Episodes

  • Murder

    Murder
    Jul 3 2026
    Stratton and Richie become aware that even sweet, joyful music making can hide a suspicious, even outraged, personality. Sometimes the chemistry of musical genius can become corrupted over time until finally, it leads not to a masterwork but to murder.
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    14 mins
  • Punk

    Punk
    Jul 10 2026
    Richie invites Stratton to listen to something he has actively avoided for 50 years – PUNK. There’s no telling how he’ll react…
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    16 mins
  • Virtuoso

    Virtuoso
    Jun 26 2026
    The Oxford Dictionary of Music claims that the term "virtuoso " is from Italian and means “exceptional performer.” According to the dictionary, the term originally referred to several types of musicians: performers, composers, and even theorists. By the late 18th century, it changed, and thereby hangs a tale Richie really wants to tell.
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    14 mins
  • Genius Destroyed

    Genius Destroyed
    Jun 23 2026
    At the turn of the 20th Century celebrity was invented as a substitute for genius, while the steady rise of the middle class meant the beginning of mass marketing and the establishment of “popular” music. Who were the geniuses, the men or women, who displayed the talent, the musical intelligence and the vision necessary to become leading figures in the creation of a North American Music? And how did they fare? To begin to answer those questions, Stratton and Richie examine the careers two pianist- composers, African- American Scott Joplin and French Canadian Andre Mathieu.
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    13 mins
  • Arnold Schoenberg

    Arnold Schoenberg
    Jun 12 2026
    Early on, Stratton asked Richie if he was ready to talk about the most vilified musician living in the 20thcentury. Richie asked Stratton if he meant Michael Jackson. “No,” Stratton replied, “although we should talk about Michael Jackson in the future.” Stratton meant Arnold Schoenberg. “Oh,” said Richie, “you mean the man who changed everything we thought we knew about music”.
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    12 mins
  • The Progressives

    The Progressives
    Jun 5 2026
    Stratton and Richie don’t generally talk about politics, but when Richie said he wanted to talk about “progressives,” Stratton, the old history major, got excited. He thought about “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Joe Hill, and Theodore Roosevelt, who invited cellist Pablo Casals and Samuel Coleridge Taylor, the black Anglo-African composer, to the White House. Is that what Richie meant? Not quite.
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    16 mins
  • Arvo Pärt

    Arvo Pärt
    May 29 2026
    After talking about Shostakovich who often lived and worked as though there was a gun to his head, Richie and I wanted to talk about another composer who, having been born in a country oppressed by Soviet rule and endured the limitations placed upon his musical career, went silent for a time. Only to re-emerge as a composer whose music embodied the concept of hope. And so, Arvo Pärt’s quiet, devotional music became an international sensation.
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    15 mins
  • Invitation to Dance

    Invitation to Dance
    May 22 2026
    Watching an old film, Roberta, a 1934 musical comedy starring Irene Dunn and Joel McCrea with music by Jerome Kern, Stratton heard a great tune called “I Won’t Dance” with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. While he sang it, a young Fred Astaire danced of course. Watching Astaire’s fancy footwork, a question formed in Stratton’s mind, “Can you be dancing when you’re not actually dancing?” Does all music convey an invitation to dance? Best to ask Richie what he thinks.
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    15 mins