Music And Ideas

Latest Episodes:

#6- Jimmie Rodgers: America's Blue Yodeler May 26, 2020

Show notes

In this week's episode, the trio discusses the themes and song stylings of the original blue yodels, a series of thirteen songs written and recorded by Jimmie Rodgers during the period from 1927 to his death in May 1933.

Known during his career as “The Singing Brakeman" and later "The Father of Country Music," Jimmie Rodgers created a defining rally cry for the Southern poor.

Jimmie's 1928 hit “T For Texas (Blue Yodel #1)” was a national phenomenon and generated an excitement and record-buying frenzy that no one could have predicted. The song has been covered by the likes of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard.

If you aren't attached to the nostalgia, Jimmie's yodeling may become a question of aesthetics. Of the music quality, Michelle points out, "There's no groove, it doesn't feel grounded."

Scott counters, "It's not about his musicianship. It's about the stories, his authenticity, his character, and that he represented a whole group of people."

Tune in to hear more music and ideas, brought to you by Online Great Books.

#5- The Legacy of Toto May 12, 2020

Show notes

Did Toto create the most perfect pop song ever?

According to Karl, "You can uncover a lot more beauty in just regular old pop music if you shift your focus from that first hit that it gives you— listen a little deeper and you’ll find neat stuff.”

Although the three hosts disagree on the best Toto song, they all recognize that the shelf life of many Toto hits has reached remarkable, unexpected lengths.

In the second part of the episode, the gang breaks down Toto's "Africa," a single so good that it still lights up the Internet today. But have the memes gone too far? Scott says, “It’s become a symbol for excess in pop music and that hurts me a little bit.”

Tune in to hear more music and ideas, brought to you by Online Great Books.

#4- Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Major Apr 28, 2020

Show notes

Scott, Karl, and Michelle listen to and discuss Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 846-847. It is the first prelude and fugue in the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, a series of 48 preludes and fugues by the composer.

What is a fugue? As Michelle points out, a fugue's purpose is, "to reveal, or to play, the exact same melody in all of the different predetermined voice parts." To Karl, Bach's Fugue is "like a conversation between four people.”

Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is instrumentally indifferent, eliciting a universal appeal.

The shortcomings of the keyboard instruments of his time meant that he looked to instruments like the harpsichord and clavichord as kinds of “universal” instruments. After all, the instrument for the home was, in Germany at the time, the clavichord.

The trio first listens to a version by Friedrick Gulda on the clavichord. Later in the podcast, they listen to another version by Martha Goldstein, also performed on the clavichord.

Tune in to hear more music and ideas, brought to you by Online Great Books.

#3- Harmony in Chopin's Prelude Op. 28, No. 4 Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

This week, Michelle, Scott, and Karl listen to the Prelude Op. 28, No. 4 by Frédéric Chopin in E minor. We are listening to the Nino Gvetadze version which you can access here.

As Michelle points out, "This is the clearest example of what happens when you put notes together and you just change them little by little." In other words? Harmony.

Harmony has the capacity to elevate a piece of music from common and predictable to challenging and sophisticated.

Whether or not you believe harmony to be its own form of rhetoric, Karl reminds us, "Being able to know what someone is doing makes your peaks higher.”

Tune in to hear more music and ideas, brought to you by Online Great Books.

#2- Louis Armstrong's West End Blues: Improvisation and the Blues Mar 31, 2020

Show notes

Dear listener,

Where to begin with such an influential piece of music. Michelle believes, "This is about the blues, the blues scale, the blues feel, blues style and form. It's fundamentally what was groundbreaking about improvisation."

Karl's take? "It's about classical cornet method meeting the rest of that stuff."

They are of course referring to "West End Blues" written by King Oliver in 1928. By the time Oliver wrote "West End Blues," his protege, Louis Armstrong, had formed a studio band that recorded as either the Hot Five or Hot Seven, depending on its size.

You may know Armstrong for some of his later hits like "Hello, Dolly" and "What a Wonderful World" but "West End Blues" will always hail as a mile marker in the evolution of jazz. For starters, its 15-second opening cadenza has become one of the most influential and hard-to-copy solos in jazz history.

Tune in to hear more music and ideas, brought to you by Online Great Books.

#1- Brahms' Symphony No. 3: Music as Conversation Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

Scott Hambrick, founder of onlinegreatbooks.com, Karl Schudt, and Michelle Hawkins launch this podcast at the only suitable place to start— with a melody.

Before tuning in to the podcast, go listen to Brahms' Symphony No. 3.

Michelle says, "This particular melody is not repetitive, it takes you on a journey that makes sense. It’s an unfolding of his thought process." Scott adds, "The thought process of the genius is more accessible when it’s music than reading what they’ve written."

In listening to Brahms' musical journey, the trio asks questions like: What is melody? Are you able to talk about sound without metaphor? Can music itself just be its own end?

If you have grown up on pop music, you may have not been exposed to these melodic sentences. This is a chance to expand your exposure and what you can delight in.

Why would you not want to have more things that are beautiful in your life?

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected