Friday FIVE: October 23 - Irrigating Deserts

On Monday I opened the piano bench to get the choir’s singing vitamins, forgot to close it, and promptly sat back down into it in front of a room full of elementary singers. It immediately reminded me of Victor Borge. In this episode I reflect on the Danish pianist and comedian who made a career out of taking classical music seriously without taking himself seriously, and on why humor and musical excellence are not opposites. Sometimes the right response is simply to laugh.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to a Victor Borge piano skit: https://youtu.be/dKeqaDSjy98Here’s a version of the piano seat belt bit: https://youtu.be/w2jdk18_6c4 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

We still understand formality at weddings and funerals. We dress differently, speak differently, behave differently. But when the living God calls His people into His presence each Lord’s Day, we seem increasingly tempted to make the occasion feel as ordinary as possible. In this episode I reflect on what our worship teaches us about God, why holiness and joy are not opposites, and what music specifically can do to help mark an occasion as set apart. Reverence is not stiffness. But worship that looks, sounds, and feels like everything else may quietly teach us that it is like everything else.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to the original article: https://jarrodrichey.substack.com/p/set-apart-holiness-meets-casual-worship This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

Someone once asked me how you get a person to love Bach when they would rather listen to Taylor Swift. In this episode, I reflect on why that question is framed the wrong way and how C.S. Lewis’s distinction between cutting down jungles and irrigating deserts relates to musical education. The goal is not to take things away. It is to enlarge a person’s capacity to hear. Good music rewards return visits, and the better your ears are trained, the more you notice everywhere else.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to the original article: https://jarrodrichey.substack.com/publish/post/139706169 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

In 1829, a twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Berlin and helped awaken a new generation to music that had largely disappeared from public performance. In this episode, I reflect on that remarkable act of musical stewardship, and on the deeper pattern it illustrates. Mendelssohn did for Bach what Bach did for those who came before him: he received an inheritance, studied it, and passed it along. In a time when originality is prized above almost everything else, this episode makes a case for imitation as its own form of thankfulness.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

On what would have been John Lennon’s 86th birthday, I return to “In My Life,” one of his most reflective songs and one of the great tracks from Rubber Soul. In this episode, I consider the restraint of Lennon’s lyric, George Martin’s iconic keyboard interlude, and the way memory, people, and the passing of time shaped some of Lennon’s best writing. I also make a case for listening to Rubber Soul straight through, with Revolver close behind, and briefly touch on “A Day in the Life” and “Watching the Wheels” as other examples of Lennon at his most observant.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to “In My Life”: https://youtu.be/ngzQTxXEcxQ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

Reginald Heber’s “The Son of God Goes Forth to War” is a familiar hymn text in many Christian traditions, but one lesser-known setting brings out something different in it. In this episode, I reflect on Leonard Payton’s Dorian setting of the hymn and the way its musical character holds together suffering, sacrifice, solemnity, and hope. Rather than turning the text into a simple victory march, the tune gives it a processional dignity that lets the words breathe. I also consider why a strong hymn text can sustain more than one musical setting, and why this one deserves to stand alongside the better-known alternatives.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to a recording from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX: https://redeemerpres.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/The-Son-of-God-Goes-Forth-to-War.mp3 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

In 1951, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong teamed up for “Gone Fishin’,” and the recording’s charm comes from the fact that they never try to sound alike. Crosby is smooth, relaxed, and conversational. Armstrong is gravelly, flexible, and unmistakably himself. In this episode, I reflect on the teasing, rhythmic give-and-take, and unlikely vocal blend that make the performance so much fun, and on why some of the best musical partnerships work because the differences stay intact.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to “Gone Fishin’”: https://youtu.be/E50Hl5mT6IQ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

Jon Batiste comes from one of New Orleans’ great musical dynasties, not unlike the Marsalis family. He was playing drums in the Batiste Brothers Band at age eight, earned his bachelor’s and master's degrees in jazz at Juilliard, served as bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, won the Grammy for Album of the Year for We Are, and won an Oscar for co-composing the score for Soul. In this episode, I reflect on what makes him so remarkable at the piano, feature his iconic Blackbird performance from the Ed Sullivan Theater on the 52nd anniversary of the Beatles’ American debut, and recommend his cover of Saint James Infirmary. Start with Chopinesque. You'll understand what all the fuss is about in no time.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to Chopinesque: https://youtu.be/xZqjM_IPeXgHere’s a live version of Saint James Infirmary: https://youtu.be/M3qTwHRECmMHere’s the live performance of Blackbird: https://youtu.be/kqHGMsKWAyg This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

Samuel Barber composed his Adagio for Strings in 1936 as an intimate meditation inspired by a passage from Virgil's Aeneid. He did not write it for grief. And yet grief found it. On this 25th anniversary of September 11th, I reflect on how this piece became the unofficial anthem of American mourning, from the radio announcement of Franklin Roosevelt's death to the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the days after the attacks in 2001. I also consider Barber's choral arrangement setting the Latin Agnus Dei text to the same music. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest. This piece keeps showing up at moments when we don't have words.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to the recording from September 15, 2001: https://youtu.be/Y4PWdOoOQjI This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com

On September 4, 1907, Edvard Grieg died in Bergen, Norway, the same city where he was born. 119 years later, his music is still among the most recognized in the classical repertoire. In this episode, I reflect on two pieces from his Peer Gynt suite that could not be more different. In the Hall of the Mountain King, which Grieg himself reportedly thought was too crude, and Morning Mood, which reveals the quieter and more luminous side of a composer who spent his whole career writing music that sounded like Norway. Same composer. Same suite. Remarkable range.The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.Here’s a link to a recording of In the Hall of the Mountain King: https://youtu.be/awRj_KdSVvYHere is a recording of Grieg’s Morning Mood: https://youtu.be/J-1Bob1dU18 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jarrodrichey.substack.com