The Music Show

Xiu Xiu has been a leading figure in American avant-pop for more than two decades: combining abrasive noise and extremely dark subject matter with a catchy pop sensibility. It’s perhaps no surprise then that they’ve been drawn to the work of David Lynch, releasing their version of the music of Twin Peaks, and now, appearing at Dark Mofo in Tasmania to present their take on Eraserhead. Jamie Stewart talks passion, performance, and Dolly Parton.

 in 1707 Alessandro Scarlatti wrote an oratorio called il primo omicidio - The First Murder. It features Cain, Abel, their parents Adam and Eve, and (naturally) God and Satan providing a bit of sung commentary too. Ashlyn Tymms, Madison Nonoa, and Erin Helyard share Pinchgut Opera's approach, which uses a distinctly Australian setting.

Pinchgut Opera are performing The First Murder at Roslyn Packer Theatre from May 23

Music heard in this program:

Title: JoleneArtist: Xiu XiuComposer: Dolly PartonAlbum: Xiu MF'n XiuLabel: Polyvinyl Record Company 

Title: Common LoonArtist: Xiu XiuComposer: Xiu XIuAlbum: 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn GripsLabel: Polyvinyl Record Company 

Title: Il primo omicidio, Parte prima; 'La fraterna amica pace'Artist: Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and René JacobsComposer: Alessandro Scarlatti Album: Scarlatti: Il primo omicidioLabel: Harmonia Mundi

Title: La Fraterna amica paceArtist: Erin Helyard, Ashlyn Tymms, Madison NonoaComposer: Alessandro Scarlatti Album: Live Performance

Title: The White Bay paper sellerArtist: Judy SmallComposer: Judy SmallAlbum: Ladies & GemsLabel: Crafty Maid

The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country

Technical production by Emrys Cronin and Timothy Jenkins

American Singer-songwriter Connie Converse would be hard enough to pigeonhole had she not disappeared without a trace in 1974. She wrote folk songs, and art songs, and the story of her life and disappearance is a fascinating one. It's the subject of a biography called To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse by Howard Fishman, who joins Andy to tell the tale and listen to her wonderful and wonderfully strange songs. 

Gia Margaret's new album is called Singing, fitting for her first return to vocal music after eight years of having lost her voice. As she tells Andy, adversity led her to finding creativity in instrumental writing, which she's now brought back to the voice for her latest release. 

And we hear new music by tar virtuoso Hamed Sadeghi from his new album, Convergence. 

Join us for The Music Show at Sydney Writers' Festival on 21 May with Ziggy Ramo, Leah Senior and Kate Fagan

Voiceless Mass, by Raven Chacon, can be performed in 'any space of worship with high ceilings and pipe organ' and plays with the amplifying power of a church's architecture, while commenting on the silencing of voices and languages that churches have been active in throughout their history. It won the composer the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022 and is heading to the Rising Festival in Melbourne.

Raven talks to Andy about the intersection of politics and music, his role as a mentor, and what he wants to add to John Cage's understanding of silence.

The huge sound of the Melbourne Town Hall grand organ might seem like an unusual choice for the composer and guitarist Cam Butler, but for his latest album, he had a chance to take over the hall - and brought along a rock band and a string orchestra to complete the mix. Cam’s project is a cinematic album of guitar-organ-strings-rock maximalism, called World Forever and he shares how he approached this latest challenge, and how he gets the most from his normal instrument, the guitar.

Cam Butler will be performing World Forever live at the Melbourne Town Hall on May 22. 

Join us for The Music Show at Sydney Writers' Festival on 21 May with Ziggy Ramo, Leah Senior and Kate Fagan

Music heard in this program:

Title: Haunted RuinsArtist: Cam ButlerComposer: Cam ButlerAlbum: World ForeverLabel: Heavy Machinery Records

Title: Voicless MassArtist: Present MusicComposer: Raven ChaconAlbum: Raven Chacon: Voiceless MassLabel: New World Records

Title: Don't Cry (Your Father & Grandfather Are GoodArtist: Himba Hymn CollectiveComposer: Himba Hymn CollectiveAlbum: Himba Hymn: Ghosts Of Namibia's Skeleton CoastLabel: Sublime Frequencies

Title: World ForeverArtist: Cam ButlerComposer: Cam ButlerAlbum: World ForeverLabel: Heavy Machinery Records

Title: Clear InfinityArtist: Cam ButlerComposer: Cam ButlerAlbum: World ForeverLabel: Heavy Machinery Records

Title: RottenArtist: Gia MargaretComposer: Gia MargaretAlbum: SingingLabel: Jagjaguwar

The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country

Technical production by Isabella Tropiano

The American pianist Ruth Slenczynska, who died last week at the age of 101, was a childhood prodigy (although she denies the label). That came at a huge price, including a punishing concert schedule from the age of 4, orchestrated in the main by a tyrannical teacher-father. She went on to be one of the great pianists of the 20th century, playing duets with Harry Truman, touring with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops and being taught by Artur Schnabel, Egon Petri and Sergei Rachmaninov - to whom she was possibly the last remaining student link. Andy spoke to her in 2020 at the tender age of 95. 

Scottish composer Anna Meredith creates a meeting place between the concert platform and the rave in her music. Her piece for electronics and string quartet, Tuggemo, takes its name from an archaic English word for a swarm of bees, and demands to be heard loud. It's being given its Australian premiere by Omega Ensemble as part of their Howl concert season.

Sophia Brous is an Australian composer based in the US, and she creates semi-improvised song cycles from selections by 20th century writers. Her new collaborator of sorts is the late Dorothy Porter, with her partner Andrea Goldsmith acting as a guide through the poetry Porter wrote in the last years of her life. Andrea and Sophia join Andy to talk about Porter's impact on music and music's impact on her. 

Sophia Brous and Paul Grabowsky are performing Life Lines: A Song Cycle of Dorothy Porter at the Melbourne Writers Festival

Music heard in this program:

Title: BlackfriarsArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: VarmintsLabel: Moshi Moshi

Title: TuggemoArtist: Ligeti QuartetComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: NucLabel: Mercury KX

Title: Lil WaltzerArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: Bumps Per MinuteLabel: Moshi Moshi

Title: NautilusArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: VarmintsLabel: Moshi Moshi

Title: NautilusArtist: Ligeti QuartetComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: NucLabel: Mercury KX

Title: MoonmoonsArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: FIBSLabel: Moshi Moshi

Title: If Snakes Could FlyArtist: Paul Grabowsky and Katie NoonanComposer: Dorothy Porter and Paul GrabowskyAlbum: Before Time Could Change UsLabel: SBS Weatherwatch

Title: Set PIecesArtist: Sophia Brous and Kit DownesComposer: Sophia Brous and Alejandra PizarnikAlbum: Set Pieces live at The Lincoln Center

Title: 10 Preludes, Op. 23; No. 6 AndanteArtist: Ruth SlenczynskaComposer: Sergei RachmaninovAlbum: Complete American Decca RecordingsLabel: Eloquence

The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country

Technical production by Isabella Tropiano

Jeremy Sams is a composer, theatre director and a long-time friend of the show. He's the latest in our series of long conversations with old friends. He joined Andy recently in London to talk about how opera, music theatre and the industries behind the art forms have transformed over the years. 

Music heard in the show:

Title: Balloon MusicArtist: Royal Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Jeremy SamsAlbum: Enduring LoveLabel: Mellowdrama Records

Title: Act II: Tell me what love is from The Marriage of FigaroArtist: Diana Montague (Cherubino)Composer: Mozart, libretto trans. Jeremy SamsAlbum: The Marriage of FigaroLabel: Chandos

Title: Sunday in the Park, Move On, Sunday (Act II) from Sunday in the Park with GeorgeArtist: Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Broadway Company of Sunday in the Park With GeorgeComposer: Stephen SondheimAlbum: Sunday in the Park With GeorgeLabel: Masterworks Broadway

The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country

Technical production by Antonia Gauci, Timothy Jenkins and Adrian James

ZÖJ, the collaboration between Gelareh Pour and Brian O'Dwyer perform the opening track from their new album, May The Devil’s Ear Be Deaf, live in the music show studios. The album was recorded at an artists retreat in Banff, Canada, and features music “built on fragility and on the fear of its own erasure." They also talk about performing a live score to a remarkable 1925 silent film, Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life.

The Three Seas have been coming together and then flying apart again for years, and they're back together for a live session in the Music Show studio. With band members living in both Australia and West Bengal, the music is an amalgam of Himalayan folk, Baul spiritual music, rock, dub, and jazz. Their latest album is called Antahkarana and it was recorded in Peter Gabriel's Real World studio, a high-tech idyll in the south west of England.

And we remember two giants of the classical world, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who has died at the age of 81, and Ruth Slenczynska, who has died at the age of 102. 

Tilson Thomas was known for his advocacy of modern American repertoire, and his life-long embrace of Mahler's titanic symphonies. In an archive interview, he tells Andy how he thinks about classical music as a whole, and Mahler in particular. 

We'll hear more from Andy's long conversation with Ruth Slenczynska, a child-prodigy concert pianist who learned with Rachmaninov and duetted with President Truman, next time on The Music Show. 

The Three Seas are currently on tour, dates available here

ZÖJ are performing Grass at The Capitol Theatre on May 1

Music heard in this program:

Title: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903 Artist: Ruth Slenczynska Composer: J. S. BachAlbum: Ruth Slenczynska - Complete American Decca RecordingsLabel: Decca

Title: Symphony No. 4; iii. Fugue (Andante moderato) Artist: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Michael Tilson ThomasComposer: Charles IvesAlbum: Ives - Symphony Nos. 3 & 4, Selected American HymnsLabel: SFS Media

Title: Symphony No. 1 in D major, 'Titan'; iv. Stürmisch bewegtArtist: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson ThomasComposer: Gustav MahlerAlbum: Mahler - Symphony No. 1Label: SFS Media

Title: TermitesArtist: ZÖJComposer: Gelareh Pour & Brian O'DwyerAlbum: May The Devil’s Ear Be DeafLabel: Bleeemo Music

Title: Real WorldArtist: The Three SeasComposer: The Three SeasAlbum: AntaḥkaraṇaLabel: Earshift Music

Title: RongmoholeArtist: The Three SeasComposer: The Three SeasAlbum: AntaḥkaraṇaLabel: Earshift Music

The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country

Technical production by Antonia Gauci, AJ Bradford, and Tim Jenkins

The Mountain Goats started out as a solo project by then-psych nurse John Darnielle recording directly into a boombox in his room. Their latest album (Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan) is a "full-on musical", complete with french horn and a string section, recorded on what sound like very nice microphones. Darnielle's tastes and influences are esoteric and wide ranging, and so is this conversation with Ce Benedict, in which they discuss religious schisms, instrumental choices, and musical theatre. 

John Darnielle's new book, This Year: 365 Songs Annotated actually contains 366 songs and is published by Scribe.

Robert Finley's first album was called Age Don't Mean A Thing, which was fitting because he released it in his 60s. Before that, he was a military man and then a carpenter. When he began to go blind he sat down his tools and returned to music - initially the blues - but his latest album Hallelujah! Don't Let the Devil Fool Ya is a gospel album, and a very special one. 

Jake Mason's new album with the Jake Mason Trio is called The Modern Ark and it's got the hammond organ at its core. Jake joins Andy to talk about working with vocalists Kate Cebrano and Kurt Elling, why the trio is the perfect unit of music for him, and going ham(mond).

Film composer Bernard Herrmann’s career started and ended with classics: his first film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), his last was Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). But it’s the nine films that Herrmann worked on with Alfred Hitchcock that define his legacy, and in his new book, Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema, Steven C Smith examines the work they shared together.

Music heard in this program:

Title: Music from Psycho - The ShowerArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: PsychoLabel: Unicorn

Title: Music from The Trouble With Harry - OvertureArtist: Royal Scottish National OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: The Trouble With HarryLabel: Varèse Sarabande

Title: Music from The Man Who Knew Too Much - Storm Clouds CantataArtist: London Symphony OrchestraComposer: Arthur Benjamin & D.B. Wyndham-LewisAlbum: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Title: Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)Artist: Doris Day and Christopher OlsenComposer: Jay Livingston & Ray EvansAlbum: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Title: Music from The Wrong Man - PreludeArtist: The Warner Brothers Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: The Wrong Man

Title: Music from The Wrong Man - HandcuffsArtist: The Warner Brothers Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: The Wrong Man

Title: Music from Vertigo Prelude and RooftopArtist: Royal Scottish National OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: VertigoLabel: Mercury

Title: Music from Vertigo - Scène d'amourArtist: Royal Scottish National OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: VertigoLabel: Mercury

Title: Music from Pyscho - FinaleArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: PsychoLabel: Unicorn

Title: Music from North By Northwest - OvertureArtist: The M-G-M Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: North By Northwest

Title: Music from North By Northwest - The CrashArtist: The M-G-M Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: North By Northwest

Title: Music from North By Northwest - The Stone FacesArtist: The M-G-M Studio OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: North By Northwest

Title: Music from Psycho - The CurtainArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: PsychoLabel: Unicorn

Title: Music from Marnie - PreludeArtist: City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Paul BatemanComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: MarnieLabel: Tsunami

Title: The KillingArtist: National Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Bernard HerrmannAlbum: Torn Curtain: The Unused ScoreLabel: Varèse Sarabande 

Title: This YearArtist: The Mountain GoatsComposer: John DarnielleAlbum: The Sunset TreeLabel: 4AD

The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country

Technical production by Antonia Gauci