Wait, is my washing machine playing Schubert?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, it's Flora and you're listening to Science Friday. Okay, today we're just taking a couple minutes to right a wrong. A couple weeks back on the show, we talked about the tunes our appliances are playing and we mentioned this washing machine ditty. And we kind of ragged on it a little bit.
First of all, it sounded like a fife and imagining a leprechaun.
If that was ever on my appliance, I think I would like break it. OK, what happened next? Well, team washing machine wrung us out. We got loads of listener calls.
I thought all of those points of view were ridiculous, wrong and completely wrong. insulting to my beloved melodic washing machine.
Most importantly, many of you pointed out that the washing machine melody wasn't some random fife tune.
How did listeners react to the washing machine's melody?
That jingle is based on the beginning of the fourth movement of Schubert's Trout Quintet. It is a song called The Trout. Get it? Trout, water, washing machine. Far from being irritating, it puts a little worm in your ear and you go away from it happily humming Die Forelle by Franz Schubert.
OK, to make things right with all you Schubert stans, we are taking the next few minutes to appreciate the trout with someone who has made a living appreciating Schubert and other 19th century classical music. Here with us is L. Michael Griffel, a longtime music history teacher and former chair of the music history department at the Juilliard School and an expert in 19th century classical music. Michael, thank you for being here, and I feel like I need to start by apologizing. I'm sorry for what we did.
Well, it's a pleasure to be here, and what you did, it was a harmless bit of ignorance, but who can blame you? How many people would know the things you know about science?
That's very, very kind. Okay, but tell me a little bit about this piece and what it meant to Schubert.
Well, Schubert was a prodigious writer of art songs, known as Lieder in German, writing about 600 or so of them. And he did this even when he was a very, very young man. Some of his most famous songs come from the time when he's 15, 16, 17 years old. And he set this song by a poet called Schubart. That's just a coincidence. And in Schubart's poem, the story is about a fish, the harmless little animal who is jumping up and down and enjoying the brook water and just having fun.
In einem Mechlein hell, das Schoss in Vorheim,
And here comes this man who wants to catch the fish and can't very easily. So the fisherman muddies up the water and then the poor little fish can't have any more fun and gets caught.
Was this song a banger in the 1800s? Like, is this, you know, the equivalent of the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for people back then?
Yeah, this was a big hit back then. And so it mattered a lot to him. And in the summer of 1819, with the song having already become very popular, A businessman commissioned Schubert to write a quintet, and the Fourth Movement uses the song melody as its basis. And it's interesting to know that among all of Schubert's chamber music, which includes magnificent works, heavenly works, the Trout Quintet was, is, and I think will continue to be the most beloved by the general public. population. That's probably why so many were upset. Although I think Schubert would have been delighted that even a washing machine is happy to tell us that the clothing is ready or the dishes are ready and they tell it by using a Schubert song.
Music
Schubert, by the way, wrote these 600 songs and legions of instrumental pieces all by the age of 31. He passed away at the age of 31, which is incredible.
Wow.
Incredible. With more than a thousand pieces composed.
Wow. L. Michael Griffel, the former chair of the music history department at the Juilliard School. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. It has been really a treat to swim in these waters with you.
Well, it's a great pleasure to be with you. Thank you so much for having me.
And thank you to everybody who called us about this segment. I genuinely loved hearing your feedback, even the scathing voicemails.
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