Episode 99 - Why music?

Welcome to show number ninety-nine! In this week's show, I'll review an amazing production at the Sydney Theatre Company, take a musical trip back to the 1960s courtesy of the Blue Mountains Musical Society, and try to prioritise things. First, I must apologise for the unexpected break in the shows. It has been four weeks since episode 98; things just got in the way with visitors, exams, and reports.

Progress Update My piano lessons are going well. We have gone back to some of the older pieces to get them up to a performance level, like the Purcell Trumpet Tune. Coincidentally, Paul Fey recently put out a video playing the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OYOH-KWTGS. The singing lessons are also helping, as I can now hit notes I couldn't hit earlier in the year.

Review - Sydney Theatre Company - An Iliad I recently went to see the STC's production of An Iliad, an adaptation of Homer's work. The cast is just two people: cellist and flautist Helen Svoboda, and the storyteller, David Wenham. The staging is simple, black, and empty except for a heavily loaded cart, ensuring the focus is always on the two people on stage. The story is compelling, covering the events of Homer's Iliad, but turning into a tale about war in general. The season is sold out, but you can see a promo here: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/2026/productions/an-iliad.

Essay - Why Music? With so many work-related tasks, social obligations, and hobbies, I've had to start setting priorities. I was wondering why I give so much of my discretionary time to music. While science and teaching are both creative, it is still work. Music is a different kind of creativity. Right now, I'm focusing on the mechanics of playing the piano, relying on others' creativity. The simple sense of victory over a D major scale played hands together is a nice add-on to the day, offering an immediate sense of accomplishment. I'll wrap up these ideas in part two next week.

Review - Georgy Girl The Blue Mountains Musical Society recently put on Georgy Girl, a musical based on the career of The Seekers. The production focused mostly on the last five years of the 1960s. The cast did an amazing job, particularly the four stars carrying the show: Isabella Schroder, Tim Gerber, Benjamin Roorda, and Rowan Brown. While this production has closed, they have Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat coming up: https://bmms.org.au/show/georgy-girl-2026/.

Closing To get in touch, email me at david@pianofinally.show or visit www.pianofinally.show.

The contents of the podcast were entirely generated by David Reidy, but these show notes were created by Gemini.

You can contact me:

• via email at david@pianofinally.show; this is probably the best option
• the show website, www.pianofinally.show
• Instagram and Threads @pianofinally
• and on YouTube 
• all the podcast directories - list
• here's the RSS feed

Some of the links to books and other items mentioned in the podcast may affiliate links for Amazon or other providers. If you use one of these links, a commission may be paid to me at no additional cost to you. Thank you if you use a link. 
All reviews of products, websites and services are unpaid, and no sponsorship has been received for any content on this podcast.

Transcript

Opening

SPEAKER_00 0:00

G'day everyone, I'm David Reedy. Welcome to Piano Finally, a podcast by an old bloke who's getting around to learning the piano. Finally. Welcome to show number 99. In this week's show, I'll review an amazing production at the

Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Sydney Theatre Company, take a musical trip back to the 1960s, courtesy of the Blue Mountains Music Society, and try to work out why I spend so much time on music. If you're new to the show, I hope you'll find all that interesting. And if you're a regular, I hope you're enjoying what's here too. If there's something you'd like me to have a look at or talk about, drop me an email at David at pianofinally dot show. I must apologize for the unexpected break in the shows. It has been four weeks since episode ninety-eight, and I fully expected that we'd be past the hundred mark by now. But things got in the way. On the Saturday three weeks ago, I had some friends unexpectedly arrive in the Blue Mountains, so I spent the day showing them around, which wouldn't have been a problem for the show, except that on Sunday I went to see an Iliad at the Sydney Theatre Company, followed by the Vinny's van with some of the students from school. All that meant that the show didn't get done. Then there was the next weekend, a hundred and fifty exams to mark and twenty eight reports to write. So not surprisingly, nothing except that got done. On the bright side, now that that is all out of the way, there are no major jobs for the next month. Which also means that there will be some more time for the piano. I used a long weekend break to get lots of little jobs done, and when I sat down on Sunday to do the podcast, I was just too tired to do a good job. I got it mostly written, recorded the practice session you'll hear at the end, and then went to bed early. But this weekend there's nothing to get in the way. Although if you're a knitter, I hope you enjoyed the annual worldwide knit in public day. My piano lessons are going well. Given the difficulty of getting anything much done over the last few weeks, we've gone back to some of the older pieces to get them up to a performance level. So I've been working on the Purcell trumpet tune again, and quite enjoying something a little less challenging. Coincidentally, Paul Fay, an organist I've mentioned on the show before, has just put out a YouTube video of himself playing the piece. I'll include a link to that in the show notes. The singing lessons are definitely helping. During choir practice last week, we went back to one of the pieces from much earlier in the year. At that time I couldn't sing about a quarter of the piece because it was too high. A lot of random middle C and above. This time though, although the E's still sounded a little rough, the C's and the D's were fine. One of the podcasts I have been listening to is the Instant Classics Book Club,

Review - An Iliad

SPEAKER_00 3:04

where they are working through Homer's Odyssey. And of course, there is the upcoming release of Christopher Nolan's new movie. So it seems that Homer is getting a bit of attention at the moment. So it's not surprising that the Sydney Theatre Company is staging an Iliad, an adaptation of Homer's other famous work. The cast of Homer's Iliad is huge. The cast of this play is two, an actor and a musician. Helen Svoboda is the musician. After her rather unexpected entrance near the beginning of the play, she plays the cello and flute and sings at various points. But the play belongs to the actor, David Wenham. Wenham plays the storyteller, a person whose job, it appears, is to continuously tell the story of the Trojan War, and, as it turns out, other wars as well. The play opens in Greek, but the two words that get scrawled on the wall are in Greek, as is the singing. But the text quickly switches to English. The story is compelling, covering the events of Homer's Iliad, but turning into a tale about war in general. The staging is simple, black and empty, except for a heavily loaded cart containing all sorts of props needed for the scenes. The use of the space is impressive, ensuring the focus is always on the two people on stage. The theatre at the wharf is quite small, so no one in the audience is very far away from the actors. And given the nature of the performances, I don't think this would work in a larger space, nor on a conventional stage. You need to feel like you're on the beach with the storyteller. David Wenham's performance is perfect. It was a real treat to watch a man who is clearly a master of his craft from only a couple of meters away. The play itself is new, and in the latter parts where it becomes clear that the storyteller is talking about all the wars that followed the Siege of Troy, it has even been updated to include conflicts that only started while it was in rehearsal. It's a powerful section of the play. If you studied Homer's two poems, then you'll appreciate the subtle references to Homer's style throughout. Even Rosie Fingered Dawn gets a mention. I'd say get along and see it. There probably won't be a better performance in any form for a long time. But you can't. The season has been sold out since just after it opened, so let's hope they bring it back again. There's a link in the show notes to the STC page where you can see a short promo video. It's well worth a look. Why music? There's lots to do and only so much time

Essay - Why Music

SPEAKER_00 6:01

in which to do it. So I'm starting to wonder if I can fit everything in. This has come to a head over the past few weeks when the usual mid year rush of work related tasks has needed to be done. And of course there are all the other things that need doing, ones that we choose and ones that we don't. Generally, I like having things sort of ordered. That doesn't always work out and the odd emergency gets in the way sometimes. But if everything is running smoothly, then having things organized is probably better than having something pop up because you forgot it was happening. The number one tool for that is a good calendar app and just one of them. Multiple calendars is just asking for trouble. If I added all the things that I could be doing to a calendar, I could easily fill all my time, including when I should be sleeping. So picking and choosing has become essential, and that means setting priorities. After you add in all the things that you really don't have much of a say about family commitments, work commitments, social obligations, there's only a little bit of discretionary time left over, and that's where things get crowded. I think the first thing is to get rid of those activities that really just fill in gaps, because those are often time wasting. I've pretty much stopped watching television. At the moment I'm watching the for all mankind spin off series on Apple TV, Star City, and that's it. I'm still listening to podcasts, but that's when I'm driving, so that's not eating into the other time. The other things I choose to do are learn the piano, sing, and do this podcast. So I was wondering why I give so much time to music at the moment. After all, professionally I'm a teacher and a scientist, and neither is a natural path to music, although I do know many scientists who are into music too. Here are some ideas. They're just my thinking, and they might align with your ideas, or they might disagree completely. But here they are. Given the time spent doing work, music is something different, creative. But science and teaching are both creative. I'm not doing much in the way of creative science at the moment, but I get to be creative many times a day when teaching. There is a syllabus, but how I go about teaching my class varies from lesson to lesson. Even when I have two classes doing the same course, I need to come up with different approaches, as the students in each class form quite different groups. And although I enjoy it, it is still work. Music is creatively different. To be honest, at the moment, it's not really creative at all. I'm still very much in the mode of learning the mechanics of playing the piano. The music is written out, and my main focus at the moment is learning how to follow the written instructions to make it sound okay. And that's not creative, but it's also not a problem. At this stage I'm relying on others' creativity. Someone has created the music and I'm following along. I'm hoping that eventually I will be able to manage the creating myself, but at the moment I get a break from that work. What I do get to work on are some mechanical skills, the result of which is sometimes a pleasant sounding tune and a sense of accomplishment. And it's an immediate accomplishment, and that makes a nice change. It doesn't match the sense of pride I get when I see a student that I've taught and helped achieve their very best, but often you don't see that for months or even years afterwards. The simple sense of victory over a D major scale, played hands together with all the right sharps and the correct fingers is a nice add on to the day. There are some other really good reasons to put time aside for making music, but this essay has gone on too long. So I'll wrap up my ideas in part two next week. I've mentioned the Blue Mountains Musical Society before. It is based, surprisingly, in the

Review - BMMS - Georgy Girl

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Blue Mountains, and each year it puts on one or two musicals at the Blue Mountains Theatre in Springwood. This year's mid year production is Georgie Girl, a musical based on the career of the Seekers. The Seekers were a highly successful musical group in Australia and the United Kingdom, and one of the first Australian music acts to make it big overseas. The guitarists were Bruce Woodley and Keith Podger, Athelguy was on the double bass, and the voice out front and the voice out front belonged to Judith Durham. The Seekers formed in the early sixties, and anyone who was around in Australia back then could not help but know their music. It was everywhere. A fact that was obvious from much of the audience in the theatre at the performance I attended. Grey and white hair predominated. The production covered the band's entire career, but mostly focused on the last five years of the 1960s when they were household names in Australia. When I was first learning the guitar, some of their songs were part of the lessons. Although some of the highlights were covered, this was a band with no scandals. It was the sixties, and they would be followed by bands such as the Rolling Stones. But the Seekers were very clean cut and definitely family friendly. There was a little bit of character development in the script, some mention of Judith Durham's struggles with self-image, but the show was mostly a string of the band's greatest hits. The cast did an amazing job. The previous Blue Mountains Musical Society productions I had seen were largely ensemble pieces, with lots of important roles. But this one clearly needed four stars to carry the show. Isabella Schroeder played Judith Durham, Tim Gerber was Athel Guy, Benjamin Roder was Keith Potcher, and Rowan Brown was Bruce Woodley. All were excellent. Their musical instrument playing was mimed, but their voices were genuine and handled the demands admirably. They sounded spot on. There were a few other singing roles, some speaking and some ensemble numbers, and as usual, there wasn't a weak point. The show moved along beautifully. One of Judith Durham's collaborations long after the Seekers had disbanded was the song I am Australian, and that was how the show ended, with the whole cast eventually joining in. It was, as it always is at a Blue Mountains Musical Society production, a great time in the theatre. You can't see this production, it closed last weekend. But they do have Joseph and the amazing technicolor Dreamcoat coming up in July. There are links in the show notes.

Closing

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Last Wednesday was the creative and performing arts showcase at school. I'll review it in next week's show. We had to move the debate for that night because it turned out that all the best speakers are musicians as well. I also went to see two set violin on Tuesday night at the Opera House. It was a fun evening and even ran into some of my students there. The Ear ten debating team has made it through to the finals after being undefeated in the heats, so debating is still going on. If you'd like to contact me, email is the best way. You'll find me at David at Pianofinely dot show and the website at www.pianofinely.show. In both cases pianofinally is all one word. The show is also available on Spotify and as an audio only stream on YouTube. You can subscribe via any popular iOS or Android podcast application or from directories such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. I also post an excerpt and link of each episode as an Instagram reel. If you're learning an instrument or learning to sing, let me know where you are in your journey. What's going well? What are the challenges? How are you going at the edge of the vocal range? And what pieces are you enjoying the most? This podcast is produced on the lands of the Darug and Gundangura peoples, land that always was and always will be traditional Aboriginal land. I pay my respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people listening to the podcast. So until next week, I hope your piano stays in tune and you enjoy your time at the Keys. The piece I've made the most progress on this week is a trumpet tune by Jeremiah Clark.

Progress

SPEAKER_00 15:02

The piece is based on a well known tune by Purcell, and it's not too difficult for either hand, but I'm still working on getting them to work together smoothly. I'll just include the right hand music as that's what I have been mostly concentrating on, getting the finger changes correct. I'm playing the piece partly from memory and partly by ear. I know the tune well enough that I can match the intervals provided I get the first note correct. I'm hoping that if that cements my right hand, adding in the left hand notes will be easier. You'll hear how I'm going. The music was recorded using the Kawaii N V ten with the Contact Claire piano emulating a Fatsioli Grand Piano in concert mode. The software is Cubase 15, running on an M four Pro Mac Mini.