“Ships become obsolete; fine furs are ravaged by moths, faded by the sun, worn by rubbing against show cases; garments go out of style; the gold watch grandfather handed down is replaced by a thin one. Change and decay is all around—except in violins. Death rarely comes to the violin.” 

So wrote Arland Weeks in 1929, in The Scientific Monthly.

Dr Laura Case gives Andy a potted history of the violin in Australia, from 1788 to 1914 – and beyond. It's a history of class and gender lines in the colony but it's also about how the violin has been an instrument of both assimilation and resistance by First Nations violinists.

Music at the start of the show:

Title: Etude No. 1Composer: Rodolphe KreutzerArtist: Elizabeth WallfischAlbum: 40 EtudesLabel: CPO

Title: Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23; No. 3; i. PrestoComposer: Ludwig Van BeethovenArtist: Elizabeth Wallfisch, David BreitmanAlbum: Beethoven: The Sonatas for violin & fortepiano Nos. 1-5Label: Nimbus

Title: The Highlandman SetComposer: trad.Artist: Chris DuncanAlbum: Fyvie’s EmbraceLabel: ANC Music

Title: Was There Anything I Could Do? Composer: The Go-BetweensArtist: The Go-BetweensAlbum: 16 Lovers LaneLabel: Mushroom

Title: Biamanga Juxtaposed, Sound of Past with Future; ii. Ancient ImprovComposer: Eric AveryArtist: Eric Avery, Ensemble OffspringAlbum: Biamanga JuxtaposedLabel: ABC Classic

Music in the interview with Laura:

Title: Duos Op. 64; No. 1; B.509 – iii. Adagio - CantabileComposer: Ignaz Josef Pleyel Artist: Indira Gonzalez, Emmanuel SiffertAlbum: 6 Duos, Op. 64Label: VDE-Gallo

Title: High Road to LintonComposer: TradArtist: Sharon ShannonAlbum: The Winkles TapesLabel: Kata Songs

Title: Maritana, Act 1: Opening ChorusComposer: William Vincent WallaceArtist: RTE Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Proinnsias O DuinnAlbum: MaritanaLabel: Naxos

Title: Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major; Op. 30, No. 3; iii. Allegro vivaceComposer: Ludwig Van BeethovenArtist: Anne-Sophie MutterAlbum: Beethoven: The Violin SonatasLabel: Deutsche Grammophon

Title: Hermit of Killarney & The Black Cat Piddled in the White Cat’s EyePerformed live in studio by Dr Laura Case

Title: Biamanga Juxtaposed, Sound of Past and Future; iii. Eagle and CrowComposer: Eric AveryArtist: Eric Avery, Ensemble OffspringAlbum: Biamanga JuxtaposedLabel: ABC Classic

Music at the end of the show: 

Title: Go To Sleep (The Legend Of Ŋamini Baŋ’ Baŋ’)Artist: Andrew Gurruwiwi BandAlbum: Sing Your Own SongLabel: Independent release

Technical production by Nathan Turnbull. 

The Music Show is made on Gadigal and Gundungurra Country.

Country singer songwriter Andy Golledge cut his teeth in Sydney’s Inner West band scene before returning to his hometown of Tamworth a local hero. He and his band have racked up thousands of kilometres of touring, and whether it’s in the back room of a country pub or in the biggest concert hall in town, they put on one hell of a show. Andy is our ears on the ground at Tamworth Country Music Festival which ends this weekend, and he’s up for two Golden Guitar Awards for his latest album Young, Dumb & Wild.

Pianist Lisa Moore and clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff are two Australian musicians who’ve spent much of their lives overseas. Their new album My Place brings together Australian and American composers works either written or arranged for piano and clarinet. Lisa and Lloyd join Andy to talk about how a nation finds its sound – or doesn’t.

Andy Golledge performs at Tamworth Country Music Festival on Saturday 25 January at 9pm. 

American composer Caroline Shaw’s latest album, a collaboration with Sō Percussion, is called Rectangles and Circumstance. It’s a collection of ten songs run through with words by Emily Dickinson, Emily Bronte, William Blake and Christina Rossetti, as well as Caroline herself. She joins Andy from her home in the US to talk about her collaborators and her co-poets.

When Irish singer songwriter David Keenan came onto the scene he was described as “the sound of Tim Buckley and Brendan Behan arguing over a few jars, while Kavanagh deals Dylan a suspicious hand of cards, and Anthony Cronin and Jack Kerouac furiously try to scribble it all down” – so no pressure there. He talks about wearing those comparisons, writing songs about Ireland, and the story behind his guitar as well as performing new music live.

The Music Show explores the legacy of the late Ruby Hunter – short in stature, a giant in music, and a mentor and parental figure to so many First Nations musicians in subsequent generations. We’ll hear Ruby from the archives, and catch up with Emily Wurramara and Dan Sultan, both of whom have sung a tribute to Ruby Hunter alongside their fantastic new albums.

Some of the most prominent folk singers of the twentieth century like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan were being surveilled and, in some cases, blacklisted by the FBI due to their political activism and ties to the U.S Communist Party.

Writer and historian Aaron J. Leonard has written several books on the subject and is in to reveal why the US Government was so fixated on musicians in the 1940s and 50s, and what he unearthed from the FBI files he gained access to. 

Aaron J. Leonard's books on this subject include The Folk Singers and the Bureau: The FBI, the Folk Artists and the Suppression of the Communist Party, USA-1939-1956 and Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion and Repression - 1955-1972, both published by Repeater Books. 

Ziggy Ramo returns to The Music Show with a new album that’s more than just an album. Human? is a new and beautifully contradictory sound for Ziggy. It blends folk (with guest vocals from Vonn) and his signature rap, precipitated by Ziggy picking up the guitar for the first time in the wake of his 2021 single Little Things. 

Ziggy joins Andy to talk about the project - which spans the album, the book, and a related exhibition. It's an exploration of dark histories and big questions. The book is called Human? A Lie That Has Been Killing Us Since 1788.

Romano Crevici has been playing violins made by Harry Vatiliotis for decades. Now drawing to the end of their respective careers, Harry has made one final instrument, which will be Romano's last violin too. The process, challenged by sore joints, thin skin, and Harry's caring responsibilities to the love of his life Maria, have been captured in a moving film called The Last Violin by Carla Thackrah. Romano and Carla are in the studio with the titular violin.

Arooj Aftab’s album Vulture Prince took her ten years to write, and for the final two she had to shut all other music out of her life. “I just was trying to make a thing that didn't have a blueprint" she says, of an opus that combines jazz, experimental electronica and Sufi devotional music with her own unique voice. 

For someone referred to as "the Queen of Jazz" and "First Lady of Song", there's a surprising amount we don't know about legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. She didn't fit the image of a star: she was incredibly polite, avoided drugs and swearing, and kept her private life entirely private. But when she sang, people listened. Her clear diction, perfect intonation and master of scat singing made her one of the greatest vocalists of the 20th century.  

Music historian and author of Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song Judith Tick reveals as much as she can about the great singer.

Harnessing looping pedals, percussion and vocal manipulation, Tune-Yards make a very big sound for a core membership of two people. It's been ten years since the experimental pop project released their third album Nikki Nack and creepy hit Water Fountain. Songwriter and singer Merrill Garbus is on The Music Show to talk about the duo's complex rhythms, vocal athleticism, and how to play with words.

Omar Musa is an author, artist, poet, and woodcutter making music and art from Borneo to Brooklyn. His third album. The Fullness, touches on the environment, culture, religious identity, and mortality. He creates poetry from a spoken-word background, melding hip-hop, jazz, and electronic sounds with earnest lyricism. 

From the rattling charge of The Lone Ranger to the slick, warbling vocals of White Lotus, music for television has been beckoning us to the couch for the best part of a century.

In Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring, Jon Burlingame has charted the history of music for telly in the form of an elegiac sort of look back at the medium as streaming overtook network TV and the 2007 writers’ strike looked to have changed the medium forever. Now a new edition, released in the context of a new and bitterly long writers’ and actors’ strike, may serve as an elegy for the streaming age too.

Jon joins Andy from Los Angeles to fire up the cathode ray and listen to the music of the medium, with plenty of memorable tunes in the mix.