Musically Speaking

Jarrod Richey
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Jarrod Richey's Musical Meanderings on music education, church music, hymnody, and more. jarrodrichey.substack.com

  1. 3 days ago

    Friday FIVE: June 26 - Real Harmony

    This week's episode comes from Atlanta, Georgia, where I am attending the Repairing the Ruins conference, the annual gathering of the Association of Classical Christian Schools. After nine years of leading morning singing in the Grand Ballroom for over a thousand classical Christian educators, I reflect on the workshop I gave yesterday — Real Harmony: Recovering Communal Singing in a Disembodied Age. Music surrounds us like never before. And yet the formative power of singing together is quietly disappearing from our schools, churches, and homes. The work of recovering it is not as elusive as it seems. 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 clip from two years ago in the atrium of this same hotel. We sang some psalms and hymns together: https://youtu.be/qw4tyqvzrdw 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

    5 min

  2. 19 Jun

    Friday FIVE: June 19 - Bethena, A Concert Waltz

    Scott Joplin gave America the Maple Leaf Rag and the Entertainer. But in 1905, grieving the death of his wife of ten weeks, he wrote something entirely different. Bethena is a concert waltz, marked cantabile, wistful and searching in ways ragtime was never supposed to be. In this episode, I reflect on the backstory behind this neglected composition, a quiet parallel to Bach's Partita No. 2 in D Minor, and what Bethena reveals about who Joplin really was beyond the title of King of Ragtime. 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 recording of Bethena: https://youtu.be/FzckSxYw7fg 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

    5 min

  3. 12 Jun

    Friday FIVE: June 12 - Straighten Up & Fly Right

    Nat King Cole’s first major commercial hit came from an unlikely source, his father’s pulpit. In this episode, I reflect on the story behind Straighten Up and Fly Right, the folk fable at its heart, and what made the King Cole Trio so distinctive. Along the way, I share a few of my favorite Cole recordings, including his shuffle cover of On the Street Where You Live. Sometimes the best advice and the best music come from the same place. 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 recording of “Straighten Up and Fly Right”: https://youtu.be/o-4VTlQlrosAnd one of my all-time favorites, his cover of “On the Street Where You Live": https://youtu.be/l0wfLdcV1ak 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

    5 min

  4. 5 Jun

    Friday FIVE: June 5 - Another Lens on Beethoven

    A few years ago, a friend told me I needed to hear Trio X of Sweden. He was right. In this episode, I reflect on this Swedish improvisational trio and their remarkable reinterpretations of Beethoven, Schumann, sacred music, and more. When they take on the Moonlight Sonata, it is not novelty or irony. It feels like another lens through which to hear a familiar work. Sometimes great art holds up precisely because it can be seen differently and still endure. 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 Trio X’s Cover of Moonlight Sonata: https://youtu.be/s9HHNbQYoJo 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

    5 min
  5. Friday FIVE: May 29 - Someone Had to Write It

    29 May

    Friday FIVE: May 29 - Someone Had to Write It

    As America approaches its semiquincentennial on July 4, 2026, composer and pianist Stephen Limbaugh decided the occasion deserved more than a theme song. In this episode, I reflect on his America 250 Symphony, a full four-movement, 28-minute orchestral work documented in real time over two years on X. Working in the lineage of Dvořák, Copland, and Gershwin, and collaborating with Hollywood orchestrator Conrad Pope, Limbaugh is attempting something serious. Whether or not it becomes a landmark work, the instinct behind it is worth paying attention to. 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 the link to support the work: https://www.givesendgo.com/A250symphony 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

    5 min

  6. 22 May

    Friday FIVE: May 22 - The Oratorio Before Elijah

    On May 22, 1836, Felix Mendelssohn premiered his oratorio St. Paul in Düsseldorf to immediate acclaim. One hundred and ninety years later, one chorus from it still stops people in their tracks. In this episode, I reflect on what made St. Paul significant in his time, what How Lovely Are the Messengers does with a text from Romans 10, and why a group of fourth through tenth grade boys in West Monroe, Louisiana, sang it better than they may have known. 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 the recording of “How Lovely are the Messengers”: https://youtu.be/wE5Ngf9_uqo 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

    5 min
  7. Friday FIVE Revisited: March 28 - A Place in the Choir

    15 May

    Friday FIVE Revisited: March 28 - A Place in the Choir

    This week’s episode briefly discusses the role of the choir when it comes to congregational singing in worship. 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. 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

    5 min
  8. Friday FIVE: May 8 - The Hymnal as Teacher

    8 May

    Friday FIVE: May 8 - The Hymnal as Teacher

    For generations, church hymnals did more than preserve songs. They quietly taught ordinary people how to read music. A passing remark from country singer Ella Langley sparked this one, and this episode explores how the act of singing from the page, week after week, formed musical instincts most people never knew they had. I reflect on the shift from hymnals to lyric screens and ask what role the church should play in forming musically literate worshipers today. The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey. https://jarrodrichey.substack.com/p/music-on-the-screens-in-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

    5 min
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About

Jarrod Richey's Musical Meanderings on music education, church music, hymnody, and more. jarrodrichey.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Jarrod Richey
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    88
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Jarrod D. Richey
  • Show Website
    Musically Speaking

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