Intermezzo

We're following the mischief of Till Eulenspiegel... but today it catches up to him. Richard Strauss's score sets Till's antics to music.

Till has been captured! Someone has tied his hands and thrown him into a burlap sack. Has justice finally come for Till Eulenspiegel? Who has managed to catch the uncatchable trickster?

Music in this episode:

Richard Strauss: "Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks"

After escaping from the monks, Till finds himself outside a garden party, which he crashes. Once inside, he begins showing off for a girl he just met.

You’ll hear his love theme (yes, he has one!) and some very dramatic music that shows how badly he handles rejection.

In the music, Richard Strauss uses playful leitmotifs, or musical themes, to help us recognize who’s who. Leitmotifs are kind of like musical name tags for Till and the people he meets.

Till bounces back from rejection and moves on to his next target: a group of professors arguing about rock, parchment and shears. As their musical theme plays in the background with the bassoon leading the way, things get heated.

Till’s prank goes out with a bang, and we’re left wondering… is all this trouble finally going to catch up with him?

Music in this episode:

Strauss: "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks"

Follow the outrageous antics of the trickster Till Eulenspiegel as told through Richard Strauss’s playful music. Tuesday's episode dives into his wild adventures at a market chaos and then a church mischief — all brought to life through Strauss’s score.

Music in this episode:

Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks

Till Eulenspiegel is a rascal of a character from German folklore and composer Richard Strauss captures his "merry pranks" with sound.

Eulenspiegel was a both a nuisance and a folk hero — some say he lived around 1300, although his stories didn’t show up in literature until 200 years later.

Real or not, we can laugh at him and learn from him. His stories are lessons on where troublemaking can lead you and also a peek into Medieval lifestyles.

Music in this episode:

Richard Strauss: "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks"

When you hold a seashell to your ear, it’s not the ocean you’re hearing — it’s ambient noise resonating inside the shell’s hollow chamber. This amplification happens through a phenomenon called acoustic resonance.

It’s the same principle behind how musical instruments like cellos, flutes, and even conch shell trumpets produce sound.

In this episode, you’ll hear about a 17,000-year-old conch shell discovered in a French cave, which was likely used as a trumpet by buzzing lips into its end. Plus, we’ll take a quick detour to India, where the conch shell, or shankh, is still played in temples today.

Music in this episode:

Mozart: Horn Concerto no. 4 in E-flat major, K. 495: III.

What are we really hearing when leaves rustle in the wind? In this episode, we explore psithurism—the whispering song of leaves vibrating at their natural frequencies—and discover how nature, science, and even Wagner’s music capture this quiet symphony.

Music in this episode:

Wagner: "Forest Murmurs" from "Siegfried"

Naturally resonant spaces are everywhere. And throughout history, they’ve sparked some of classical music’s most haunting and breathtaking creations.

This episode takes you deep into the sonic wonders of caves and other resonant spaces.

Your own body acts as a chamber — mouth, chest, even your skull — shaping the way sound travels. But natural caverns take it even further. Meet the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia’s Luray Caverns, an enormous instrument that turns the cave itself into a concert hall.

We’ll also explore why sound booms in these spaces and how composers have drawn inspiration from such acoustics to create some of classical music’s most haunting works.

Bonus: Organist Anna Lapwood offers a peek inside one of London’s most magnificent pipe organs.

Music in this episode:

Ambrose of Milan: "Christe, qui lux es et dies"

Christy and Andrew explore how tiny birds produce massive sound through acoustic resonance and how birdsong has long inspired both science and music.

You might think the loudest animal in the world must be massive — like an elephant or a lion. But think again. Scientists have discovered that the title actually goes to a tiny bird no bigger than a dove.

Composers, ever inspired by nature, often listen to bird calls and turned them into music. Antonio Vivaldi wrote a very pretty flute concerto inspired by birdsong called “The little goldfinch.”

Music in this episode:

Vivaldi: "Il Gardellino" (The little goldfinch)

Christy L’Esperance is joined by 8-year-old cohost Andrew, a second grader with a love for games and a curious mind.

The topic of the week is resonance in nature. Here's an example... resonance explains why tiny birds can sound as loud as elephants and why drips of water echo so powerfully in caves.

To demonstrate, they head to Interlochen Public Radio’s Studio A for a hands-on musical experiment where Andrew learns how to “play” the piano with just his voice.

Music in this episode:

Beethoven: "Moonlight" Sonata performed by Paul Lewis

Debussy: "Clair de lune" performed by Martin Jones

Joan Tower: "Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman" performed by Kara Huber