Hello Faith Pals,
Welcome to Friday! Half way through October! We may be in lock down, but the days still seems to pass quickly (well, they do for me). Are you singing while in lock down? I seem to have a ‘hymn or two in my head most days. At the moment it seems to be ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord…’ or ‘ who would true valour see…’
Today we could praise an ‘unsung’ monk: Guido of Arezzo, an Italian music theorist.
Guido of Arezzo was a monk who lived during the Middle Ages, and may be considered as one of the most influential figures in the history of modern music. During the Middle Ages, the monastery was one of the most important European institutions. The worship of God was of paramount importance in the life of a medieval monk, and one of the ways this worship was rendered was through the chanting of sacred music. Guido of Arezzo sought to rectify one of the problems that plagued these chants. At that time, it was impossible for composers to record their exact musical works in manuscript. As a result, the melody of sacred music had to be memorized, and was passed down orally from one generation to the next. The way these pieces were chanted, however, changed over time, as a result of memory errors or differences in taste (think of the game ‘Chinese whispers’!)
He was born in the 990s, and became a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Pomposa. He is credited as the inventor of the staff notation system. If you look at a piece of music, those straight black lines are his invention, plus the intervals between them-before that the notes had just floated on white space! Another well-known innovation by Guido is the use of syllables to teach musical notes. He introduced the first six notes , still in use in Italy and France ‘ut–re–mi–fa–sol–la’ (our ‘do-re-mi-fa-so-la’). It is thanks to Guido that we have the ‘do-re-mi’ today. Finally, Guido is believed to have invented the ‘Guidonian hand’, another memory device that was used in the teaching of music:
(if I could decipher this, it might improve my piano playing! Perhaps getting the piano tuned and taking everything off it and allowing it to be a piano and not an extra shelf would help too! After covid!)
He created many other things that revolutionized music, but what I want to point out is-he wasn’t a popular man!
At the Benedictine monastery, Guido said that he had invented a new form of education; what would normally take 10 years of learning, could be done in five months! (wouldn’t that be wonderful!) Although a musical genius, sadly jealousy and envy saw him leave that monastery.
Let us give thanks to Guido of Arezzo, for helping us to enjoy music today.
Now, what about animals?
I read an interesting article on-line about animals and their singing, looking at various animals and their singing as being like musical instruments in an orchestra. Here is a summary:
elephants: bass. Elephants may be best known for their raucous trumpeting, but they also make the ground vibrate with “infrasound,” sounds too low for the human ear but that can travel up to six miles away.
bats: soprano. For a long time, it was believed that bats only made sounds either to echolocate, or to identify their young in colonies. However, it’s now known that some species guard territories and court females with songs too high for humans to pick up. Bat songs are two to four times higher than humans can hear, but when slowed down, they sound a lot like chirping songbirds.
mosquitoes: the duet. The whine of a mosquito’s wings is irritating to us but it is part of their courting ritual. Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes whine at 400 hertz, while males whine at 600 hertz. However, when they meet, both mosquitoes alter their wingbeats so that their harmonics match.
woodpeckers: drum. They don’t sing. They can chirp, but they don’t have a long, complex song to attract mates. Instead, to communicate, they drum. Both male and female woodpeckers drum.
club-singed manakin: the strings: these small, colourful birds native to Central and South America have strange feathers, including a club-shaped “scraper” and a ridged “comb.” The male manakin vibrates its wings, and the scraper rubs across the ridges of the comb, vibrating all the bird’s primaries and making a tone like a violin.
Anna’s hummingbird: woodwind. Some hummingbirds, such as Anna’s hummingbirds, dive out of the sky, as part of their courtship ritual. When these birds dive, they produce a loud squeak or whistle, made by its tail. Specialized feathers on the edges of the hummingbird’s tail catch the wind, and vibrate.
And, lastly the brass section, this time performed by the elk. Human beings have a “descended” larynx, a voice box that lies down in the throat (in males, this shows as the “Adam’s apple.”) The only other land animals to have this feature are elk and red deer. Not only do these deer have Adam’s apples, but they can actually lower their voice boxes even further, all the way into their chests which makes very loud bugling.
https://blogs.sierraclub.org/explore/2012/12/7-amazing-animal-musicians.html
If you want to listen to the animals, there are links on that page.
Well…let us all go forward this week making a ‘joyful noise!’.
News: Please keep Margaret Knott’s niece, Ros, in your thoughts and prayers as she continues to live with and battle through her brain tumour. Please pray for her family too.
Please keep Lex and Leora Ross in your prayers. Lex is having heart surgery on October 28th.
Please keep Alan and Fredrica in your prayers, especially for the coming week, which is a week of blood tests and chemotherapy.
We continue to pray for Rohini and Jaya.
Shirley Edwards is still in Rehab, and finding it hard. Please keep her in our prayers.
Also please pray for Joan Addinsall, Marj Brownjohn and Ed Bahn.
Lovely news: Judy Halliday is now a great-grandmother of little Mia, who is the daughter of Stephanie and Teddy, grand daughter of Judy and John, Great grand daughter of our Judy! 4 generations! Lovely!
Blessings and love
Barbara
