but never have heard it anywhere else.

Quite by coincidence, I found this listing on eBay offered by an American seller. [Edit (Moderator): link removed]

Here's the track listing. The titles were keyed in by me and I may have taken some shortcuts:

Luncheon Date Volume 1 01 - Tartuffe by Nino Rota.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 02 - Gruss mir mein Wein.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 03 - Gypsy Love Waltz.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 04 - Czardas.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 05 - Nobody's Sweetheart.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 06 - The Song is You.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 07 - Madame Butterfly Excerpts.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 08 - We'll Gather Lilacs.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 09 - The Warsaw Concerto.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 10 - Maple Leaf Rag.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 11 - Puttin' On the Riztz.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 12 - La Vie en rose.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 13 - A Nightengale Sang in Berkeley Square.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 14 - O Madchen, mein Madchen.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 15 - Victor Hubert Medley.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 1 16 - Mi Buenos Aires querido.mp3

Luncheon Date Volume 2 01 - Radetsky March.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 02 - Boum.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 03 - Teddy Bears' Picnic.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 04 - Sleeping Beauty Waltz.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 05 - On the March.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 06 - Begin the Beguine.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 07 - Blue Danube Waltz.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 08 - Caprice viennois.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 09 - Shepherd's Hey.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 10 - Wedding Cake Caprice Waltz.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 11 - Bells Across the Meadow.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 12 - Love is the Sweetest Thing.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 13 - Bethena Waltz.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 14 - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 15 - Bachianas Brasieiras #5.mp3
Luncheon Date Volume 2 16 - All the Things You Are.mp3

Hope this helps. Regards,
Irv
Florida USA