“Celebrating the Unsung Excellence of Melody Makers!”
Each episode host composer Arthur Breur and a guest explore and examine beloved melodies from a variety of sources: popular songs, musicals, operas, classical music, hymns and liturgy, film and television scores and more.
Episodes
Episode 20 with Caeden Brusett: Bass Solo from Otello Act IV by Giuseppe Verdi
Composer and bassist Caeden Brusett joins podcast host Arthur Breur to discuss the bass solo from Act IV of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Otello.
Episode 19 with Brian Woodbury: “A Whole New World”
Composer, lyricist and bandleader Brian Woodbury joins podcast host Arthur Breur to discuss “A Whole New World” music by Alan Menken. They also discuss three of Brian’s own songs and his ambitious project to produce music videos for 47 of his songs in under one year.
Episode 18: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Meet the Subspace Rhapsody Songwriters!
Meet Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, the songwriters for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode, “Subspace Rhapsody!”
Patreon Posts
Our second ChatGPT question: “What are the arguments for and against Schenkerian analysis?”
A lot of the discussion of melodies on the podcast draws from or mirrors what is called "Schenkerian analysis"--mostly when we are discussing the motion of the melody up or down a scale or along the notes of a chord. While we don't use this as a hard approach to our...
Our first ChatGPT query: “Tell me what makes a good melody.”
Dipping our toes into AI, we decided to put it to ChatGPT: "Tell me what makes a good melody." Overall, we think it did a very good job. (Podcast listeners will definitely see some points that we make on just about every melody we examine!)"Tell me what makes a good...
Episode 1 with Christina Rusnak
We neglected getting the video online for Episode 1 while we were so eager to get the audio of the early episodes online. So here it is: Christina Rusnak joining Arthur to review "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen.
Video of Episode 13 with Lisa Neher: “Luke and Leia”
New music powerhouse Lisa Neher joins Melodology Podcast host Arthur Breur to examine the underappreciated “Luke and Leia” by John Williams, and she shares two of her own works — including one of her own performances.
Video of Episode 12 with Aaron Lee: “Seit Gesunderhait” (“Farewell My Dear Parents”)
This video is really helpful seeing the melody, seeing the scale, and following along as Arthur and guest composer Aaron Lee discuss a Jewish folk melody.
Video of Episode 11 with Richard Peat: “Down In Yon Forest”
Enjoy the video of podcast host Arthur Breur and guest composer Richard Peat exploring a seemingly very simple melody that turns out to be far more than meets the eye!
