Musically Speaking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On May 1, 1786, Mozart conducted the world premiere of The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna. 240 years later, it remains one of the most performed operas on earth. In this episode, I reflect on what made Mozart’s approach to opera revolutionary: music so precisely tailored to each character that you cannot swap their melodies. And in the opera’s very first scene, before the plot has barely begun, Mozart does something even more remarkable. He lets two characters sing in harmony to tell you something the text never says.

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 John Mason Hodges’ talk at New Saint Andrews College on this exact subject: https://youtu.be/9OSFCcvtcFc

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 this episode, I reflect on why the pipe organ shaped Christian worship for centuries and what it still teaches us today. From Mozart’s description of it as “the king of the instruments” to its role in strengthening congregational singing, the organ models corporate worship: many voices unified under one guiding hand. More than nostalgia, it is theological architecture, breath turned into sound, reminding us that worship is proclamation, not private meditation.

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

Colm Wilkinson’s Jean Valjean remains one of the defining performances of Les Misérables. In this episode, we listen to three moments from the 10th Anniversary Concert to hear how the grain and color of his voice reveal moral tension, resolve, and prayer. It’s a masterful example of vocal command and authentic storytelling in song.

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