The Light and Shadow of Nightshade

 You may have heard of the term “nightshade.” It is often associated with poison. But did you know that one of the four types of vegetables belong to the nightshade family? Learn to tell the difference by “eating up” these online activities.

 

CONNECT:

• See the various types of nightshade at https://kids.kiddle.co/Nightshade
• Watch what eatable foods belong to the nightshade family at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdFSi2csCag
• Hogwarts students learned to plant mandrake, which is a member of the nightshade family. Get the real facts about mandrakes at https://kids.kiddle.co/Mandrake
• Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Explore the controversy at https://youtu.be/9m81GlfA1BE

 

CREATE:

• Play with your nightshade food: potatoes; get the details at https://tinybeans.com/play-with-your-food-10-games-that-use-potatoes/
• Try fun things to make with potatoes at https://stpeterfood.coop/crafts-with-potatoes/
• Get active with tomatoes at https://seedstosuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/HfHK_Tomatoes_Activity_Plan.pdf

 

CARE:

• Deadly nightshade is just that: highly poisonous. Learn how to recognize it at https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/deadly-nightshade
• For centuries, people thought tomatoes were poisonous; find out why at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBXwTVlwvQ8&t=86s
• Learn how to grow potatoes from a potato at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzcXXuYBDqg

 

CAREERS:

Not scared about nightshade? Want to follow the light to a career with nightshade? You could be a scientist, a chemist, a doctor, a farmer, a gardener, a cook, a nutritionist, a grocer. Check out some possibilities:

• Vegetable grower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2mJHn_I-T0
• A day in the life of a vegetable packing factory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5sRBzIqeLc
• The ketchup industry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKVGzKoQ8X4
• Jobs in vegetables for the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boaZLAful3I

Take Note

 

As a music teacher, Tomoko taught student how to read musical notation, but how many students realize the history of that notation and how much it has helped musicians to perform the music? 

Nearly two thousand years, Greeks wrote down a way to remember music using letters, with special symbols above the letters.

Not until 800 AD did another notation method was invented. To help monks sing plainchant, a system called neumes was created. Symbols above the words how when the pitch is rising or falling, but not the degree of pitch. This system was not standardized, which limited its usefulness.

About 1000 AD Benedictine monk Guido d’Arezzo drew a red line and labeled the first note as either F or C (which became the clef) with neumes above or below the line to indicate fixed pitch. Over time, this monk added lines and different colors, and the neumes symbols became square-shaped symbols.

The next couple of centuries featured 5-line staves and the beginning of key signatures, starting with one flat (but not sharp key signatures yet).

By the 14^th century, notes represented both pitch and rhythm, and clef symbols indicated 4/4 and 2/2 time. Europeans also created names for note duration: from minima to maxima.

The concept of measures and bar lines didn’t arrive until the 17^th century, which greatly facilitated composition writing. Note were oval-shaped by then, and both quarter and eighth notes were symbolized. Fraction style time signatures and sharp key signatures were also introduced. However, as was the case 800 years earlier, practices were not standardized.

As music became more expressive and dynamic by the 18^th century, notations started include symbols such as staccatos, slurs and letters – the letters p and f now indicating the relative loudness of the music. Additionally, as music began to be printed more frequently, standardization also emerged.

Composers continue to explore different ways to notate music, and their practices can be shared and adapted more easily than ever before.

Cultural Music of Japan

 Tomoko grew up in a family that appreciated music. Her father played the violin before he married, and her mother actively participated in Christian churches so listened to much religious music. 

As for music in Japan overall, it reflected both the political and religious flows and tensions.  

Traditional Japanese tonality differed from its Western counterparts. Pentatonic five-tone and heptonic seven-tone scales formed the basis of most traditional pieces. The intervals follow the pattern of A, B, C, E, F, A, which is basically a natural minor scale in Western music theory. The Japanese stringed instrument koto is tuned with this scale.  

Late 19th century Meiji dynasty curiosity about Western culture included absorption of foreign classical and religious music. The first piano wasn’t heard until the opening of Japan, but by 1875 the Japanese were manufacturing their own pianos and other Western musical instruments. On the bureaucratic side, the Meiji government created the Music Study Committee, which encouraged Western music. They wanted Japanese composers to write in the Western style, and the committee the German model of music instruction for all students. The committee also led to the founding of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, which Tomoko attended.  

Surprisingly, combining Western and Japanese music could be challenging though. For instance, Christian religious tended to be Western based, which was sometimes hard for Japanese to intonate. And when missionaries tried to translate their hymns into Japanese, they found it hard to match the rhythm to Japanese text. For example, Russian musician Iakov Tichai tried to integrate Russian Orthodox singing with Japanese tonality, with mixed results.  

Tomoko was able to bridge that tension between Western and Japanese music. She tends to play Western classical music professionally, and she sings traditional nursery songs to her grandchild.  

Japanese Candles

 

Candles are a part of several religions practiced in Japan. As Tomoko grew up in Japan, she experienced Protestant uses of candles in religious activities at her high school: Ferris Academy in Yokohama; she accompanied the student choir at these observences. Then during her college musical study Tomoko played the organ at the local Catholic church, which feature votive candles.

Japan has a long history of candles outside of Christianity, starting during the Nara Period in the 8^th century. These first candles were imported from China, and were very expensive. Those candles were molded in paper tubes, used rolled rice paper for wick, and dipped in wax made from whale fish or honey.

During the Muramachi Period (1336-1573) Japanese people started making their own candles, called warosuku. These candles continue to be made by hand by wrapping washi Japanese and then dried rush leaves around a thin bamboo stick. Next melted wax from sumac or haze trees is layered around the covered stick, which results in a cream colored candle. To finish the candle, the bamboo stick is replaced by a candle wick. These candle are part of Buddhist ceremonies; red candles are used for celebratory events such as births, marriages, and graduations.

Another Japanese candle-making technique uses rice. When rice is milled, rice bran wax can be extracted. This kind of wax is harder than paraffin so it burns longer. As with warosuku candles, the wax is painstakingly hand-coated layer by layer.

Candles also add a warm glow to musical performances. Nowadays candlelight concerts of classical music are held in churches in several countries, including Japan.

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Keying into Keyboards

 

Sometimes the piano keyboard seems a bit arbitrary. For instance, why are the keys black and white – and why are there 88 keys?

The white keys represent the “natural” octave, and the black keys indicate the half tones within the octave to constitute the Western scale. As for the color, the easy answer is that keys were originally made with ivory (white) and ebony (black). Centuries ago, the harpsichord keyboard had the opposite color scheme: CDE… were black and the half tones were white.  Since there are fewer half tones, the result was that the keyboard was largely black, and it was sometimes harder to see the line between the keys. With the current white arrangement, the key edges are easier to see, so the player doesn’t have to pay as much attention to striking the right key.

Even the width of the keys have varied over the years; an octave could span as little as 4.9 inches to as much as 6.7 inches. The standard now is 6.7 inches, but some smaller sizes have been created and sold in recent years. You can imagine, though, getter used to one span width and then having to adjust to a different width; that change could really challenge your muscle memory when performing.

The number of keys also has an historical back story. The same harpsichord mentioned above had about 60 keys, but piano composers wanted to broaden the range of notes to approach other musical instruments such as woodwinds. Seven octaves seems to be a good range because notes that are even higher can be hard for some people to hear, and  very low notes can be hard to distinguish between each other. That would result in 85 keys, which was common in the 19^th century. The Steinway pianos of the late 19^th century added three lower keys to create more resonance—and set themselves apart from their competitors;  the 88 keys ended up setting the standard for the industry, which has been followed ever since. However, 97-key pianos are also sold (again, to produce a more resonant sound because of the lower strings), and in 2018, a nine-octave piano (108 key) was built more as an experiment. It should also be noted that digital pianos sometime have 76, which makes them more portable.

 Each of these features impacts the composition and performance of the piano; each has an evidence-based purpose. So piano keyboards are not arbitrary after all.

Japanese Catholicism and Its Saints

This week, Saint Patrick’s Day is being celebrated worldwide, including in Japan, where fifteen parades and Irish festivals occur this time every year. The paraders are all Japanese: step dancers, harp players, and céilidh bands. While Japan is typically associated with Shintoism, the Catholic Church has a long history in that country, including their own Catholic saints.

 Indeed, Nagasaki was founded in the mid 16h century by Portuguese Catholics with the hope that it the city would become a significant Christian center for the Far East. The Japanese government first supported the missionaries because the potential for trade with Spain and Portugal, but by the end of the century, that same government became threatened by foreign influence and possible colonialism. Part of the way that the government responded was to ban Christianity and persecute Catholics. As a result, in Catholic history, Nagasaki became known for the 26 Catholics martyrs crucified there in 1597. One of the martyrs was the Jesuit priest Paul Miki, who was sainted; the day of the crucifixion became his feast day: February 6. Since then Catholicism has faced challenges in Japan, and finally experienced acceptance with about half a million practitioners. Nevertheless, in some Japanese circles, Catholicism is still viewed as a foreign religion.

 As for Tomoko, she served as an organist for the nearby Catholic cathedral while in college, and she converted to Catholicism just before she graduated. Tomoko’s experience at the cathedral was deeply artistic and visceral. “Both the Dominicans there and the whole Catholic mindset reflected international values of care and service,” she recalled. Catholics are worldwide and have universal values – as does music.

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Using the Piano Pedal

 

A piano’s pedal is a unique part of the instrument. Tomoko remarked, “The pedal is a big project for the pianist, and adds another technique to playing.”

The modern piano has three foot-operated levers, which modify the piano’s sound. The first piano pedal invented – the soft pedal -- acts by shifting the piano’s action so that a hammers hits two strings instead of three so that the sounds are softer and less vibranl. The damper – or sustaining -- pedal raises the dampers off the piano strings so they can keep vibrating to generate a rich tone. The third piano pedal invented, the sostenuto, is used to sustain specific notes without impacting other notes. When the pianist holds down piano keys while pressing this pedal, then lifts the fingers, the note will not be damped until the foot is raised. The sostenuto pedal is mainly used to generate on organ-like texture of long bass notes.

The first damper control was a hand stop, which was inconvenient to use. Then it was replaced by a knee lever. In the late 18^th century, a pedal at the bottom of the piano was built to function as a damper, and was shifted below until its present location. At one point, a separate pedal board and set of strings could be connected to grant pianos.

The damper pedal is the most popular piano pedal, and can be operated in several ways to generate different sounds. For instance, delayed – or legato – pedalling involves depressing the pedal after playing a note, then releasing the pedal, and depressing it again after the next note is play in order to create a flowing sound. Preliminary pedalling involves depressing the pedal before playing the note so the damper is off, which creates a richer, ringing tone. Simultaneous pedalling involves depressing and releasing the pedal while playing the notes, which accentuates those notes. Half pedalling involves depressing the pedal just half-way so that the damper just lightly touches the strings, which creates a slightly richer tone.

When using any of these pedals, pianists should keep their heels on the ground and put the ball of their feet on the pedal. Thus, pedal usage requires being well grounded and nimble footed. Tomoko fits that profile.

A History of Sheet Music

               When Tomoko was a little girl taking piano lessons, she had to buy her piano books and sheet music. That is still the case for most pianists, although now those scores are sometimes downloadable from the Internet.

               Basically, sheet music is just a way to codify music to allow others to reproduce it without having to listen to it directly and try to imitate it by memory. The first evidence of musical notation was found on a cuneiform tablet in Iraq. Later, papyrus and paper were used to transcribe music by hand.       

               Even with the advent of printing, usually just the staffs with its lines were printed; the notes had to be hand-drawn afterwards because the placement of the notes, along with lyrics, was so critical. Fifty years later, the other score elements could be printed too, but it took three “passes” of the printing press to get all the elements in place accurately. By the mid sixteenth century, the staff lines and notes could finally be printed in one pass.

               As an alternative, the score could be engraved on metal plates, and then re-used for future printing, which was efficient for popular pieces; nowadays, photographic engraving is used. The music could be reproduced as a picture (like a photo), but that process assumed that a score was already produced. That was still a problem with the advent of the computer.

               Since the 1980s software has been developed to enable composers to “type” musical scores with increasing sophistication, which could then be printed on a graphics printer. Now a person can play the notes on a MIDI device, and the computer will generate a MIDI file of sheet music.  Some software programs include a play back feature so the composer can listen to the piece in development, which facilitates its refinement.

               Nevertheless, even with the perfect piano sheet music, the actual performance is only as good as the pianist. There, Tomoko exemplifies refined technique and interpretation. The sheet music comes alive!

Piano Fun on the Internet

As a change of pace, here are some fun piano-related activities for families to do on the Internet:

CONNECT:

Watch and listen to this brief history of the piano at https://youtu.be/63snnLQqBLQ

Go into depth about its history at https://www.piano-keyboard-guide.com/history-of-the-piano.html

Find out how the piano works at https://www.ducksters.com/musicforkids/how_the_piano_works.php

Watch how a piano is made at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAInt7hIZlU

CREATE:

Try these piano inspired music activities including crafts, motor activities and play: https://www.andnextcomesl.com/2016/02/piano-inspired-music-activities-for-kids.html

These piano games help get kids excited about piano lessons: https://fireinsidemusic.com/kid-piano-games/

Play these online games to learn how to read piano notes: https://takelessons.com/blog/learning-piano-notes

CARE:

A piano can be an expensive investment, so here are some factors to consider when buying one: http://www.ptg.org/document//36/

The piano teacher makes a real difference in helping you to learn how to play. Here are tips of the Piano Teachers Federation on choosing the right teacher: http://pianoteachersfederation.org/Choosing_the_Right_Teacher

A piano needs care just like any other musical instrument. Here are tasks you can do at home to keep your piano in good condition: https://www.yamaha.com/en/musical_instrument_guide/piano/maintenance/

CAREERS:

Think of all the steps in involved in piano performance: making and selling and fixing pianos; writing and publishing piano compositions; learning and teaching how to play the piano; performing for competitions and at a workplace; recording and producing piano performances; incorporating piano music in education and health. Any of these careers could be the (piano) key to success.

https://www.careersinmusic.com/